Hermana Bryan: "And this is my Joy"

Paul's Baptism

Hola familia!!!!

Well this week has been a GREAT week full of many tender mercies and awesome experiences.

So Tuesday the District Meeting was just SO great--as it is every single week and I just feel SO blessed to be in my district and in my zone-!!!! We are super unified and that's key! The district meetings are just SOOO uplifting and we are in this together and the practices are awesome. We were practicing for Ronald in our area, and Elder Ayala with the other ZL Elder Osegueda taught me, and at one point Elder Ayala really boldly and with the Spirit called me to repentance and helped me commit to other things, and I (as Ronald) began cracking up because of how strong I felt the Spirit and the necessity to change that I couldn't do anything else or escape. It was awesome to feel that, as the investigators feel, and I just LOVE our Zone! :) It definitely boosted my animos.

Wednesday was my 11 month anniversary and it was awesome that Hna Orantes remembered and brought me cookies and a note the day before. How thoughtful! So Wednesday we had some citas medicas and then we had a baptismal interview for Ronald, and it was so great to be able to play the piano and sing and talk and get to talk with Elder Falk--it's just great. So those were the tender mercies of that day haha.

Thursday was a great day! We went to lunch and the family at lunch is SO fun! They are great, hilarious, spiritual, and just get along great with me and our family type. They presented us to their non-member son and we have a NDH tonight with him and he is pretty stoked. I love the people here! Also we really enjoyed the views we have in our area while climbing the hills. There was a gorgeous breeze and climate here (what?!! That never happens!) We also went and visited a reference this RM in our ward gave us, and we had to visit him outside his house cuz there wasn't a lady present. We got there and he said he was a little sick to his stomach and then we could see him pretty ancey, and he said it would have been better to come the day before when he wasn't sick, and I told him I understand completely because the week before I was way sick so if he needed to go to the bathroom not to worry---we understood. He looked pretty embarrassed and said ya but then quickly excused himself and bolted up the stairs to his house! bahahahaha He hurried and then came down the steps all sweaty, poor guy, and apologized, but Hna Alvarez and I were DYING afterwards of how hilarious and how sad for him---pobrecito! But things like that happen!

We saw Gustavo and other people while going to other visits and it's just great to see that people can tell we are joyous in this work, and see and feel their excitement as well!! In the FHE we had that night, the hermano talked about tender mercies and I got to bear my testimony all about that! Love it :)

Something I have loved realizing on my mission is that the Lord and our Heavenly Father work, and are still working. Their work is as Moses 1:39 says--to bring to pass OUR immortality and eternal life. So they work all the time FOR us and for our well being, and doing all they can to have that happen. What a blessing! So, what is our work? D&C 11:20----keep His commandments. That's it! It's SO simple. We just need to keep the commandments and He does all the rest. What a loving, merciful Heavenly Father we have.

Friday we had another baptismal interview for Ronald--Elder Falk was pretty ticked afterwards because Ronald can feel it but is denying it, so that's good to know--we are going to give him some time and space until he recognizes his answer because he has it and knows it. But during, I loved playing the piano again and then another gringo elder in our zone who was on intercambios with Elder Falk was there (Elder Fredrickson) and he was playing the piano like a beast--he can't read notes much but after only 2 years of playing piano, writes songs and from ear can play tunes. What talent I've seen here on the mish! He really loved the music you guys sent me and the other music I have and insisted on video taping and making copies of it so this music is helping other people--thanks fam! haha

BUT the huge tender mercy of the whole week was FRIDAY NIGHT!!!!!!! What Joy! Ok so we got to the baptism early so Hna Orantes and I could practice our song, and we were practicing when we saw Josue Alava (Paul's 12 yr old member cousin) come up to the door. We went out and he said, "Hermanas, I have bad news. Paul backed out--he isn't going to be baptized today." My heart sank and I was like NOOO this can't be, I don't believe it! He said that he had gone out of town to where he is from (as he usually did every weekend) and he said he was so sorry. We were laughing and half yelling not believing it and telling him to tell the truth and be serious, etc. haha, it was intense. Then we saw to our right, a head peeking out of the corner so we RAN over and down the yard, and it was Jonathan (Paul's 15 year old member cousin.) And Jonathan said he was really sorry but Paul wasn't there and wasn't coming, and at that point Hna Orantes was going around like crazy running around saying, "WHERE IS HE?? WHERE IS HE??!" We then went out to the back side and it was all dark and we were like is he really not here?? When Paul came out of the darkness walking all calmly and said, "Hey what's all the commotion for? Why are you guys yelling?!" I started busting up laughing and wanted to go hit him. I was dying laughing of all the emotions that had just happened in 10 minutes, and cracking up at Hna Orantes who got super mom-strict-mad and went marching up to Josue saying, "JOSUE VEN ACCA, JOSUE!!!" like she was going to scold him. Haha it was HILARIOUS and THAT is why I love them :) It was totally a Paul thing to do and totally an Alava thing and I LOVE them! Haha that was the best prank to pull on us gullible and sensitive sister missionaries who love him. Great prank.

So he was joking the whole time about backing out and trying to act all smooth like it wasn't a big deal what he was doing, but he was nervous and excited and just full of light! Hermana Orantes spoke and then I spoke. I spoke about enduring to the end with the theme as, "Oh Remember, Remember." I touched on a few ways we can make sure we endure, one of those being remembering. It went well and Paul could feel our love and light and happiness, and he too exuded that and was happy I was there. We then sang I Stand All Amazed---she sang soprano and I sang alto (she has a lovely voice) and stupid Elder Fredrickson videoed us that stinker! haha But the Spirit was VERY strong in this baptismal service and the whole time I was just bursting with love and joy.

Elder Falk then entered the baptismal font and Paul wasn't entering. We almost got up to go talk him through it, when he entered :) During the ordinance and right before going under, Paul was shaking, so I could tell he was nervous but he did it!!! When he came back, he shared his testimony and the experiences we went through, and can I tell you how incredible it was to hear him say, "YO SE que el Libro de Mormon es verdadero," and tell us he was already in Jacob and has only been reading for 2 months, etc etc. He is so so great and just always says to us, the key is endure to the end. What a blessing to be able to have taught him, seen his progress, and be there to participate in the joy of his baptism! He was literally just SHINING and his eyes changed. They were SO soft and just so so so FULL of love. I had never seen him look SO loving and so happy and smiley and just so soft and loving. The light of Christ, and change the gospel brings, is so incredible. He felt his moment of joy and was glad I was there, and showed that love and gratitude and change. What joy---I was on cloud 9 ALL night and just it was perfect!!! Very spiritual and it meant so much to me. They said goodbye again and it was very sad--it hurt to say goodbye (as it does always with those we love) but what joy and love at the same time.

How I LOVE the mission :)

Saturday our tender mercy was DOUGLAS. So we have this mountain in our area---voluntad de Dios---funny name right? :) and we get lost a lot but every time we are super lost, we find a member. The Lord blesses us! Anyway we had climbed the mountain and then went down again because we were lost. Then we went around and climbed the other side and went back down---we had to keep climbing and searching and it was SO tiring to try to find Douglas´ house but we did, and how worth it!!! Douglas only talked to the missionaries one time, but he and his wife are super receptive. We felt the Spirit so strongly and there is something very special about Douglas. We taught them the Restoration and they understood and felt the Spirit, and understood the importance of reading the BOM as a testimony, etc. The wife is a bit more hesitant than he is, and said she wouldn't come to church this week but next week, yes. I kept feeling like I couldn't accept that though, so I then asked Douglas if HE could accompany us even though his wife wouldn't, and he said yes!!!! We also passed by the Bishop's house and gave him updates of everything we had been doing and questions we had. He was very impressed that every reference he had given us we had already visited and had lessons with, or had lessons scheduled with them, etc. He gave us awesome plans for the ward missionaries: told us we basically are the Zone Leaders of this ward and the ward missionaries, and the plans, etc. He is incredible and super proactive, and I felt like that visit was the finishing touch in gaining his full confidence and confiding fully in him. What a blessing!

Sunday---DOUGLAS CAME!!!! He came late but he came AND brought 2 of his sons--10 and 8 years old. They were all singing the hymns, reverent, etc. and the boys told us they really liked the church and Douglas was just so great to come that distance and bring his sons and keep his promise (most people dont here!) He is GREAT and golden and we are so excited to see his progress and be teaching him and his family. I'm excited for the miracles there.

Our Principles class is amazing because our teacher (the RM I mentioned earlier) is amazing. He's Colombian--like most of my fav people here, haha, and is the YM President as well, and a temple worker, and works on the side, and does other ward visits on his own time---just FULLY and FIRSTLY dedicated to the Lord. Incredible. It was amazing to hear his conversion story; I was in tears and his class is always full of the Spirit and wonderful insights. Aren't we blessed to be fortified and edified by the Lord constantly?! The Lord blessed us to be able to fulfill our goal of 4 investigators at church. And the ward is just super excited to have us there, and the Bishop mentioned in his talk on Sunday that they have a new team of missionaries who are super willing and excited to work. What a blessing to hear that come out of the Bishop's mouth! The members keep giving us references without us even having to ask first, and we have to keep a notebook full of the FHEs they want to do, or their references. But WHAT a blessing! We contacted 17 of those references this week and that was without pulling or pushing anyone! This ward is incredible!

So in the mission corellation, our leader needs some guidance, and the ward missionaries (almost all of whom are preparing to leave on missions this year) were pretty disanimated, taking this lightly, brushing things off, etc. We went through their goals, their plans, were firm with our expectations, and then did a question session of why they wanted to go on missions, their feelings, etc. We testified of missionary work and of the JOY and happiness we feel but that it's not something to take lightly. It's serious and requires preparation. You cant just go on a mission and expect to learn there what you have to do. You go to TEACH and how much more prepapred they will be if they do that now. They kind of were taken aback and we expressed our support for them and how excited we were to help them and to work hard and prepare them, etc, and we were able to see the change in them and their animos. We are going to work hard to get them out and have them leave prepared! 2 of them were sitting down on a bench in a corner as we passed going to a lesson later on, and we pulled them up and had them come with us but they enjoyed it a lot and are excited to serve. I'm excited to brush this excitement and work and joy off on them! So we were going to visit someone, and then all of a sudden Hna Alvarez and I both felt like we should go visit Angela and Cristina (the less active mom with her girl). Angela told us she had thought about us and wished we would come and we showed up! What a blessing it is to have the Spirit guide us. She shared with us that while reading the BOM this week, she remembered her childhood and remembered her feelings about the Gospel and felt that this was true, and is determined now the path she will take, and that she has to be the example. She is going to talk to her husband and help her kids and with that, there are 3 people there that can be baptized. The Lord is helping us strengthen her and see the results of that, and I know they can have an eternal family.

We then had a great FHE with Gustavo and EVERYONE who had showed up to our correlation came without even promising to come! There were so many people there and they showed their support and their desire to start working, etc. and we just felt so happy and blessed when we came home with the results we've seen this week and what this ward will be able to do.

We really are a team and will be able to see miracles!

I'm learning a lot with my comp. It's not as easy to get along with her as my other comps but because we both want to be patient and loving and humble, we are talking A LOT and working things out every day, but nicely and lovingly so it works, and we are compromising and communicating which is key to having unity and maintaining love and patience. Other than those things, she's obedient and works hard so with a lot of talking and patience the other things don't matter!

So to finish out, I wanted to comment some things I've learned or realized this week. I'm reading in Exodus and was so amazed and disappointed with how easy it was for the children of Israel to forget the miracles the Lord did for them, yet how merciful and forgiving the Lord is for us! Also I was reading in D&C 6:21 and it struck me how interesting this is. You would think that if a light came to the darkness, obviously people would notice--everyone would realize it, right?! But some people still don't comprehend or notice it---how true that is! We also are lights (as Christ was) to people, shining in the darkness of this world and sin, and yet so many people still don't get it and don't comprehend and don't see the light. But we have to keep shining and helping people realize that light so it can shine in them!

Well I love you all SO much and am so grateful for you. I love the mission and love my Lord and Savior and am SO grateful for this opportunity.

Love,

Hermana Bryan