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| The meal to break our fast--sad! |
Hola familia!!!!!
Well this week has been a week. Full of adversity and trials but many blessings also.
Tuesday was a Zone meeting and wow was it incredible!!! You know, after the announcement of Pres Monson, it seems like the devil's big army is also increasing and becoming more powerful, or working harder because there has been TONS of opposition lately and worldwide. We have heard of mish presidents saying 8pm at home or other things like that. Well the Leaders taught us that day about what Pres Amaya had taught them the day before, and supposedly he taught them for 2 whole hours about the law of chastity. Crazy. We are missionaries. Our mish president taught them for 2 hours about that but the things they taught us were perfect, and I realized that man the Lord needs us way more virtuous and way more clean now than ever before because Satan is working HARD. They talked a lot about thoughts and letting virtue garnish our thoughts, and that we have to 100% give and control our minds and our hearts. They said, "Pres Amaya has announced that we can go to the temple." (At that point, mind you, I heard that and let out a squeal and covered my mouth SOOO excited hahahaha) and THEN they said...."in our minds." bahahahaha----let down--BUT he said to remember EVERYTHING and to literally try to go to the temple in our minds to help us. True. I have been reading Moses and Abraham and it helps a lot. They gave me the opportunity to speak for 5 minutes un-announced, and I bore testimony about giving our heart, and bore testimony about the difference between the 3rd and 4th missionaries, and I like them am trying every day to be better about this and give the Lord and show him that I want to give ALL my heart and will. It was such an uplifting meeting. Our leaders are awesome.
Also I felt SO proud of Hna Diez during her verification and in our practices!! That day we went to visit William and WOW, can I say I haven't felt the Spirit that strong in a while talking to someone I felt was SO elect?!!! It was his birthday and he still made time to see us and we talked and taught about the BOM. Wow he is awesome.
Wednesday we did lots of contacting and visited Janet and she said that she still hadn't received an ansewr, that she didn't feel anything at the conference or in her prayers or reading, etc. Man that night I was praying like crazy for her, to know how to help her and some thoughts came to my mind and I immediately wrote them down (first time in my life that's happened so fast after a prayer.) They were to take her to a baptism and find one to take her to. Well amazingly enough, the next day we received a message from the Hnas in our zone that they had a baptism that day and needed people to come. ANSWER! :)
So Thursday that was cool to receive that answer. During planning session man, I killed my brain and mind thinking and thinking and praying for what Janet and Marcos and Melani needed. For like an hour we were just thinking and passing around ideas. haha Also, I have relied a lot lately on the power of prayer. When I´m down? PRAYER. When I don't feel like I can do it all? PRAYER. Kneeling, silently, in my heart, walking, in the bus, everwhere. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and for a loving Heavenly Father who hears me.
So we went to the baptism and brought Janet, Marcos, Melani and Isaac too, whom we are praying his dad signs his baptism permission because he is SO ready! Pray for a miracle!
Friday during 12 week program, we were practicing over and over again, and I made Hna Diez re-do some practices to help teach the point we wanted to work on and the last practice with Ronald (our investigator in Condor), she asked inspired questions and then testified of God's love for me and how special Ronald was and he shouldn't forget that, etc etc. I started crying because I felt as Ronald had felt, and knew it was the Spirit, and it was so amazing because it was the exact same things, questions, and counsel and testimony that Hna Alvarez and I had given him way back when. Hna Diez had no idea about that but I did, and felt the Spirit guiding Hna Diez so much because that's exactly what had happened and had been said in real life! I was so proud of her for listening to the Spirit and applying everything we have worked on and I've tried to reiterate, and it was so rewarding as a trainer to experience that. I felt SO emotional after that and grateful and humbled by the Lord to experience His Spirit and that He helps me train and that she is learning and progressing so much---it's touching and I feel very imperfect, humbled, yet SO grateful for the opportunity and responsibility. It was so wonderful. I had been praying so hard for the Lord's guidance in training and to be able to be better, etc and it was an answer to my prayers to realize that it's ok---we are doing things ok and He will bless us.
Also I felt so sad to leave the mission---I feel SO grateful for the mission!!! So excited I still have 2 months :)
Well after that awesome experience came opposition----like always right? :) Janet told us that night that she hadn't felt anything, she was confused and honestly didn't know if she had the will to do this or wanted it. She told us she felt way bad but if we could give her time. (breaking up) And I didn't have the words to say or the guidance of the Spirit in that moment---I felt lost and had no idea what to do and teared up a bit but we just bore testimony and expressed our love. That night Elder Santillan, our DL was actually way nice and a comfort and blessing. Prayers work :)
Saturday I studied a lot about HOPE (Dad how did you know?! :) ) and love love love PMG and James E. Faust what he says there. We were leaving to go to a meeting with our WML and we were getting off the bus and somehow someone robbed our cellphone from my backpack. When I realized it, I freaked out and we used the cell of our WML to call, and the guy answered and didn't really want to give us the phone back, etc and we tried everything, and then I found a call booth and had to call our ZLs and inform them, and turns out they tried to track the guy down and he was supposedly going to give it to them but never showed up, etc. What a pain! I felt horrible because that was my fault and responsiblity, and for being careless or unaware happened and was shocked with the kinds and forms of opposition Satan uses to get us down or try to ruin our day or communication process! Ha Satan will never win. So that's been fun trying to find ways to call our leaders every night from member's phones, etc. What a pain!
Saturday at lunch, the family was asking me to speak English and the girl asked me, "How many brothers do you have?" My answer without even thinking about it was, "I have dos brothers." Wow hahahahaha. We were all dying laughing and my comp said, "SEE I TOLD you you can't speak English anymore!!" She says that when I speak English I don't have an American accent anymore. Oh geez haha. Also, she said this morning that last night as I was sleeping I began talking (I was having a dream with Janet and how to help them hahaha) and I was talking in Spanish. Yep, so I'm gunna have problems starting BYU again in Jan! hahaha It's ok--I like that problem :)
Saturday we went to visit Isaac and went to try and visit William (on Friday he told us he was a bit confused. He is WAY Catholic so this is a bit new and hard for him to accept.) Answer to prayers was that he was home and had time and had read everything we left him to read and was excited and anxious to learn and had lots of questions and wanted to learn more! We taught him the Restoration and he understood everything, and Isaac during the lesson bore testimony as if he was a member! So awesome. He wrote down his commitments and accepted to come to church with us, etc.
Sunday we passed by for Isaac and WIlliam and Isaac was ready, but we called William's name and it seemed like he wasn't home. We used Isaac's phone to call him and I tried twice and he wasn't there. I said, "Well let's wait a bit"....I was NOT going to give up faith or hope or trust. haha I wasn't accepting the fact that he wasn't home. We waited and waited and it was late and nothing, and before leaving I asked if we could call him one more time. This time he answered and said he would come down quickly because he WAS home but had fallen asleep accidentally!!! WHAT A BLESSING!!! And a confirmation that the Lord is for sure trying our patience and perseverance and how much we want this. He and Isaac came with us to testimony meeting and it was awesome!!! Every time a testimony was weird, the RMS of the ward saved the day and they ALL testified about the Restoration. Also, there were references that came and 7 investigators that were there!! I felt like I was in Condor again--what a blessing. Then after sac meeting a little girl came up to us (who didn't know us) and randomly said, "I want to be baptized!" We asked her how old she was and she said she was 9! Her mom is a member but hasn't baptized her, and she wants to be baptized and now. What a MIRACLE and answer to our fast and prayers. Fasting brings all these miracles in the mission---that's why William was there, and references, and this little girl Jennifer will be baptized, and the Lord will help us meet our goals. What a blessing!
We also had a meeting with the Bishop and he, trusting us a ton, basically dumped all his loads on us and epxressed his feelings and hopes, etc. Poor guy--he needed that and said in 6 yrs of being Bishop it was only the 2nd or 3rd time he wanted to take the time to sit down and analyze recent converts, goals, hopes, opinions, etc. We felt grateful that he trusted us and that now we know more of what the ward needs (which is a ton---they have lots of challenges) and where to start.
We didn't have lunch on Fast Sunday because the Hna couldn't give it to us, so that's cool. We came home and had no food in our house so we broke our fast with: ramen, cooked cabbage, and popcorn. hahahaha Wow, I will never take for granted a Fast Sunday again!
The Lord tried my patience and perseverance and desires again yesterday with a strong migraine and feelings, etc etc--trials--and as we were leaving to go out to preach again, I was crying silently and just praying. Janet didn't open her door to us even though they were there---that was rough but we have faith that the Lord's will WILL be done and all these things make us stronger and more grateful for the miracles that do happen.
I KNOW my Heavenly Father is aware of us and loves us and I'm so amazed each time He blesses us with His miracles. He loves us so so much and knows what we need! This is the truth. Missionary work is so wonderful and I'm so excited to continue in this work all of my life and for all eternity. The Lord lives!!! He loves us! How blessed I feel to be a missionary.
I love you!!!
Hermana Bryan
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