Hola!!! This week was
great!! To start off with a few random
things...
1- We had our leadership conference and traveled back from
Osorno and it was fun!
2-For the fourth of july we made smores, peach cobbler,
burned an ugly dress, danced country, and withing two minutes of waking up sang
the national anthem and said the pledge of allegiance hahah. We had a lot of fun! I love my countryyyyyy.
3-We went to an olympic gymn thing today and I got to play
on all their gymnastics equipment (still was able to do a cartwheel on the
balance beam by the way hahahahh) and play volleyball!!! It was soooo fun!!
Ok now to the good stuff...
This week was way too good!!
I cant even begin to describe all of the miracles that we saw but ill
explain a few!
About 3 weeks ago when Basilio got confirmed a family of
Venezuelans walked into church and the dad isnt a member. This week we started
giving him the lessons! He is so
GOLDEN!!!! He told us that he wants to
get baptized but doesn't feel like he understands the scriptures and that would
be the only thing stopping him. So what
we have been doing is stopping by every day and teaching the lessons using only
the Book of Mormon. He has been
progressing a ton!! He has already been
to church three times and he is reading the Book of Mormon. After we taught him the Plan of Salvation
things just kind of clicked and he says he believes its all true. They have really bad living conditions though
and want to move up past Santiago August 5th.
Right now his date is for August 4th and we are hoping we will be able
to move it up to July 27th but we will see.
If not we will make sure they stay in contact with the missionaries up
there. But he is incredible!! Love that
family!!
Another cool miracle we saw this week was with a Haitian man. He literally is a miracle. About a month ago we were walking from
consejo de distrito to lunch and on the other side of the street we saw him
talking to a woman. They were both
watching us so we decided to go and talk to them. The woman ended up walking away but we
contacted John and he told us we could pass by.
We were super excited and went to his house but we could never find
it. So nothing happened. But this week we we had to go to Consejo de
Distrito a little bit early and while we were walking guess who we ran
into?? John Miracle!! He told us he had been waiting for us and we
explained what had happend. He told us
how to get there and we invited him to church.
HE SHOWED UP TO CHURCH ON HIS OWN AND LOVED IT!!! It was awesome!! We passed by his house afterward and taught
him the Restoration ( we teach him in english because he understands that
better than Spanish). While we were
explaining the Book of Mormon he paused us and asked US how he could get
baptized!! HE ASKED US!!! We were sooo
excited!! We explained we would help him
and he also has a baptismal date for August 4th.
The other miracle is with a menos activo whose has had lots of
problems with drinking. When I first got
here he was doing well and progressing but then he fell back into it. His wife was sick of it and wanted to get a
divorce. We talked with the branch
president and he went and visited them and they made a plan to help him come
back. His wife doesn't have much faith in
him anymore but we were excited. Anyway,
HE SHOWED UP TO CHURCH!!! And he even
came without his family!!!!! That was a huge step for him! He then told us that
that morning he had had a super spiritual experience that he wanted to tell us
about. After church we went to visit him
and he told us that on Saturday night he had downloaded an app that would allow
him to download videos. He left his
phone charging and went to bed. The next
morning when he went to look at his phone there was a video pulled up that he
didn't recognize. He started watching it
and it was of God talking to us as his children. It was basically a video saying that God
loved him and wanted him on His side and that he could have a fullfilling life
if he followed Him. He was super
emotional and very repentant. He told us
he knew it was miracle sent by God and the Spirit flooded the room. Everyone there could feel the sweet joy that
comes from repentance!! He was very
humble and wants to change especially so he can help his family get back to
God. He began to cry and told us he
needs to be involved. That he wants to
leave with the missionaries and serve others or he knows he will fall back into
the same thing. So we immediatly invited
him to a lesson we had that night with Carlos and it went SUPER well. It was perfect because we were teaching the
doctrine of Christ. Those are the joys
of the mission. You just see God working
in the lives of His children. It was
also really special because my companion and I had prayed the night before that
he could have an experience that would help him wake up and want to
change. I know prayer is real and
powerful!
Anyway, its been a great week and things are booming
here!! We have had so many other
experiences like that but I dont have time to write them all!
Anyway I love you all very much and hope you are enjoying
life, reading the scriptures, and doing those things that will bring you closer
to Christ!! Love you!!
--Hermana West
