Faith In Every Footstep

August 24th 2010

We have another investigator on date for baptism! Yay! His name is Rafael and he is the sweetest, most tender hearted, older man I have ever met. He is on date to be baptized on September 3, so yes, please add him to your prayers. We have had 2 really amazing lessons with him and the spirit is always so strong. Which means, my Spanish is half-way decent when the spirit is there. This last week we have been teaching almost all in Spanish! We found some new investigators to add to our teaching pool, but also dropped many of our investigators who are not progressing nor keeping commitments. It was hard to drop many of them, but we know that our work is not wasted. The seed has been planted, and at some point down the road they will be further prepared by the Lord to accept the gospel in their lives. We are still searching for a family to teach, found a potential the other day, but still looking. We are working hard, but some days are proving to be more difficult than others. But we are pressing forward, with faith in every footstep and striving to find those whom the Lord has prepared. My faith has definitely wavered at moments, but I know that through the Savior's Atonement, He can give me the strength I need to press forward. I know that Heavenly Father is so very uniquely aware of everyone of His children. It passes all my understanding, but as I begin to get to know and love the people more and more each day, I have begun to see a small glimpse into His infinite and perfect love for everyone of us.

Oh in other news, we finally met the Dad of the Mendoza family. His name is Francisco and he is actually very nice. He came in last night as we were about to say the closing prayer with Maritza and Jessica. We were kneeling on the floor, bad timing-lol- when he walked through the front door. We introduced ourselves and had a nice conversation with him. It was smoothed over nicely, I thought, and then he left us to finish what we were doing. We still are slightly worried about his open-ness. Alicia has kind've been avoiding us, she hasn't sat in on the last couple lessons we've had with the girls. We think, though, it has a great deal to do with her husband and her fears in reguards to HIs reaction. If you remember family, He is an avid catholic and strong in those traditions. Alicia and the girls do not agree with the teachings of the Catholic church, but He is the head of the house so they honor and respect Him. We feel like it was a good first greeting with him, though. And will continue to pray that His heart may be open, and if possible maybe we can start teaching him. We're not sure exactly what the turn out will be, but the way things are going...we feel the way for this family to come to the gospel will be by way of the example of their daughters. If we can help them to gain a testimony of the truth and to desire to be baptized....then with the consent of the parents it could be a wonderfully magnificent journey for this family to become an eternal family. We love them so much! And as long as they continue to progress and keep commitments, we will continue to go over and teach them. It's amazing because with some people it just takes time, and for others like Rafael or Koty, they are just ready right then! But, we are servants and representatives of the Lord. We know that the message in which we share is true. And it is our job to teach and testify, and then the Spirit's job to carry our message to the hearts of our investigators. True conversion to the Lord happens when they have their own personal experience with the Holy Ghost bearing witness of truth to their spirits. It is an amazing process to see, an such a tremendous blessing for me that the Lord has allowed me to even be a small part of. I love this work!

Other updates, we had interviews with President a few days ago. Yesterday we had mission conference with Elder Christensen of the 70. Have seen many tender mercies of the Lord this week and received answers to some prayers. My companion and I have officially been together long enough that we say the same things and think the same thoughts. We're truly learning to become one together in the Lord. It's kind've freaky sometimes, especially when we wake up almost every day having put on the same color of clothes without even realizing it! It gets to be ridiculously hillarious sometimes, but I guess that's what happens when you are with some one 24/7 for over 2 months. Craziness I tell ya, it's just plain crazy!

Ok, well I'm out of time. Gotta run! We're going to play some bball with the Elders today. And for the first time in a while, I'm actually kinda excited to go play. Can't get too competitive though, cuz that makes things difficult as a missionary. Haha. It shall be interesting :)