Wow! What a special week!
Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes (especially Jan Wilkes and Sis. Harbaugh)!
Rosa and Gilvert were baptized this Friday and confirmed Sunday. She was taught a few years ago by missionaries and decided she was not ready to be baptized (I am sure the missionaries that taught her were sad and thought that was the end, but they don’t know the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey said). There was such a strong Spirit there as she bore a powerful testimony. She said that she felt a huge relief and felt that she was a new person. It was so special. All of her family is baptized now, and they are preparing to enter the temple the next year. Joseph Smith said that in the ordinances the power of God is made manifest. People can spend all day disputing doctrine, but it is difficult to dispute the Spirit that one feels, whether in the temple or at the baptism.
I had the best birthday yesterday. Now that I am 24, I am officially old (or I prefer the word “mature” or “experienced”). It has been a time of self-reflection. Our mission president told us how after he served his mission, he spent a long time on his knees having an interview with God, to know that his missionary service was accepted. He recommended that we don’t wait until the end of the mission to do this, but to do it now and frequently. My companion said that reflection is a huge part of repentance.
It was so special. After the sacrament meeting, many of the members came up and gave me birthday hugs and handshakes. The Relief Society planned a Family Home Evening and many sisters came, with cake, presents, and the Happy Birthday Song. I had told them that all I want for my birthday is references and for them to visit the families that are less-active, because they are passing many difficulties as well. They all promised to provide us with references. I cried because I could feel the love from this ward and from my companions.
We went to the park and contacted a variety of families, whom we are going to teach this week. We had a Family Home Evening with this couple that wants to be baptized, but their papers for matrimony are in a little village in the jungla (4 days by burro). But, with faith and obedience all things are possible. I am really learning that the promise is true, “Whatsoever thing you ask in my name shall be granted you, if it is for your well-being” (3 Nephi, translated from Spanish to English).
I will cry in 3 weeks because Hna. Nina finishes her mission. We are helping to prepare her for the next etapa of her life. I am teaching her cha cha and ballroom during our exercise time, and I am teaching her what I learned in my marriage prep class (it makes me laugh, because I have the theory but not the practical experience!).
We had a Family Home Evening as a zone, complete with brownies and ice cream! We didn’t get the message that it was Sunday dress, so much to my companions’ dismay, we were the only ones still in our P day clothes. Regardless, it was a powerful time as we all shared our conversion stories and our testimonies. We are becoming a unified zone.
Have an uplifting week!
Love, Hermana Christensen
