Hola, family and friends!
First of all, thank you all for your prayers in my behalf and for trying to live righteous lives. Also, I received letters from the following people: Jan Wilkes, Deanna and Michael Baysa, Richard Jamison, and Beth Isernhagen. Muchas gracias! You might be wondering if it is too late to mail something. Not at all! You can also email my mom (reply to this email) and she can forward the email to me.
This week was exciting. Our ward had a carnival on Saturday, and we invited Nancy, an investigator, to help run our booth (a variety of games, including the “human knot”). She enjoyed it a lot and told us, on Sunday, that she decided to attend our ward. (She was attending a ward that wasn’t in her area, but she received fellowshipping from our ward and decided on her own accord to attend in Barrio Clavero. So, that’s cool). She has a strong testimony of the gospel and is reading the Book of Mormon and just eating it up (feasting upon the words of Christ).
On Sunday we formed a choir at a fireside where Elder Nash, President of the Area (and member of the same stake as Aunt Cathy and Uncle Hunter, if I remember correctly), spoke to the youth about the responsibility and blessings of serving the full-time mission. We sang “Army of Helaman” and “Luz de la verdad.” He bore a powerful testimony of the reality of our Savior Jesus Christ, who is merciful and kind. Elder Nash taught that the Peruvians are the children of the prophets and have received the gospel and its blessings and have the responsibility to share them, in order to bless all the families of the earth, and to receive special blessings through that service. Powerful.
The spiritual feast continued on Monday with our mission president. He gave a training on how we can be better teachers of the gospel, reminding us of many principles. Are we focusing on the needs of the people we are teaching? Do we know what is important to them and what their worries are? On Sunday he had to speak for 35 minutes in the stake conference without any advance notice! He told us to always treasure up in our minds the words of eternal life, and then we don’t have to worry about what to say, because the Spirit will indicate what we need to say.
Javier is preparing more for his baptism, but it is postponed for a future date. (His mom feels that he needs more time to prepare for his baptism.) He also attended the fireside with Elder Nash and felt the Spirit strongly. I was inspired after listening to his mom that the gospel should indicate a change in us. If we aren’t changing as a result, what is the point? I was reminded of the importance of not just hearing the word, but of being doers of the word. (That is often the hardest part.)
We have a new ward mission leader, which is important. Hermano Miguel is motivated to work hard in the work. We have our first correlation and revision of the ward mission plan tonight. It is good to have someone who has time to dedicate to his calling.
That is all for this week!
Love, Hermana Christensen
