And I Will Prepare Ye the Way - September 17, 2016

Well this week was a very busy week for us. We have been preparing the changes for the next change and have had to prepare all of the logistics for the missionaries to travel on Monday. It has been a very long process with a lot of revision just to make sure that all missionaries get to where they need to be and with who they need to be. But other than that this week has been so amazing to see the progress of everyone and how the Lord has prepared the way for us to do this work even with our busy schedule. Each day that we have worked in our area we have seen a huge progress of some of our investegators. This email I am going to give the follow up for the stories that I told about last week. First off starting with Adelina and Gil and their family. On Sunday after we had had amazing lessons with them, we stopped by their house so that they could come with us to church, and we were just expecting Adelina and Victoria (Gils Mom). Anyways when we stopped by they were cooking breakfast but they told us that they needed to go and that they would be there as soon as they could. So we went to church honestly doubting that they would show up, but half an hour into Sacrament meeting the back door opened and the whole family walked in! Adelina, Gil, Victoria, and her other son Daniel! It was so aweome to see and you could feel the spirit just flow into the room at that point because everyone there knew how much they sacrificed to be there. We went through the whole day with them at church and when we stopped by a few days later we asked Gil what he had learned. And he told us "I know that I need to be baptized now, but my only dilemea is that I dont know why you say your church is true" So we began to slowly teach him the principles of the restoration of the gospel. We left him with a pamphlet and told him that it would answer his question if he read it. We prayed and as we were leaving Gil was immerged in his pamphlet. We are so excited to see what progress that he has made tomorrow as we have invited him to come to church again. All that has come to my mind this week is what Elder Andersen taught us in our conference. He said that the greatest missionary miracles are when the investigators read their homework, when they pray, when they have a heartfelt question, and these are the true miracles that bring about conversion. We have seen that with Gil, and all that we could do with him is have patience and love for him so that he could feel the spirit with our desire for him to have these teachings in his life. We have seen each of these miracles this week with Gil, and it has opened my mind to know that there are angels of the Lord on our right hand and our left helping us and ministering to our investegators, especially Gil. The other story is Eva. She is the single mom that we helped last week shovel her gravel. I had said that she was really closed to us and didnt want anything. Well on Tuesday we stopped by her house hoping and praying that she would finally accept us. She let us in and she was waiting there with chairs and her 3 kids were also there waiting to hear us. We taught an inspired lesson on the importance of the family and the blessing that it could be to her as a single mom, that she would live in the strength of the Lord when she felt alone raising her kids and that one day she would be with them forever. You knew at that moment that the Holy Ghost had touched her heart, and it is all because the Lord put in our path the opportunity to serve her. It wasnt a planned project for her, it was something we were willing to do at that moment, and something that was a blessing to everyone who was involved. We have seen miracles from Eva and we are hoping and praying that she and her family will come to church with us tomorrow. She has been full of questions, on Thursday when we went by again we asked her if she had read her pamphlet, and the first question she had was "Who is Joseph Smith?" We knew from that question that she had read the whole pamplet after we had only assigned her to read the first page. Not only that, her and her family had read it out loud and each kid had a question. This family has been the greatest miracle in our work this week. And it is all because we needed to learn charity. In my studies I learned that the true conversion comes by only charity, so that the spirit can work in the hearts of the people. I love this scripture talking about this saying, 46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity,ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleaveunto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things mustfail— 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endurethforever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day,it shall be well with him. I know that by serving this way then nothing will fail, and that they will be in the presence of God forever and ever, because they had a conversion that lasted forever. I know this is true because I have seen it in this work. Elder Peterson Sorry there arent pictures this week...it has been really busy but I promise some for next week!