Exploring New Roads - June 12, 2017

Hello Everyone!! Wow this week we were able to have some of the best experiences of my mission just from one family that we were able to find. But it isnt just any type of situation, it was a situation that required a ton of sacrifice on our part and that always requires their sacrifice. So a few weeks ago the area of Jalapa got closed. There wasnt a lot of work that was going on there but President Madsen still left us in charge of it. It is a town that is about 45 minutes away from San Blas. Anyways we got a call a week ago from the branch president there saying that there was a family of investigators there that had been coming to church ever since the missionaries left. He asked us if we were able to come out and visit them and we told him for sure, it sounded like a golden family. So we asked him where they lived and he told us that they lived in Tequisistlan, which is a town about 45 minutes further past Jalapa, making it about an hour and a half traveling. We planned an afternoon to head out there and when we got out there we found an hermana named Obdulia, and her 3 kids Itzel, Cesar, and Rosy, along with her niece Anna. Anyways this whole family has an aunt that felt like she needed to go back to church again and this time take all the family that she could. So she started paying for the trips for her whole family to go to church! The hermanas name is Reina, and she sells Tamales for her job. It is a huge sacrifice on her part but she started taking them to church. When we got there we sang "How Great thou Art" and it brought Obdulia to tears. She said that she was trying to support her family by killing chickens for a meat packer but that she felt all alone and that was what she was looking for. We had a powerful lesson and afterwards they all accepted to be baptized on the 24th of June. The other great story this week is once again the activity that we did called the Life of Christ. We were able to do it here in San Blas and the spirit was so strong in the room where we were doing it. When we finished there wasnt a dry eye in everyone that was participating and no one wanted to leave. It was so sweet to help all of the members feel this sweet spirit. So weather wise, this past week it was completely dry until 10 last night, since then it has rained and it hasnt stopped again. So we are going to break out the sandals again for this week. A sad story this week is that something died this week, after 2 years, over an estimated 3000 miles, 2 countries, 2 states, and over 30 different cities and towns, my good old Johnston and Murphy shoes died, the sole is gone from them and there will be a picture to come next week. These past few weeks of these final stages of my mission have been amazing. They have been anything but easy, yet I have come to learn that Heavenly Father understands us, he knows what we can do, he knows our potential, and he is willing to watch us pass through difficulties and trials so that we can become heirs of his kingdom, and truly be something that has divine power working in their lives. I am so grateful that instead of finishing off easy, I have been given learning experiences, final stages in a refining process that I know has changed me to be someone who Heavenly Father expects me to be. I know that he loves us all and that he lives, and for that he sent his son Jesus Christ to help us, to lift us, and at times to carry us towards the expectations and potential of our Heavenly Father.