Week 14/15

June 7th-20th, 2016

Hola!!

These past two weeks have been quite amazing! We have a few new investigators! (people who are interested in the gospel) The first one is Gisela. She is a young mother of two and is pregnant with her third. She is 22 years old and I honestly love this family so much. We found Gisela through her father who is a member of the church and was baptized more than 20 years ago and hasn’t come to church since. Entonces he is inactive and really doesn’t know much about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He says at the time that the missionaries taught him he got baptized because he knew it was a good thing to do but did think much else about it. When my companion first found them (a week or two before I got to Cutral-Co) he only wanted us to teach his daughter Gisela to help her out with her life but he didn’t want to return to church. As the days went by little by little his opinion has changed. His daughter Gisela has had many problems with drugs and many other worldly things. Right now all Miguel (the father of Gisela) wants is for his children to stop doing drugs and start living a better life. As we have taught the restored gospel to them Miguel has begun to remember little by little and has begun to teach his daughter Gisela what he knows about repentance and baptism, the word of wisdom and how the holy spirit works. The first two weeks we had no luck with Gisela, she was never around and we found out that she had actually left for a whole week without telling anyone were she was and wouldn’t answer her phone. During that time we visited her father to see how he was and he opened up to us and we got to share our testimony about how the gospel really can change lives. We shared our testimony about how everyone can repent and come unto Christ, that it’s not too late for anyone. We shared how the chapel is like a hospital no one in the church is perfect and every Sunday all the broken and worn down should go to church to be renewed, to take the Santa Cena (the Sacrament) and to be forgiven. When we invited Miguel to come to church with us last Sunday he said that he would now only invite Gisela to go if she returned but also he would be there even if she hadn’t returned. Sunday came and guess who showed up extra early for church? Miguel! It was amazing, I was so happy. After church he asked me for the name of the person who gave a talk during church on repentance. It was an elder in our district (male missionary) named Elder Larson. He had shared his testimony about the power of the atonement and how his sister had been inactive for many years and just this week she wrote him saying that she wanted to return to church and repent and change her life but she didn’t know how, or if she even could. He said he wrote to her sobbing baring his testimony of the power of the atonement and how much Heavenly Father loves each one of us. That talk really touched Miguel´s heart. I remember Miguel saying ¨eso discurso toca mi corazón¨ Miguel later said that he wants to return to church, he wants to learn the gospel again and he wants to be better. My companion and I fasted and prayed that Gisela would return home safely so that we could share the gospel with her as well and that very day we went to the bicicleteria (their family owned bicycle shop were we teach Gisela and her father) and Miguel said that Gisela had returned that day and was sleeping. He said please pass by this week and see if Gisela wants you to teach her. And of course we did! We passed by a few days later and Gisela was there and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and read with her and asked her if she would like to be baptized. She said yes!! This week everyday Miguel has gone over the house of Gisela to say a family prayer every morning and every night helps her read her scriptures. He is soooo good! We have taught Gisela almost all the lessons and it has been amazing! They both attended church yesterday and the joy that fills my heart to see them growing in the gospel is unexplainable. Gisela has decided to stop drinking, and doing drugs, they have stopped drinking café and tea also. We committed her to following the word of wisdom (a commandment from God that says we shouldn’t use illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, tea, or coffee because they are not good for our body) She has been clean every day so far. We have goals that we’ve set up with her and we have made sure she knows that we are here to help her. No one is perfect and overcoming an addiction is NOT easy. We made sure she knows that if she has a relapse we are here for her and to keep working and trying to accomplish her goal day by day. I have seen so many miracles with this family I can’t even write all the amazing things that have happened. I will keep you all updated on our progress! Today were are going to teach a family during our Pday at 1. I’m supper excited and I’m praying that they too will be receptive to the spirit and will feel the truth of our words through the spirit!! So happy to be serving my Savior! Love you all and hope all is well! Remember that you are never alone!! 

we cooked a chicken roast all by ourselves without instructions or anything!! It was DELICIOUS definitely proud of my hidden cooking skills ahahha

my complimes present from my companion! She is the best haha ALFAJOR!! its basically a giant three layered chips ahoy covered in chocolate. It was delicious. Alfajors are the BEST!

segundo mi comañera conmigo