Saturday, January 25, 2014

Letter 17: Power of Prayer

Dear Mom and family,
Glad to hear that the New York trip went well! I can imagine you and Trevor just had  blast. The weather here is fine! Its humid though so it always feels a lot hotter. It's perfect for beach days! Walking around in a tie and pants all day...not so much ;) hahah but after about 6 o clock is hits a good temperature. Could be worse im sure. We don't have any problem setting commitments for baptism, that's really the easy part, the hard part is that the people never want to keep their commitments to  attend church, read, and pray. The three simple things that they NEED to do in order to gain a testimony and be baptized. They are always "too busy" with work or the beach, things like that, or they just prefer to sleep in on Sundays. So at times, its a little frustrating, but all the same, we are teaching people and we're having success. We've been reactivating a lot of less active and inactive families which I love. The area is pretty great, although we have changes not this week but next! So who knows what will happen then. Yes I did get the ring! although..I have to buy glue because the black band was half way off when I opened it. But once its fixed ill be wearing it. I haven't every really had a CTR ring but I'm excited to wear it. Little reminders like that make all the difference. Oh and yes I like my zone leaders, one of them is still Elder Faught, and the other Elder Bessey.
I go in on Thursday to complete my tooth, or at least the root canal. And then I might have one more visit after that for the crown. Who knows, dentists here are weird. But hopefully all goes well and it will be taken care of soon!

I feel like I've been able to feel the spirit more in my day to day life. Actually I had a few little, but interesting experiences this past week. We were down at our church after our coordination meeting and had about 20 minutes to make it home as we were waiting for a taxi. Time kept passing and we were getting closer to 10 o clock. I said I pray and about 10 seconds later a guy pulls up who is a member and offers us a ride. He drove us all the way to our house and we made it. And then yesterday we were yet again waiting the taxi with 2 other members to go to church. Again we were getting pretty behind and so I said a prayer again so that all four of us could get there in time and as I looked up there came pulling in a taxi with all 4 seats open. The driver asked where we were going, gave us a discount, AND drove us all the way to the church (we usually have to walk up this giant hill). Small things like this are testimonies that God really is looking after us as his children, and that when we pray with faith, even for the small and simple things, we will be answered. Something that I have learned with prayer, is that in reality we are praying in the name of Jesus Christ. A lot of times our prayers go unanswered because we are praying for things that aren't entirely righteous. But we have sincere desires for good and are willing to act on the answer we get, then He will answer us. I always thought that having the spirit would just automatically come as a missionary. Its doesn't work like that, we have to build and strengthen our relationship daily with the spirit. Its hard sometimes, but it will be worth it. That's a really neat experience about the church you two visited. Its crazy how sometimes you can just feel the spirit so strong. You should watch on Youtube, there is a segment Modelos de luz, by David a Bednar, you will have to translate that. it means patterns of light, i think. Haha. But it talks about how and when we receive revelation.

Alright well, this week was really good. Here are your funny stories for this one.
There were a few cars that slowed way down just so they could stare...I now truly know how it feels to be a foreigner haha. There was a car that kept driving by yesterday yelling "que rico". As we were walking I got told "super lindo" haha and then got Justin Beiber a few more times. We taught this family for the first time and their daughter who is like 11 or so asked for a picture because I looked like someone from big time rush. And stuff like this is starting to become normal. My comp just laughs haha. Its pretty funny, I'm getting a haircut today though.
Also we were eating at an investigators house and they came out with salad and a whole pile of tomatoes for us to eat...I was about to die, so I said that I couldn't eat tomatoes because they make me sick (which is true!) and they piled them all onto my companions plate hahahah, I about died laughing at the table but I barely held it in. Oh geez..his face was just like (...what....) haha. We are getting along a lot better now, so that's good!

Anyway I love you guys and hope you have a great week!!

No comments:

Post a Comment