Week 26

Angel's baptism

Seriously. Serving a mission is the BIGGEST blessing because miracles happen all the time. Last week was tough but like I love how Moroni describes faith. He teaches us that when we have faith, we receive no witness until after if has been tried. Last week, my companion and I took to much fasting and prayer and it seemed as though even though we did those things, nothing was coming of it. At the start of this week, we promised each other and the Lord that we were just gonna keep working hard with a perfect brightness of hope. And then miracles happened left and right!! 

Well first of all.... Angel got baptized!! It was seriously so amazing to see how every thing worked out. Okay so long story short, he took his baptismal interview, passed and then said, just kidding i wanna wait some more. (well not exactly like that but you get the jist) and we were SO heartbroken. so we really felt like we needed to zero in and focus on the atonement of christ with him because he has been harboring feeling of hatred against his ex wife and her family. we got into the lesson and immediately the thought comes to my mind that we need to share the movie with him that talks about the guy whose wife and 3 children died by a drunk driver and how he forgave him. So I asked him to grab his laptop and my companion just looks at me like... uhhhh we did NOT role play this and i was just praying the whole time that it would exist in spanish and THANK HEAVENS it did. So we watched that with him and the spirit was SO strong during the movie and this man talked about how relying on his savior and the atonement, our feelings of pain and hatred can be replaced with peace and love. our spiritual confidence grows when we do not have ill feelings against those around us. The spirit was so strong that i didn't even want to speak and just sit in the spirit for hours! I asked him a simple question of how he can apply this video into his own life. He looked at us with tears in his eyes and said simply "i must forgive." So we committed him to pray DAILY to be able to forgive those who have wronged him. he offered the most tender prayer in front of us. it was truly amazing to see how something that simple really made it click for him. all he was looking for was peace and finally he knew how to find it. as the week went on, his whole disposition changed. he was happier. when we spoke about baptism he was excited! 

So fast forward to the day of the baptism. so the morning of we call him just to double check and make sure he's awake and he wasn't answering. so then we were texting and he wasn't answering and we were like kinda nervous because the night before he told us to call to make sure he was ready. So we were so nervous and slightly stressed and then 5 minutes after the meeting starts Angel walks in casually all smiling because he was like "I wanted to make you nervous! of course i am coming to church!!" not funny. AND theres always gotta be something that goes wrong. well this time, there was no ropa. so like all of us missionaries are looking everywhere for the clothes and we find like 2 XXL jumpsuits. way to big for angel but who cares it all worked out and emergency was diverted hahah 

also we have like 13 less actives that we've been working with come to church and 4 investagadores. my companion and i were just sitting and smiling so big and squeezing each other every time someone walked in! like it's so amazing seeing people come back and partake of the sacrament. 

our mission got together for a christmas conference and it was so awesome!! we have a variety show and so many people got up and sang and played instruments and then there was a few minute to win it things with a slide show. I just love christmas :) I will certainly miss being with my family but at the same time i wouldn't want to be anywhere else. 

HOW COULD I ALMOST FORGET?? and we went to the manhattan temple!! we had zero time to explore times square which was so sad but i LOVE the temple. it had been 7 months since i had been inside a temple and wow that is far too long. the new york temple is amazing because right as soon as you enter, all the sound from outside goes away. its like your in heaven for real. also. glasses were worn because pink eye make a mild come back. i flippin dislike pink eye. but all is well and back to normal.

Entering Manhattan Temple

Outside temple in Manhattan

Mission Christmas Conference