The testimony of earthquakes

This week was a great week in Santa Maria. Me and my companion parcera are getting along great, she´s the sweetest things, and we´re working hard to help our investigators progress and come to church! We have a HUGE district this transfer, 10 sisters and 4 elders, yup! Girl Power! The mission is growing with each transfer and it´s so incredible to see and be a part of this hastening in the Lord´s work. We have some great investigators, one is Anabela who maybe I mentioned before, 16, has a 1 year old son and loves with her pololo (boyfriend), mom, and brother. They moved from Argentina and her mom had a Book of Mormon from years ago when she lived in Argentina and met with missionaries. Anabela is super curious and wants to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning and wants to learn more! I´m almost positive she´ll go to church next sunday! We also have a family of 5, la familia Varas Polanco. The mom Patricia actually contacted us on the street, it was so crazy! She asked if we could come over to teach her and our mouths about hit the floor. They´re reading the Book of Mormon and want to learn more! The other day we taught the plan of salvation and when we explained that the fall of adam and eve was part of God´s plan she said something just clicked in her head, that what we teach just touches her heart more than anything any other missionary from other religions have said. Her daughter went to our english classes this saturday and is so eager to get baptozed, I´m hoping soon that the whole family will be on board as enthusiastically as she! Our english classes are progressing by the way, we started with 0, then 1, and last saturday we had about 10 kids there most of which who´s parents we´re teaching! We also had stake conference this week which was awesome! We not only had the priviledge of hearing our mission president, his wife, and the temple president, but also an area 70 Elder Avila from Argentina. We had a special reunion with Elder Avila before the conference especially for recent converts, invstigators, and less-actives. They went around the room introducing themselves and saying how long ther´ve been members, some just a few weeks! When it came to Javier´s turn he said "Mi nombre es Javier, me bautise hace un mes y espero estar en la iglesia siempre, espero nunca separarme de ella, nunca." He said it so powerfully and with so much conviction and determination, it just brought tears to my eyes to hear those words come out of his mouth. Also, a referal I gave to one of the Elders, Andres who was over Anabela´s house one day and lives in another sector was at the conference! I gave him a Book of Mormon and he had a ton of questions so I gave the referal to the Elders in his area and they´ve been visiting him. That made me jump for joy! Also, this week we were teaching a lesson at an investigators 3rd story apt. It was funny cause the 1st time we contacted him he was drunk and asked us to help him open the door to his house cause he was too wasted to even stand straight. We found him again sober and he introduced us to his family and said his mom is a member which is pretty cool. We we´re teaching him, his daughter and her friend the restoration when we felt a little shake and heard noise, we thought it was just someone coming up the stairs outside the building but the noise went on for like 15 seconds and we all kinda froze and looked at eachother confused. All of a sudden, the room started shaking, I grabbed the couch and my companion and just watched everything around me move, it was pretty gnarley 5.4 on the richter scale! My adrenaline was pumping after that, it was pretty hard to try and focus on the lesson again,but it definitely spiced up the 1st vision! hahaha! All in all, things are great in Santa Maria, my testimony of the gospel is growing daily and my love for the people here increases with each lesson I teach. People tell you once you´re back from the mission "welcome back to real life" but I can testify that the mission IS REAL LIFE, this is as real as it gets! There are no worldy distractions and you´re on the outisde looking in on the wards, the members, and the people. You see with different eyes and I pray daily that I´ll never forget the lessons and things I am experiencing here. "For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand." D&C 88:89

Hna Ibarra

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