So as most success stories in the mission go, pay day came around, and we had a baptism!!! His name is Jose Miguel (25). We found him our 2nd week in Curacavi cause we were trying to look for a referral but wasn`t sure about where they lived (cause some people live in shack houses and don`t have a house #) so we contacted him and asked. He said we could go over and teach him so we set an appointment for monday. Monday rolled around and we called a member to come to an appt with us, but she said she can`t because another member, Marco, was gonna have FHE at her house and was bringing a friend. 15 minuted after that call Jose Miguel called us to cancel our appt because he was invited to a friends house for a "noche de hogar? or something" and it clicked that Jose Miguel was the friend that Marco was gonna bring! We called Juani and invited ourselves over and got to know him a little at the FHE and set up an appt to start teaching him the discussions cause he was super interested. We taught him the 1st two discussions that week with his friend Marcos and he eagerly accepted a baptismal date for 3 weeks from then and came to church that sunday. The following week he was working the afternoon shift from 4 pm-12 am so it was impossible to see him. Next thing we knew the baptism was the following sunday so we literally had to teach him like 10 other lessons in a weeks time plus the baptismal interview and plan the whole ocassion. I thought it was too little time and that it was gonna be too rushed and something was gonna fall through and Hna.Broadhead and I were considering pushing back the date, but the Lord prompted us to move forward and that day in our planning session we planned all the lessons and literally taught like 5 lessons combined that evening (the gospel of jesus christ, baptism and confirmation, obedience, prayer, reading the scriptures, and keeping the sabbath day holy). We kept doing these combinations the rest of the week and taught him everything just in time for his baptismal interview saturday with our district leader. He accepted the commitments without hesitation and it was amazing to see how the Lord had been preparing Jose Miguel before we even met him. He had stopped smoking and drinking tea weeks ago and he would even set up his own member present lessons and invite his work friends over when we were there! To say he is a golden investigator does not even BEGIN to describe him!!! It is truly one of the greatest miracles I`ve seen on my mission. He bought himself a desk and post-its and markers to study his scriptures, he also got a suit and came dressed nice for church sunday and goes to family home evenings with his friends all on his own incentive. It`s crazy because we really didn`t do much, we we`re just at the right place at the right time and the Lord literally did the rest! It was a huge confirmation to me that we are simply instruments in the hands of the Lord and we can`t do this great work without Him. Jose Miguel continually thanks us for talking to him that day, he was looking for a faith to help him turn his life around and we were the answer. He was going to go to Thailand with some friends, but recently cancelled the trip to save his money so he can visit Hna.Broadhead and I in the U.S. He says it`s the only way he feels he can repay us for what we`ve done for him and the joy I feel in my heart for this great blessing is without price.
xoxo,
Hna. Ibarra
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