This week was one full of blessings and miracles in Curacavi! I guess to start Hna.Broadhead and I accomplished all the norms in the mission for baptising, having investigators progressing and for work and consistency which means we had 3 or more baptisms in the last 6 weeks, 3 or more investigators progressing and 150 or more weekly contacts. Not tooting my own horn here, but...TOOT TOOT! haha!
This week we met a little old lady named Julia, she´s blind and lives with her 2 kids. As we entered her home it was apparent the level of poverty they lived in, the entire house smelled like urine...need I say more? As we began to talk and get to know her, her sobs became inconsolable as she expressed how sad she was for being in that condition and not being able to see. It really pulled on my heart strings and I held her hand and told her we were there to share a message of joy. I told her my name and started describing myself to her that I had dark eyes, long black hair and was really tall and skinny, this brought a smile to her face and we taught her the plan of salvation. It was a meaningful experience to me, these are sons and daughters of God, they´re struggling through lifes up´s and downs, and they need so desperately what we have- the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Later this week we had interviews with President which is always a joy! He said I´ve progressed so much as a missionary, I truly feel I have, and that the Lord is bringing about miracles through my service. We had 4 progressing investigators that sunday and he expressed his awe and said "one is good, 2 is a blessing, 3 is a miracle, and 4?! WOW!" hahaha I really don´t give any credit to myself, I don´t feel like I´ve done anything special or figured out some kind of trick to have success, I simply just try to do what I think is right, express my love to my investigators, but more importantly express the love heavenly father has for them. When we qualify for the companionship of the holy ghost we can do great things and might works as instruments in the Lord´s hands. He´s the one who does it all in the end of the day.
As for our investigators, Elvis had his baptismal interview sunday and has to wait for some pending legal cases to close until he can be baptized, bummer, but I´m sure waiting will teach him a valuable lesson and make his baptism that much more meaningful, the brothers in the ward are doing an excellent job fellowshipping him to keep him motivated and the bishop even gave him a suit! Monica we need some help with, her husband recently moved back in the house and he´s very opiniated and is filling her mind with doubts and questions and started mentioning how mormons are polygamists and things like that in the last lesson. It was hard to keep control of the lesson and answer her doubts, but he´s a good man and has a lot of knowledge of the bible. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he committed to read it and pray, something he´d only done once in his entire life. Basically my goal is to get the whole family involved in the lessons, resolve all their doubts and questions and get them all to church. The only way she can continue to progress is if her whole family is on board, it´s gonna be a tough one, but I´m up for the challenge! Also we visited our investigator Natalia yesterday, it´s been tough cause her husband is very anti-religion so we have to go when he´s not around and he makes it impossible for her to go to church.One of the things that was limiting her progress was that they´re not married, but yesterday we finally decided to extend a baptismal date for January with the hopes that it would give her enough time to convince her husband to marry her (I don´t get these men, they already have 2 kids, what more of a committment can signing a piece of paper be?!) But anyways, we never expressed any of these concerns about her getting married or anything, but yesterday in the middle of the lesson on baptism she said she´s been thinking of getting baptized and really wants to see a baptism, then she comes out with "oh and my husband proposed 4 days ago and I said yes so tomorrow he´s going to pick a date so we can get married most likely end of January." I was like WHAT?! We congratulated her and I oh so descreetly looked at the calendar on the cell phone and committed her to be baptized February 9th and she said yes! I testify that the Lord WILL prepare the way for those who are ready to accept the gospel! Sometimes we don´t really have to try that hard, we just need to be patient and follow the promptings of the spirit. It was truly a miracle I wasn´t at all expecting!
Lastly, we have Enrique y Victoria´s baptism yesterday! It was funny because the other day she told us she invited the mayor to her baptism, ha! Sadly he didn´t come but did congratulate her! It was a super stressful day as most sundays when there´s a baptism go. But to add to the stress I had to give a talk, one of our investigators came but didn´t want to enter the building for whatever reason, the counselor was coming to interview Elvis for his baptism and I forgot his baptismal record, and the Relief Society was freaking out because we had an activity planned that overlapped with a stake relief society activity no one told us of when we picked the date at ward council. I was running around like a crazy person, but in the end everything got worked out. The baptism was amazing, victoria looked like an angel and their neighbor Hno.Garay performed the baptism. She submerged in the water oh so gracefuly eventhough she has knee problems and we asked if she wanted to be baptized with a chair for better support, but she refused! Enrique had a little more trouble, he´s a heftier fellow and completely let go when he got submerged and turned into dead weight and brother Garay almost fell over trying to lift him back up, it was kinda funny ha! They the R.S. president, EQP and the bishop welcomed them into their corresponding organizations and the ward, all in tears. The spirit was incredibly strong, and Enrique y Victoria also wished to bear their testimonies and express their immense joy in the end. Their faith is amazing and their next goal is to go to the temple and be sealed! I´m so glad that I could do my part and as the saying goes, a missionary leaves their family so that others may be with their families for eternity. Love you all, the church is true!
Spiritual cookie: "As hard as things may be today, they will be better the next day if we choose to serve God this day."
xoxo,
Hna.Ibarra
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