So this week has been the funnest with Hna. Thomas, seriously, I`ve always wanted to be companions with her ever since we met in Los Andes so it`s like a dream come true!!! In fact when the missionaries heard we`d be together as sister training leaders they started calling us "The Dream Team" hahaha, we just have this fame for being hard working and all around awesome I guess ;) But being with her this week has been such a blast and I`m excited for the next 3 in the transfer but praying for many more, so cross your fingers that she`ll "kill me" as they say in the mission (It means you`re with a companion when they finish their mission). She is upbeat, happy, diligent, obedient, and her love for this work radiates in her constant smile. We laugh all day, work hard and there is always a huge spirit in our lessons together. We talk to everyone, extend committments without mercy, and teach with power and authority. I love training, but the work is so much easier when you have a full contributing companion who is exactly on the same wave length as you. Renca won`t even know what hit it! The best part is that she`s been in the sector before and knows it well as well as the converts and former investigators so we are just running around all day, and there is never a dull or unproductive moment!
This week it poured on thursday and the temperature dropped drastically, it`s officially winter and I`m cold all the time, but this year I`m super equipped and prepared since now I know what to expect, this`ll be my final trial haha at least this year I`m not in Los Andes!
This week some pretty cool things happenned with our investigators, a part member family we`ve been teaching came to church and really liked it and we extended and committed 5 people to baptism this week which rocked! We also had 9 less actives in church which was a huge blessing we weren`t expecting. Also, Gloria, our investigators wife who tried to committ suicide is out of the hospital and home! We went to go see her and it was crazy to see how totally changed she is after this experience. She shared with us that the 3 days she was unconscious she was in the "in between". Her grandmother and aunt that passed away picked her up all dressed in white. She said the peace there was incredible and that they taught her many things. That the placed they lived in was one of joy and peace and was governed by many laws that were irrevocable. But they showed her another place, a place they couldn`t enter because there was a darkness so thick that if you tried to go in to save someone you wouldn`t find the way out. They told her that those that committ suicide, murder, or deny the holy ghost go there. That it is a place so terrible, the people there are walking around lost in darkness and can`t see eachother and that she could feel their torment and pain. They said they had been given permission to teach her these things so she could go back and turn her life around. When I met Gloria she didn`t know if to believe in God, remembering that time she told me "Hna.Ibarra remember when you asked me to pray and ask God if He was truly there, I finally got my answer." The spirit was immensly strong- no doubt she had visited the spirit world.
Then yesterday was pretty interesting for a sunday, when I walked into the chapel I saw the entire stake presidency there visiting the branch and thought "something`s up!!!!" And that`s when we all got the shocker that the entire branch presidency was released and they called a whole new presidency! WOW! No one saw it coming because the branch president has only had his calling for 1 year or 2. But there was a lot of disorder in the branch and with this new presidency (2 members of which were in the stake high council) things are not only going to get done, but get done right! This is going to help our missionary efforts A TON because we haven`t been able to have our meetings and coordinate our efforts with the branch. Plus now I know a TON of members are gonna come back that became innactive because of personal problems with leaders, so Hna.Thomas and I are super pumped to be serving the branch in this time and help them progress to one day become a ward! That night I got a surprising call from Pdt.Essig that Hna.Ireland would be coming back to our sector for her last week with Hna.Thomas and I...WHAAAAAATTTT?! I couldn`t believe it! I was already sooo happy to be with my dream companion I don`t know what I did to deserve to be with one of my closest friends in the mission Hna.Ireland as well in a trio! Seriously, right when you think nothing else could possibly happen in the week, it gets better! We are the Dream Team cubed haha Everyday I thank God for the oportunity he`s given me to serve Him, for my experiences in the mission- hard as they may be, for the people here who`ve touched my life, and for the priviledge of representing His son Jesus Christ. There`s nothing greater than this moment :)
Spiritual Cookie:"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Philipians 3:6-8
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Philipians 3:6-8
XO,
Hna.Ibarra
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