4 for the Lord who stands at the door

This week was tough...I was sick like I mentioned last time and had to stay in a couple days. Wednesday I went out and started proselyting again and I`m tons better now (although I still have a really annoying cough that comes and goes) so thank you all for your prayers!

We had to do a couple exchanges this week with our sisters. The first one was a challenge- it was a sister who has been struggling to open her mouth and contact. In an entire week she talked to 1 person...we strive to talk to 70 which is 10 a day which was a goal that Elder Ballard established. So we did some practices and talked it out to see what was making it so hard for her. That day with a lot of motivation, love, and encouragement she was able to do her 10 contacts for the first time the 4 months she`s been on the mission! But man, it wasn`t easy! After that intercambio Hna.Duffy the mission nurse did an exchange with me. She is just starting her training but is way ahead of a lot of greenies I`ve met! She also graduated from BYU`s nursing program so pretty much she`s my new idol on the mission and gave me tons of tips and advice for my application and how I can get a better shot at getting in. Plus she saved my life and helped me get better! So grateful!

This week we also did A LOT of service, probably more service than I`ve done in all my mission! We helped our investigator Ingrid paint her brick wall and the ex-branch president paint part of his house that he expanded and built. It`s always fun to change up the routine and give a hand.

Then Hna.Thomas came back from the exchanges and was super sick (she didn`t get it from me!) So she had to stay in a couple days to recoop, but is tons better now as well. Winter season is tough health-wise, while Hna.Duffy was with us she received about 20 phone calls from missionaries who were feeling sick in just one day, it`s nuts!

As for our investigators Ricardo is finally getting married this week! Yesterday him and his wife (who`s less-active) showed up dressed in their sunday best! He was in a suit, white shirt and tie, and his wife in a dress. They looked lovely! Ingrid is our other hopeful towards baptism who is from Peru and eating up everything we teach her. And Maria is also progressing a lot with her Book of Mormon, she`s already in 2 Nefi and finds all the answers to her prayers within it`s pages, but the challenge with them is the same as usual...COMING TO CHURCH!

Anyways, we`ve been struggling a lot to find new investigators, we`re going through our 7 years of drought. I knew something was gonna happen because last week I was working on the attribute of patience and boy did the Lord try my patience with being sick, the exchange, and then my companion being sick and not having any new investigators. This week is humility...another scary one...but I`m ready for whatever He`s got for me, after that I`m pretty much home-free :)

Spiritual Cookie: "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day, but once and for all!" -Pdt. Uchtdorf

Hna.Ibarra

5 for Alma who came back alive

This week has been hectic, when is it not?! We moved out of our place last monday, apprently there`s a property war going on with the mission housing Elder and the owner of our previous house. She doesn`t want to pay back the $400 downpayment if there was no damage in the house so she`s been evading Elder Condie, so he asked us to pretty much spy on the house and pass by once a day to make sure the owner hasn`t come back and that she pays the money before moving in and closing the contract...skeeeetch! 

We did sime service this week helping our ex-branch president paint his house that he expanded, that was fun! We seldom do service projects around here cause everyone complains that we`re gonna get dirty or that it`s work for men, clearly they haven`t seen how solid my 6-pack is from doing 4 minute planks ;D

We also had a multi-zone conferenec with our new mission president, Pdt.Videla and his wife. I am so in love with them! He is the funniest guy ever, he`s Chilean so he was using all this slang and we were all cracking up! His wife is a sweetheart and she actually teaches us things since she can speak spanish which is awesome! It`s like having 2 mission presidents! No doubt they are going to make miracles here, our mission is enormously blessed to have them! P.S. I met an Elder Diaz in this conference from Kendall, what?! A fellow Cubaniche! Well actually he`s Chilean, but ya`ll alraedy know it don`t matter where your from, if you live in Miami you WILL pick up the cuban accent, haha! We got to talking about croquetas, Pollo Tropical and Jupiña, there was no stopping us, hahaha!

As far as investigators go Ricardo is progressing smoothly towards his marriage and baptism end of the month. Maria Pinto had a few doubts about the law of chastity and dressing modestly, one thing led to another and next thing I know she was talking about nude beaches...oh dear! Hopefully it`s something she`ll come to understand with time. We left an investigator that wasn`t progressing, her name is Luisa. She has a lot of potential, she reads the Book of Mormon and everything, but after teaching her for over 2 months she hasn`t stepped foot once at church cause she says she simply hasn`t felt the desire grow in her. When I told her she had our number and that when she was ready to act upon her faith she could call us she scrunched up her face and started to ball like a little girl! It broke my heart, but sometimes tough love is necessarys o they can reflect and start taking things seriously. 

We had a huge miracle happen this saturday with an old investigator named Ingrid. She`s from peru and about a month ago Hna.Thomas and I taught her the restoration and she just ate it up and loved it! We thought fersure we had found another golden investigator, but upon our return appointment no one was home. We passed by several times the following weeks and tried to call with no luck and thought "oh well, guess it was too good to be true after all." But saturday afternoon we were walking to contact a referal when all of a sudden I felt a little tap on my back. When I turn around it was a little girl who said "My mom wants to talk to you!" I looked and a couple ways back it was Ingrid with her baby in the stroller! She said she had been in a serious accident while walking with her baby in her arms and got hit by someone on a motorcycle. She was badly battered and bruised all over and her sell phone had broken in the accident. She invited us over and told us she was so happy she saw us today, she had been waving but we hadn`t noticed so she sent her daughter Wendy to run after us, "I was scared Id never see you again!" We summed up the restoration and invited her to go to church, she was more than pumped and showed up in her sunday best with her daughters Wendy and Pedro and stayed for all 3 hours! She said she loved what she learned and shared with me that her grandma who is over 100 years old is a faithful member of the church in Peru and taught her things that she loved about the church and that she thinks it would do her kids a lot of good. Last night we left her a Book Of Mormon and she committed to a baptismal date for the end of August! Lastly last night one of our appts. failed so I felt impressed to visit a recent convert. He was home alone, but thankfully Hna.Adamson came back saturday morning so we`re in a trio and can enter his home. We sang a short him and I said an opening prayer and asked for peace in his home. When we said amen tears were streaming from this brother`s eyes. He thanked me and said he was going through a super rough time, that he was having issues with his family and reverted to bad drinking habits. He said the guilt is eating him alive, that he was sick of falling back to the same mistake time after time and that he can`t escape his past. He excused himself to the bathroom to go cry it out and as I looked around this brother`s filthy home I told Hna.Thomas and Hna.Adamson, "Let`s clean!" I grabbed the broom, Hna.Thomas washed the dishes and Hna.Adamson cleaned the surfaces. When this brother came out after getting a hold of himself he just started to bawl all over again and thanked us. Afterwards, we sat down and I told him that we appreciated the confidence he had in us to share his problems, but that we don`t have the authority to receive confessions and that he should speak to the branch president who will lovingly guide him through the repentance process and help him kick the habbit once and for all. There was hope in his eyes and a sweet spirit filled the home as we left, I told him to take all the credit for cleaning the house so his wife would be happy :) 

Well to finish off the week I once again got a cold. It started out friday with a cough at our Leadership Council with Pdt. for all the leaders in the mission, the next day I had a splitting headache so I worked through out the day, took an antibiotic the mission nurse recommended me and stayed the night hours at a members home so I wouldn`t breathe in the frigid air. It was the branches 2nd counselor`s home and he gave me a priesthood blessing and the next morning I decided I felt good enough to proselyte. But by the time we got home I was beat. I crawled into bed and woke up in the middle of the night totally congested, feverish with a splitting headache and a lot of pressure on my face from the congestion, I pretty much feel like my brain is gonna bust out of my eye socket, it`s terrible. I`m currently at a members house resting while my companions write their family and get groceries and what not. Being sick in the mission is the worst, this is the Lord`s time and you feel like a waste just laying around being sick. But like Elder Holland said "if we do not take time to be well, we most assuredly will take time later on to be ill." So I just need to allow my body to heal. Hna.Videla shared some comforting words with me this week, that satan tries to attack missionaries in 3 ways. The first is with disobedience, he`ll try to convince us that it`s okay to bend or even break the rules and standards in the mission handbook, but that when a missionary is an obedient and faithful servant of the Lord he tries to hinder the work the next way, physically. We`ll get sick and ill, but this will only hinder the work for so long. And that`s when he attacks us the 3rd way, mentally, with stress and depression. There`s no way he`s gonna get me with tactic #3, he may have won the battle but he hasn`t won the fight! It`s a blessing we`re in a trio so my companions can keep working while I recover, the Lord`s work will not be hindered!!! 

Your prayers will be much appreciated so I can have a speedy recovery and give it my all these last weeks!

xo,

Hna.Ibarra  

6 for the books that we call sticks

This week was an adventure-as usual- but lets start with our golden investigator Maria Pinto! She is the next to be baptized and has seriously been so prepared by the Lord! She used to be taught by missionaries years ago and still had the Book of Mormon and restoration pamphlet in her house. She lost touch cause she´d work a lot, but we found her contacting on the street. It´s so incredible to see how even though you may teach someone only once and never see them again the seed is truly planted and in the future will give fruit. She accepts everything we teaches, she prays when she goes home about everything we teach her and receives answers that it´s true. It´s funny cause when we taught her about modern day prophets she was stunned, that night she went home and prayed about it and opened her Book of Mormon and it talked about prophets and baptism. She was so excited for us to come over so she could tell us, and when she told us the page where she found her answer I didn´t read anything there about prophets, but its interesting how when someone needs an answer from the Lord he´ll put what they need on the pages. Recently we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and asked if she consumed any tea or coffee, she said she drank coffee and we told her she could have a substitute coffee drink here called "Ecco" which is made from wheat and she said "Oh! That´s what I drink, I can´t have the real kind cause it makes me sick." It was so awesome to see how the Lord has been preparing her for this moment, tonight we´re gonna have an FHE with her and a member family- she´ll be baptized in July.

I also had a little adventure in Downtown Santiago friday. I had to go with my daughter Hna.Fullmer and another missionary Hna.Nielson to renew my carnet (chilean ID) and to get them theirs for the 1st time. They changed some of the places where we had to go so I got totally lost and almost missed our appt. but thankfully we made it just in time! While we waited I contacted the people sitting around me, mostly all from Peru or Colombia, I love talking to strangers, especially the foreigners (they´re a lot nicer than the Chileans)! There was an empty seat next to me so I read the Conferene issue of the Liahona while I waited for my next victim to approach and it was a man from Peru, and actually her contacted me! He said "Excuse me but do you know how to work this website?" and when I looked it was FamilySearch.org! haha! I was like "YES! Of course I do!" really I think it was an excuse to talk to me, turns out him and all his family for like 3 generations are members in Peru, he had lost touch with the church but was thinking of coming back, so I encouraged him to do it and talked about all his fun memories he had in the church as a child. 3 hours later they finally stamped and registered our Visas but we need to go back friday to pick up our new carnets.

This week Pdt. &Hna. Essig left and we got our new mission president Pdt. & Hna. Videla. Even though I´m gonna miss the Essigs a ton I´m happy that they live sorta nearby in Logan and also that our new mission president is Chilean so he´s gonna help us a lot more on how to get in with the people and culture! We had special changes last night so I spoke with him briefly on the phone and he seems like a funny guy. He said "Hna.Ibarra how are you and our companions?" I said, "We´re doing great!" he said "Oh, good! You´re the only one´s in the mission doing great, everyone else is sad that Pdt. & Hna. Essig left, but their just gonna have to work with what they got now." hahaha! Tomorrow we´re gonna meet him in a conference so should be fun!

This week I also lost my agenda, that was sad. I can only compare it to losing a cell phone. All my life for the past 6 weeks were gone and all my plans for the next 6 weeks blank. I had no idea what to do with myself and I had a lot of important addresses from people I had talked to. Luckily our Zone Leader had an exchange and the member that went with them to an appt found it and gave it to him!!! My pen was still in the spine and everything! Tender mercy :)

To wrap up the week we spent all weekend packing up our entire house and all morning with the Elders moving into their old place where they moved from. It blows my mind everytime how much junk you accumulate, I hadn´t had to pack in over 7 months so I was over it after 1 box, but we finally got settled into our new place this morning. It´s not as nice as where we were, but doable. Theres just a leak of gas in the kitchen and a pipe that bangs so hard it almost busts threw the wall everytime we flush the toilet...nbd.

"Whether truth emerges from a scientific laboratory or through revelation, all truth emanates from God. All truth is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ^."-Elder Russell M. Nelson


xo,
Hna.Ibarra

7 for the prayers we send up to heaven.

This week was so much fun!!! Seriously can´t express how much I love my companions, I feel like I´ve known them all my life. At first I was a bit nervous about being with Hna.Adamson cause she can be a little ditsy sometimes, but it has just been laugh after laugh everyday and her small blonde moments lighten up the mood.

This week we were on the hunt for a house! T-2 weeks so we printed out little papers and posted them on all the almacenes (little grocery stores) in the neighborhoods and talked to everyone asking in contatcs if they knew anything. They all had us on a wild goose chase until I saw a woman sweeping up her leaves (it´s oficially winter here!). This week I was working on the attribute of charity so I offered to help her out and while I did I asked her if she knew about anyone renting a place. She said yes, that it was the owner of an almacen across the street. So after helping her we went over and talked to the lady. I had already talked to her before but I thought we had nothing to lose so I tried again and she said she wasn´t the owner of the apt, but her coworker was and called her over. She looked like she was in a bad mood and asked what we wanted and we explained our situation and she offered to take us to look at the place. It´s a house where the bottom floor is a ferreteria (hardware store) and upstairs it´s divided in 2 apts. It´s tiny but clean and decent and technically in the Elders sector so they would have to live there and us move into their house in our sector. But it was the 1st thing in weeks that was a posibility. Later that week a brother called me from another ward who moved and wants to rent his house to the missionaries! So we went and checked out the place with the Elders, a lot roomier and in a safe part of town so looks like the Elders will be moving there and things are gonna work out, so hopefully this time next week we´ll be in our new house!!! God has seriously answered our prayers!

Besides that this week was full of dogs trying to attack us, stepping on poop every other day, contacting strangers with a herd of cows mooing in my ear, and painted another member´s fence for a service project! Just another week in Chile!

P.s. there´s another game today so the e-mails short cause we gotta lock ourselves up before it starts. Chi-chi-chi, le-le-le ¡VIVA CHILE!  

xo,

Hna.Ibarra

8 for the boy who just couldn´t wait!

Haha, well there really is no boy who just couldn´t wait,it´s just a catchy rhyme. But This week we had changes!!! After much prayer and fasting I am-  Drum roll...............................................................................staying in Renca with Hna.Thomas!!!!!!!!! AAAHHHHH!!!! So nuts! We were praying so hard for it to happen, but really we didn´t have much hope since I´ve been here 5 transfers now and since Pdt. Essig said he´d be changing a lot of the leaders in the mission since the majority of the leaders now are leaving this transfer or the next. We were jumping and screaming in the middle of the street when the District Leader called us. Not only is the Dream Team staying together, but we´re gonna have a new addition, Hna.Adamson from Pleasant Grove, UT! Super cute blonde that reminds me of one of the BRATZ barbie dolls. I am so pumped to be staying here my last transfer, that means by the end I´ll have 9 months in the same sector...that´s HALF MY MISSION! Who´d a thought?! Seriously, God works in mysterious ways. When I first got here I was soo sad to have left Curacavi and after a week I was already over it. But now I´m like part of the family, I love the members, the people, the branch, and can´t imagine myself anywhere else! Plus I´m so happy to be able to see Ricardo and Gloria get married and him get baptized next month. The Lord knew my mission wouldn´t be complete until I saw to it!

Some highlights of this week was that we had a General Authority come, Elder Robbins of the 1st Quorum of the 70. That´s like the 3rd General Authority in less than 6 months, either we´re doing something really right, or really wrong!!! Hahaha! It was an amazing conference together with the Santiago East mission where we were able to have a question answer session with Elder Robbins about how to work more closely with the Holy Ghost. My mind was blown!

There was lots of rain this week and we had to do several intercambios (exchanges) with the sisters we´re in charge of which was fun but the streets we´re all flooded and it took forever to get to our appts. (Thanks mom for the boots and waterproof jacket- it all held up!) But I guess one of the highlights of this week was La Copa Mundial!!! Chile played Australia friday and won 3-0!!! We were all sent home early that day cause literally EVERYONE in Chile got off work early and was BBQing and partying and watching the game. We were planning but heard every goal Chile made cause the entire neighborhood was yelling and screaming and blowing horns and beating drums and shooting guns and firecrackers everytime, it was hilarious!!! Hna.Thomas and I had out own little celebration in our house and a member painted our faces and we planned with our Chile shirts, haha! Gotta make things interesting in the mission!

Seriously, I can´t express how much I love the mission and Chile! This change is gonna be one of many changes, we need to find a new house in 2 weeks or we´re gonna have to live in the mission office, Pdt.Essig leaves in 2 weeks and our new mission President, Pdt. Videla and his wife are coming in as well,more exchanges with the new sisters we´re in charge of, and more! I guess over all I´m just super grateful that it´s a long transfer (8 weeks) and that I´ll be staying with Hna.Thomas who I know is gonna push me and help me give my all ´til the very end.

Spiritual cookie: "One of the great teachings of the Man of Galilee, the Lord Jesus Christ, was that you and I carry within us immense possibilities. In urging us to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, Jesus was not taunting us or teasing us. He was telling us a powerful truth about our possibilities and about our potential. It is a truth almost too stunning to contemplate. Jesus, who could not lie, sought to beckon us to move further along the pathway to perfection." Pdt. SPencer W. Kimball- Jesus the Perfect Leader

"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." 3 Nephi 27:27

xo,

Hna.Ibarra

9 for the miles we ride on our bikes

This week rain welcomed in the winter. It`s rained almost everyday which makes proselyting super fun because it`s something different and because not just anyone is walking around in the rain, only the super special souls the Lord has prepared for us to preach the gospel to! But of course with the drop in temperature I caught a cold and lost my voice so it`s been a little hard to contact and teach. I don`t know if the people are looking at me all wide-eyed because I`m teaching with such power and authority or because they`re trying really hard to understand what I`m saying, hahaha! Nonetheless, whenever my voice gives out my trusty companion Hna.Thomas jumps in and saves me, this is why we preach in two`s!!! Also I`m happy because my feet haven`t hurt at all this week, so either your prayers are working or it`s so cold my feet are numb and I can`t feel the pain, either way it`s awesome! Also, we got a letter from the owner of our house so we have 30 days to find a new place and move or were homeless...awesome! It`s been a good excuse though to talk to random people and contact!

This week we did a couple exchanges with the sister`s in our group. Our first was with Hna.Carhuas from Peru. It was an incredible experience because originally her companion was gonna stay in my sector to work with me but they got confused and Hna.Carhuas brought her stuff to spend the night so we just went with it, little did we know it was a blessing in disguise from the Lord. We went to several appts that night and Hna.Carhuas` powerful testimony and personal experiences helped our investigators and converts so much, they were so grateful for her words and were so uplifted! I knew then it was no accident at all! Then Hna.Quintana came to Renca, she`s my homegirl so we had such a blast together! She`s been struggling with some depression but it did her so much good to work somewhere new and I was able to see that she truly has the ability to do the work, she just needs a companion to love, support and motivate her. Love her to death, she rocked in our lessons!

Besides that this week I`m working on the attribute of Hope which is perfect cause there`s been several challenges with our investigators that were GOLDEN and I need to increase my hope that they`ll progress. David has stopped progressing and has been going out with his buddies to drink and smoke and hasn`t come home until the next morning and things like that. Carolina is super upset and they were thinking of sepperrating. I read Moroni 7 with them about having chairty and loving eachother with the pure love of Christ and that sepperrating was not the solution to their problems. That night I went home feeling guilty...I told myself "I didn`t convince them to get married so they`d get sepperated! Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I shouldn`t of told them to get married. Now they`re gonna get sepperated and it`s probably my fault in the first place!" I really didn`t know what to think, but I prayed that the Lord would help them look beyond their immperfections, forgive eachother and have the pure love of Christ. The next morning during my personal study the Lord answered the secret pleadings of my heart when I read Ether 12:36-37  "And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: if they have not chairty it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place where I have prepared in the mansions of my father." I knew then that I didn`t do anything wrong, I invited them to keep a commandment of the Lord and that I did was I was suppossed to do as a representative of Christ and that I shouldn`t feel guilty about that. It`s always a special experience when the Lord speaks so directly to me through the scriptures. It`s happened to me countless of times and each time it`s another testimony that I have a Heavenly Father, He hears and answers my prayers, He loves me and guides me, and the Book of Mormon is His word. 

Today for p-day we went bowling with other sisters in the mission, it was so hilarious, we`re all so rusty! It was even funnier to see the latina girls try to play, it was many of them`s first time ever bowling so I was trying to teach them how to throw the ball down the alley. After a couple of gutter balls, slips, falls, and laughs we finally got the hang of it again. My goal was to get one strike which I did so I was happy after that! Hna.Quintana got like 3 and we we`re joking about how this is good preperation to go dating again haha! Oh dear! Can`t even think about that right now, so much to do, so little time! We have a conference with a member of the quorum of the 70 this week, 3 exchanges, and Chile is playing in the World Cup so we have to go in early that night incase they lose or win and the people get CRAY in Renca. People here get drunk on weekdays so I don`t even want to know what it`s like when a soccer game`s on! 

This is the last week of the transfer so I`m pretty nervous! I really love where I`m at and my companion Hna.Thomas and don`t want any changes, but it`s what the Lord wants not me, so I`m just trying to enjoy every second I have this week and opening my heart to change for the last time in the mission...kinda nervewrecking to think it`ll be my last transfer. I just want an awesome companion who can work hard and push me even harder to give every ounce of spirit and testimony I have left to these people!!! Love you all!

<3,

Hna.Ibarra

 

10 for the Ten Commandments

Not gonna lie, this week was super trunky...SOOOOOO trunkyyyy!!!! But mainly because we had to kill Hna.Ireland who is probably landing in SLC as we speak!!! Our goal was to have to give her all and work her hardest this week, which she did, to the point where she went home with a cold...poor thing. But it`s like Elder Holland told us when he spoke to our mission last november, we need to go home in a stretcher because we gave everything we had! I think I`ll be going home with amputated feet they hurt so bad, I pray every day and night that the Lord may bless my feet with the strength to get where we need to go. Another reason this week was trunky was because yesterday I had my last Zone Conference and so I had to bare my farewell testimony to the missionaries. I had been pondering and praying about what I should say so that my words could sink into the hearts of the missionaries still in the middle or just beginning their missions and have a lasting impression and motivate them to continue in so great a cause. It was bitter sweet having to do it, especially since I still have another transfer left so I don`t feel like I`m leaving anytime soon whatsoever!!! But The spirit spoke through me, their hearts were pricked and my testimony was the spiritual punch I wanted it to be. So enough trunky talk, now for the rest of our power week!

We visited our investigator who`s GOLDEN- Maria Pinto! She went to church this sunday and shared with us in our appt that no instead of going home and watching TV she reads the Book of Mormon. She shared with us an incredible experience of how the house she`s building in Valparaiso near the beach was left abandoned with the doors opened. She was super anxious and worried that her things would get stolen so she opened the Book of Mormon and read a verse that brought her so much peace, she said it was a burning in her bossom, something she felt only once before when a family member passed away and she prayed for them. We testified it was the Holy Ghost and asked her if she felt she received her answer- she said yes, I know the Book of Mormon is true. Music to a missionaries ears!!!

Our other investigators have been dealing with a lot of opposition...nothing new...Eli had an accident at her job and a iron rod penetrated her hand and she had to get stitches. She`s been taking very poewrful pain medications that make her loopy so she hasn`t been able to read her Book of Mormon or go to church yet, but I have faith she`ll get there!

We had a powerful lesson with Enso on the Book of Mormon. We watched Elder Holland`s testimony on the BOM and then testified ourselves of its truthfulness. He still hadn`t received his answer so we read Alma 22 where King Lamoni prayed fervently to know if the gospel was true and invited him to kneel and pray with us. The spirit invaded the room...when I opened my eyes after the "amen" he was still moving his mouth and praying in his heart, his eyes were scrunched, there was such real intent in his face. He opened his eyes, red with tears. I asked him what he felt in that moment, he said "a lot of peace and emotion...I feel the Holy Ghost" and we testified that it was his answer. But it blows my mind how after such a powerful spiritual experience satan attacks. That weekend Enso didn`t go to church. We saw him yesterday, but when I saw his face there was an obvious absence of light...an absence of the light of Christ. There was darkness in his eyes, and it was such a strange feeling, something I`d never felt or seen before in a person. He was bizarre during the appt. We went over the baptismal questions and he was being bery sarcastic and said he had doubts about Joseph Smith, didn`t want to commit to keep the law of Chastity, and said he still wasn`t sure about the Sabbath day. My jaw dropped...WHAT?! After all the immensly powerful lessons we had to resolve his doubts where he felt it was the truth he was denying it all. Then he confessed that that weekend he went to "carretear" meaning party and drink and smoke with his friends.Then I knew, I knew why there was an absence of the spirit in his countenance. Something like that had never been so evident to me before. It was a sad realization, he has the desire to change, but lacks the will so we`ll see what happens.

Today for P-day Hna.Thomas and I went to an ancient art museum that had artwork of all the indigenous tribes in Latin America which was pretty cool! It`s weird being only 2 again, but it`ll still be fun fersure! Things are going great over all and just jumping over every hurdle the Lord throws at me. This week I`ve been reflecting a lot on my change as a missionary. No doubt I`ve come a looooooong way since I first began, the spiritual mountains I`ve climbed and conquered have been great...but have I changed enough? So starting this week I decided to work on the Attributes of Christ listed in Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel, one for every week I have left, it`s perfect! I know I am so much more like my Savior now than I ever was before, and I just want to continue to change more and more, do my all, so the Lord can make me who he wants and needs me to be. 

spiritual cookie: "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." The joy and glory of a missionary are his converts -1 Thesalonians 2:19-20

xo,

Hna.Ibarra