Dear Family,
Speaking of missionaries in the ward and Sister Larson`s leaving, I have compiled a little list of
How to Spoil the Missionaries in your Ward
1. Give them references. Tell them to visit your friends, your co-workers, your coach, your neighbors, anybody you know who is sick or going through a hard time. We are here to help but don`t always know who needs help.
2. Visit your friends with them! Help them have lessons with members! And in your visit, testify! Be friends with everyone they teach. Offer to pick up investigators for church. Invite them over to your house for dinner. Thank the missionaries for letting you do visits with them. Ask them when you can go out again!
3. Give missionaries office supplies. Post-it notes, pencils, tape, stickers, paper.
4. Whenever they come by your house, offer them food. Hot chocolate, fruit, whatever you have on hand. Send them home with food, too. Ask them what they want to eat (or don`t want to eat) when you invite them over for dinner.
5. Add them on facebook (for when they go home) and be friends their whole lives.
6. Take care of them when they`re sick. Their moms are far away and sometimes their companions are clueless.
7. Go on splits with them! They can double their effectiveness if they can each go out with a member!
8. If you`re a bishop or leader in the ward go out with them all the time!
9. If they don`t have a car, give them rides! They will love you and they will save time, enabling them to teach more people the good news!
10. Invite them over for a special dinner when they leave your area. Take pictures. Write them a letter of encouragement.
Anyway....those are a few things members have done for me that I have been touched by. When I go home I fully plan on spoiling the sisters in the Sedona ward rotten. Get ready to have 20 lessons-with-member a week, sisters! :)
What a BUSY week we had. We had to do a division in Pedro Juan, which is in the opposite end of the country. Hna. Macahuachi began her mission there, so she went and I stayed and Hna. Macfarlane came here with me for two days. She is great and we had a good time, despite her getting bit deeply by the awful dog on our corner. I felt so bad. We have twice asked the owner to tie it up and he still hasn`t. I usually walk by it with a big stick in my hand or a rock, and it`s usually fine. But this day it just ran up to her and bit her before we could do a thing. Highlight of the division. We finished that division on Friday morning, and after lunch and weekly planning had to do another in San Lorenzo....it was an emergency. I went to San Lorenzo with a really great new missionary who is from Utah but speaks perfect spanish. But it was hard. Their area is really hard. All our planned lessons fell through, and we began to just clap houses. And everyone rejected us. One guy was so offended we would invite him to learn of Jesus Christ, he threw his hands in the air and treated us like annoying dogs. He was like, "Go! Please! Vayan!" I have to say I`m not used to that. The missionaries in the U.S. probably think that`s nothing. Anyway, we had two lessons in 24 hours. It was very disheartening and I felt like an awful Sister Training Leader. So members! Take note! Help the missionaries fill their agendas with meaningful visits so they don`t waste time knocking doors.
But I feel like I was really able to help the other sister missionaries this week. I am so thankful to get to do divisions with them and get to know them. I love them a lot. It felt good to be able to help them, if nothing else to just encourage them.
Susan and Carlos are progressing so well! Ahhh! Please keep praying for them. I think Carlos has the face of the next bishop or stake president. Last night we had a long visit with them that was just so great. We taught the Restoration using a lot of Bible verses. It is just so clear. The restoration makes so much sense. Carlos reads the Bible a lot but said to him it`s an old book...shouldn`t we have something for our day? We explained that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and that by reading the Bible we can know God and how he works with us today. But at the same time, we have a living prophet today....God DOES speak today. It was exciting to teach. This family has all the traits of a family that progresses: the daughters already want to be missionaries like us (they are 11, 9, and 4), they ask us when we are coming back, their front room floor has become holy ground to me as we kneel to pray at the end of every visit.
Speaking of prophets, this morning I was reading Jesus the Christ about John the Baptist and it said that every prophet leading up to him had testified of Christ and had been persecuted or rejected. John the Baptist was also persecuted, and Jesus Christ himself. It makes sense that Joseph Smith and even us missionaries are persecuted, rejected. Every time someone kicks the church, it`s more of a testimony to me.
Today is the day our mission was split. President McMullin got here on Friday and Pres. Madariaga left. :( I still haven`t met their family, but we have leadership council next Monday morning, so I will then. They have a son about to leave on a mission, a 15 year old daughter, and a 7 year old son. I admire Sister McMullin already for not only being a mom to her own kids, but also the mom to 200 missionaries. I was reading the descriptions of all the new mission predents and their wives, and Sister McMullin is the only wife that has served a mission, of all the wives of the presidents in the South America area. Way to go Sister McMullin!!!!
Leonela and Javier have been helping us a lot and I just love teaching with them. Javier served a mission in Chile two years ago and when he teaches with us the people just eat up his every word. We went out with them the other night to a guy named Isidro who said he feels relieved after he prays, but he used the verb "resar" which is like giving a memorized prayer, instead of "orar" which is really praying and convsersing with God. He said that he repeats Padre Nuestro (the Lord`s Prayer) each night, and that`s it. I said, "If you feel better after doing that, just imagine the relief and the strength you will get if your really talk to your Heavenly Father, if you really get to know Him through prayer. And, if you feel peace just remembering God and talking to Him, just imagine the peace of conscience you will feel if you are baptized by someone with His authority, so that you are truly forgiven of your sins, and you can stand with confidence before Him. That, Isidro, is peace of conscience. That is true relief." Isn`t it the BEST NEWS on earth that God has restored the powers necessary to rightfully perform necessary ordanances for salvation, like baptism? It is truly marvelous.
Yesterday the sun came out for the first time in 2 weeks, we had two new investigators in church, and I felt the spirit a lot. I caught a glimpse of myself in a window as we walked to lunch from church, and I saw myself with my name tag and my comp (and the new cute clothes Hope sent me, thank you again!!!!) and thought to myself as my heart popped a little, "I am doing exactly what I always wanted to do. I am living the dream! I wouldn`t rather be anywhere else." And, asi es.
Dad, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW! I have attatched a picture for you. I can`t believe it`s your birthday already again. You are a true super-hero, dad, and I am honored to be your daughter. Have a wonderful day, and eat ice cream even if it`s currently banned from the house. :)
Also, happy Fourth of July. Whenever I mention that this week is the Fourth of July my comp says, "Que es importante del cuatro de Julio?" Oh yeah....that`s just a regular day for everyone else.
I love you all and miss you! Share the gospel with someone new this week!
Love,
Sister Goimarac, I
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Wishing will not make it so. The Lord expects our thinking. He expects our action. He expects our labors. He expects our testimonies. He expects our devotion.
President Thomas S. Monson
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