This is Faith's email from March 18
Hola Familia,
Hola Familia,
I haven`t had time to read your emails completely yet. But I noticed that you`re poppin, Hope. How great. :) Just imagine that feeling times 10 in some moments in your mission. I am so excited for you and I know you will love your mission and influence a lot of people. I think about you all the time. I LOVE your witty emails to death. I want to see that Elastigirl meme (I almost said Hermana Incredible, tryng to think of her name, ha) because it`s so me and you.
Ethan, happy 7th birthday yesterday! You are a great kid and such a sweet nephew.
I haven`t really thought at all about what I`m going to write today. It was a very average week. We worked hard, had some good experiences, but I can`t remember them right now.
Nancy didn`t come to church yesterday. We fasted for her on Friday (for her and Esther and Adela and Christian and Leo and Liz and Sofia and Elio and.....I hope a fast isn`t less powerful if you fast for like 10 people) and on Saturday we had a very spiritual, tear-jerking lesson. She has felt the spirit while reading the Book of Mormon and while praying about the church, but hasn`t connected the dots to realize that is an answer from God that this is the true church. She seems to think it is just another nice church. She said she wanted to go to her church on Sunday but would go to ours after, but she didn`t.
BUT, we had four other investigators at church yesterday, one of them being Esther, who got married in February. I love her so much. She is really acting in faith. It`s just hard for her to get to church, but we asked Alipio to pick her up on his moto yesterday and he did. (He always saves the day, he is a full time missionary without a nametag pretty much. As a member I want to follow his example. He has a repair shop and shares the gospel with literally every client, and gives us references several times a week. And he`s just a member of 3 years!)
On Saturday a few of our plans fell through and we had an hour before an appointment to just contact and talk to people. I could have decided to go see people we know but decided to just contact. We asked references from every contact and soon a reference led us to clap the house of a woman named Dora who was sick in bed with arthritis pain. She`s only 46 but has 12 kids (a woman after my own heart, haha) and her husband left her a few years ago. I said, "God sent us to see you, Dora," and she said, "True, no?" We sang "Where can I turn for peace" (Hna. Francois has a beautiful voice and harmonizes great) and prayed with her and planned to come back another day to help her and teach her. She seemed very touched and had tears in her eyes. As we left I thought, "That is what it is to minister." Christ always ministered, and as a mission we have been talking about how important it is to do that, and what ministering means. I don`t want to live my life in such a rush that there is no time to minister, to just go about doing good as Christ did. I don`t want to be rushing so much from classes and appointments and activities that there is no time to observe those around me and act on my observations. How many times have I passed by perfect opportunities to invite others to come unto Christ because I was rushing to keep up with the plan in my agenda?
We`re teaching three daughters of an inactive member, and the youngest is named Milagros, she`s 9. She loves the gospel and loves church SO much. She just eats up everything. We had a lesson on faith the other night and asked her how she knows that God exists. She said, "Well there`s pictures here in the Book of Mormon of God, and someone had to take the pictures!" It was so cute. I hope her family will go to church with her--there isn't a child on earth who doesn`t want to go to church with their family. Oh how they all deserve that.
I feel like I had a revelation this week about how to teach the Doctrine of Christ. Soccer is huge here (like everything else, it can be a vice....young men sometimes play all day and all night, which means they are too tired to get up and go to church, too tired to work or go to school....seriously, it`s an addiction). Anyway, I explained that life is a partido (soccer match) and there are two teams, Satan`s and God`s. And we already know who is going to win, and so does Satan, but he wants as many people on his team as possible. And to be on his team we don`t have to do anything. But to be on God`s team we have to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the holy ghost, and be obedient until the end. This is what Christ clearly taught. He did not say all we have to do is "be good," as so many Christians think, there is a specific recipe so to speak. It is much harder to live a life on God`s team, no? But the rewards are worth it; eternal life, happiness in this life and the next, etc. I have been using this little analogy a lot and it has been really effective because every man is just glued as soon as I say the word "partido."
My testimony of fasting has grown. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown. My testimony of my need to be more humble has definitely grown. I`m so thankful for the many blessings God gives us as we try to be fit to be on His team.
I love you all so much, I love the people we are teaching so much, I love this whole world and I love the Church, because it`s HIS.
Love,
Your Sister Missionary,
Hermana Goimarac
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