March 3rd, 2014
Could
there be a more blessed and happy missionary than me? I think not! Life
is just too marvelous and beautiful to fully explain. My first blessing
is that I am getting married! He is quite the catch! Tall, head full of
white hair, hipster glasses, speaks english perfectly. I thing the only
bad things about him is that he is partially deaf and 64 years my
senior. Hahaha.Just kidding. However, he did ask me to marry him but i
had to decline. Everything has a time and a season.
But really, let´s talk about the miracles and blessings I received this week.
#1:
We finally moved to our new house. No more walking 40 minutes to get to
our area and go home. The Elders did not lie. It really is the house
from Snow White. It is REALLY small. It has a room, a kitchen and a
small bathroom. We don´t yet have a refrigerator and our dresser is
still in the box. We won´t receive our fridge or have our dresser put
together until after Carnaval. Anyway, more about my house. The bathroom
is great! You have to pull a string in order to flush the toilet and
sometimes you have to flush 2-3 times. This week was Elder Myers´s
birthday so Sister Goimarac and I made him a cake. It was 4 layers with
LOTS of chocolate and sprinkles and good stuff. Unfortunately, we now
have an ant farm in our house. We disinfected everything and bought
spray. Our house is just too small for 2 humans and ants to be
cohabiting. It is us...or them. ;)
#2:
Paula is amazing and so are her children. We had an amazing lesson this
week with Paula and her oldest daughter Emily. We read the Book of
Mormon with them and then invited Emily to pray and ask Heavenly Father
if it is true. She was a little confused so we explained that God loves
it when we ask questions and she could ask clearly and simply if the
book is true. We kneeled together and Emily prayed, ´´Heavenly Father,
is this book true...´´ She didn´t say anything else. We stayed in
silence. i did my personal prayer in silence that God would give her the
answer she was seeking. I opened my eyes and her 11 year old face was
scrunched in concentration. 5 minutes of silent prayer!! Finally she
opened her eyes. She said she felt good. We talked about how the Holy
Ghost feels and talks to us. Through our thoughts, feelings, etc. I told
her my experience of when I received my own testimony. I told her of
the peace I felt! In that moment she said, ´´I felt peace too! The Book
of Mormon is true!´´ You can just imagine how much my heart was jumping
with happiness. However, my happiness was completed when Paula opened
her mouth and was the solidifying testimony for her daughter. Paula
said, ´´I feel peace every time I open the book. I may only read 1 line
or a whole chapter but the peace is instantaneous. It is true.´´ Yes,
yes it is true! No doubt about that! Paula came to church this sunday
with her 4 children and they loved it. We have plans to teach her
husband this week.
#3:
Marcia. Oh, I love that woman. The other day we were planning for her
and we discussed what could keep her from being baptized. In our last
lesson she had told us about her oldest daughter and the guilt she feels
concerning her. We felt that this past would keep her from wanting to
be baptized so we prayed to know how to help her. We went to our lesson
that night and the first thing she said was, ´´I need a chapter to read
from the Book of Mormon. I am going to go see my daughter this
weekend.´´ If I had been sitting on a chair i would´ve probably fallen
off. The Lord truly does prepare the hearts of His children. This gospel
has changed Marcia´s life! She smiles more often now. She laughs too!
Her baptism is scheduled for this coming Sunday. Please keep her in your
prayers as she prepares for this next important step. She is amazing!!
#4:
Zone Meeting was amazing this week! Our topic has added more wood and
life to the fire within my heart! It has given my brain a fever! Eternal vision!
We talked about the 5 keys that we need and that our investigators need
to be ETERNALLY CONVERTED! Faith is the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance,
baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Everyday we
have studied one of these keys and I have tried to find why they are of
utmost importance and essential. These keys are key! They are all
centered in Jesus Christ.They lead us back to our Heavenly Father. When
we apply these things in our live we gain an eternal vision. These
steps/keys bring us so many blessings in this life. Purpose, more faith,
happiness, peace, knowledge, etc. However, the blessings are eternal.
They are for more than just this life. When we follow these steps and
help others apply these steps we are helping us and them to prepare to
live with God again. These are the steps that will guide us to receive
ALL of the blessings God has prepared for us. And why has this built the
fire?? Because I know that if I help others catch this vision they will
see that what we are teaching them will extend until the eternities.
Just think about it! We don´t keep the commandments just to prosper
today or tomorrow. We keep them because we know that we if are faithful
till the end we will one day go back to live with our Father and we will
be able to look at Him with pleasure and say that we did our best. And
then the Grace of our Savior will make up the difference and we will be
made perfect in Him and eternal happiness in the presence of our Father,
and our Savior and our families will be ours. We must all gain this
eternal vision. We are living for forever one day at a time. This vision
is not anything new but it is always nice to have the reminder of our
purpose.
Ask
for funny stories...wow. i have a lot. When we were walking into the
chapel Paula´s children saw the Elders and noticed that they had the
same name tags. Emmerson (one of her sons) said, ´´Look Mom! More
Sisters!´´ haha. Oh! We took a member to a lesson and as much as I love
her we won´t be taking her out again. During a lesson she went off on a
rant about sunday school (we hadn´t been talking about sunday school at
all) and she talked about how it prepares us for the second coming of
Heavenly Father.
Life
is so good. I love you all much! I want to just say a few words about
the little things. Life is extremely difficult at times. We all have
different types of problems but I know that living the gospel of Jesus
Christ helps us overcome those difficulties. And it all starts with the
little things. Saying our prayers everyday! Talk to God! There is no
better way to feel his love! Reading the scriptures daily! And going to
church! If we do the small things we become a spiritual giants of faith.
It is the truth! I have seen if happen over and over again. If we do
the little things we will have the strength to overcome the big things.
I love you forever.
Love, Sister Rose
