Our area is doing super wonderful! We have seen so many miracles this week. Just yesterday we were talking about why we were so tired, and then as we reflected on the miracles we have seen, we realized it's because we have been working hard. So good tired!
Okay, now for the miracles.
First of all, there is this incredible woman named Hermana Caballero. She is currently less active because of some random doubts that she has found recently. Last Sunday we went by with our branch president and his wife. It was a super emotional and powerful lesson. Also, the first time I'd met Hermana Caballero. Anyway,
Next. On Saturday we went out to Shandon and we were looking for some new people to teach. We were looking for people who we could offer service to, as well. We met one man washing his car, and he brushed us off, so we walked across the street to meet a potential. Lourdes opened the door and asked who we were. We introduced ourselves and she was excited that we were people who could come share messages with her. Before explaining more about our message, we asked if there was anything we could do to help her. She said no, no, no. But after a couple minutes she said, "Well, I have lots of dishes and my sink is broken, so I have to wash them in the backyard." She was still refusing, but said, come in and read some scriptures with me! So we went in and taught her a little bit--she LOVED the Book of Mormon. It was super cool. We eventually told her that we are servants of Jesus Christ and if He was here, He would help with her dishes! So we rounded up the kids and made a dish washing team to tackle the mountain of dishes outside. It was so neat. She was open and prepared before, but as we spent a little bit of time serving her, she opened up so much more. We ended with a prayer. Lourdes said it and was very emotional. She felt the spirit so strongly and is looking forward to us coming back soon. :)
Another miracle was finding Jose Tacuba again. We found him last week, but this week we had the chance to take a member with us for a lesson. Pedro, the member, had been in lessons with Jose a few months ago, before some health issues that caused Jose to disappear for a bit. Well, after this lesson, Pedro told us that he sees a huge change in Jose. It was neat to see that Jose and Pedro fell in place again. Jose clearly trusts Pedro as a member because he has known him longer, and because of that, he was very attentive to the things that Pedro said. Members truly do make a difference.
It has been an awesome week and I have learned so much. I have really noticed that there is a difference between people who are prepared and those who still need to marinate for a bit. I have realized throughout my mission that there are prepared people out there. And those are the ones that I want to teach. There have been times where I have felt like I'm trying to speed up the marinating instead of letting the Lord continue to do His job, too. It is the prepared people that we need to find. They are the ones who will accept the Gospel and be baptized. I have loved finding some of these people and working hard to help them progress.
I have also learned so much about faith. It's everywhere! And it's marvelous. Both Hermana Shepherd and I are starting to read a "Faith Book of Mormon" that we will study and specifically learn about faith. Faith truly brings miracles. It helps us to progress, no matter what stage of life we are at. Active members, less actives, investigators, and others can all begin to progress as they put faith in action. Action is so important with our faith. For example, we can have some medicine sitting in our cupboard, lets say ibuprofen. Well, what good is that ibuprofen going to do for our headache if we just leave it in the cupboard. We can look at it all day and have the faith that it will make our head stop hurting if we take it, but that really doesn't matter if we don't grab a cup of water and swallow the pill. It's the same with our faith. We can have it tucked away for as long as we want, but it really won't do any good if we don't DO something with it. Faith without action is pointless. This is why we invite people to act, and why we need to follow up to make sure they do it. Because if they don't they will never have the experiences they need to be converted.
In other news. I thought our phone was really dirty so I washed it with our laundry this morning..... IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! Actually somehow it got wrapped up in my sheets between turning off the alarm and pulling my sheets off this morning before sunrise. BUT! Fear not. I have been studying faith and I'm sure my faith is strong enough to resurrect our phone! (Maybe I should study humility next....)
HAVE THE BEST WEEK!
Hermana Clark