Hola!
Hermana and I met with Samuel once again this week to talk about the Book of Mormon. This guy is so awesome! We had given him a folleto of the Plan of Salvation in our last visit, and he testified to us of it after he had read the whole thing. Who does that? I know that if we can get Samuel to attend Church on Sundays so that he can be baptized that he will be a leader in the Church someday. There is no doubt about it!
We also sat down with Maricela to teach our very last lesson before her baptism this Saturday. But she expressed to us that she feels like she needs more time before she can make such a big decision. Maricela wants to read the Book of Mormon all the way through and then wait for September to be baptized. Our hearts dropped when she said this. (I wonder how the missionaries felt when I told them I wanted to wait until I was eighteen to be baptized.) But we listened to her feelings and asked her questions about whether she is keeping her committments to read and pray everyday. We have comfort in knowing the Maricela has received an answer that the Church is true, so her situation is more of a matter of faith. That lessson with Maricela ended with testimony, the scriptures, and another committment to receive a confirmation from God that her decision to be baptized is correct.
But since that lesson with Maricela I have been studying about faith and how Hermana and I can help Maricela recieve and recognize answers through the Spirit. Joseph Smith taught that we need three things in order to excercise true faith: 1) Belief in the existence of God, 2) A knowledge of His character and attributes (i.e., merciful, forgiving, loving, trustworthy, ect.), and 3) A knowledge that our chosen path in life has His approval. We know that Maricela believes in God and who He is, but she wants to know that her decision to join the Church is right. And so my question is how Hermana and I can teach her how to recognize answers from heaven powerfully enough to act.
This whole experience has really made me think about how I first learned to recognize answers from Heavenly Father, and what kind of testimony the missionaries shared with me that inspired me to act. I´ve come to the conclusion that we need to pray, study, and fast to have a more powerful influence of the Spirit in our lessons. People arent converted to missionaries, we are only instruments. Within every person is an immortal spirit that once lived with and learned from Heavenly Parents before this life, and so there is also the ability to communicate with heaven. ´´True to the Faith´´ says that we can only recieve a sure testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ only through the power of the Holy Ghost. His communication with ours carries more certainty than any communication we can receive through our natural senses. (pg 89.) This makes our jobs as missionaries so much easier! Investigators will learn what they need to through the Spirit, and when they learn how to recognize promptings and how to communicate with their Father in Heaven, they will have what they need to endure to the end. My compi and I need only to have the Spirit to testify of the message of the Gospel.
So these are our current worries this week! We hope to talk to Maricela really soon. OH! And just last week our sector lost its elders and we recieve another companionship of hermanas. Sisters are taking over the mission! Haha, but seriously. The Peru Cusco mission has 230+ missionaries already - go compare this to others - and we will be recieving 20 more hermanas in the next transfer. There is a big possibility that I will be training...Ah! Pray for me.
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