So this weather is a little crazy. On Friday
we woke up to snow on our roofs. Cars were even so iced that people couldn’t go
to work and school was even cancelled. I honestly was not expecting that down
here. And I can’t really say that it was a pleasant surprise either. But with
snow or heat, the work goes on!
This week was amazing. I just am so blessed
to be a missionary and be a part of so many people's lives. Often it just hits
me how crazy of a thing it is that I do. Here I am a 20-year-old girl walking
down the streets of Houston inviting others to repent and be baptized. The part
that really always blows my mind is that people trust me. And not just people
but more importantly God trusts me, as well as all His missionaries. What a
great responsibility we as missionaries have!
For some reason this was one of the
highlights for me this week: We had 20 minutes left of the night so we went to Wal-Mart
to do some contacting. We prayed that we would be able to talk about the gospel
with someone in those next 20 minutes. We had some success. There was this cute
little Hispanic family buying diapers for their little girl who has Down
syndrome. Hermana Baxter said hi to them but for some absurd reason we kept
walking. After 3 steps we turned around to talk to them some more. The mom that
Hermana Baxter had said gone down a different isle. The dad was there with his
little girl. The little girl started having a huge tantrum but when she saw us
she ran over to us. She lifted her hands up so that I would pick her up.
Luckily I had a book of Mormon in my hand so I flipped it open. Almost
immediately, she stopped crying, sat on the floor and just said Jesus in
perfect clarity. What is the principle that we learn here? The Book of Mormon
heals hearts because it is a true testament of Jesus Christ.
IF YOU DONT READ ANY OTHER PART OF MY EMAIL
JUST READ THIS STORY:
This week we had special permission to have
an extra zone meeting. This meeting was so inspired. Hermana Driesel talked
about the authority and power of our calling. Elder Guiterrez talked about the
worth of a soul. Elder Abadillo talked about how miracles have not ceased.
Basically we this was a meeting where we upped all of our goals. There is so
much potential in all of our areas and the Lord really has put us with the
perfect companions to gather His chosen vessels. Anyways, this is the story
that Elder Abadillo shared with us, upon reading it; I invite each of you to think,
"Have miracles ceased?"
Exactly one month ago in Mexico, a
companionship went to teach a family in this little pueblo. Little did this
companionship know that this family they were to teach was direct descendants
from the Lamanite tribe. They shared with this family the message of the
Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They shared with them the evidence of
this Restoration with the Book of Mormon. This family was left so touched by
this message that they went to their tribe leader/king and explained to them
what had been taught. The king was also so touched by this that he brought all
234 families of this tribe together to invite them to fast and pray about the
Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In that instant, an angel of the
Lord appeared to these people to testify of the validity of this message.
"Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither
have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." (Moroni 7:29)
Angels are preparing the hearts of these
people to accept this message. This is God's message to the world- The gospel
of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. What are we doing to proclaim
this to the world? God wants people to know, why else would he have commanded
an angel to appear to 234+ families. This is real.
I have a testimony that we have a God of
miracles. I know that if miracles were to cease, our God dejaria de ser Dios. Y
ese no es asi. He is in the details of our lives. He is more aware of us and
our situations that we can even imagine.
This training really made me want to baptize
everyone. I realized that I only have 6 more months to call people to baptism.
Yes when I go home I can still teach, befriend, and support. But when I go
home, I can't baptize.
We had a miracle come from this training. We
were also trained on being persistent with our invitations. We talked about
different scriptures that could be used to resolve any doubts. One of the most
common doubts that we come across is "I don’t know enough." Let me
just explain to you why I am so grateful for the Lord's timing with this
training. The scriptures that we discussed were exactly what the Rodriguez
family needed to hear last night to accept baptism:
The Rodriguez family was found by the
English Sisters that we live with. They referred us to them because the husband
speaks puro espanol. They taught the first lesson with Maria (the wife) and she
ended up coming to church the next Sunday. We taught them once and went over
the Restoration and taught it to Elmer for the first time. Last night we went
over the Book of Mormon. We brought Hermana Melendez with us (that was
inspiration- perfect friendship and testimony for this chosen family). We
talked about how it is evidence of God's love and also convincing evidence of
the Restoration. We talked about how it goes hand and hand with the Bible. We
even read Matthew 3 and 2 Nephi 31 to show how the Book of Mormon explains more
of the principles and doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They loved that.
We then invited them to be baptized and follow the example of Jesus Christ.
Maria was just shaking her head up and down while the question was being asked.
Elmer then turned to her and asked "haven’t you already been
baptized?" She said "yes, but that was different." We then
turned to Elmer and he said that he needs to study the bible more and learn
more. That is when we turned to the scriptures: Acts 2:38, 41- the story of
3000 people being baptized in 1 day. If they can do it in one day, why couldn’t
Elmer do it in a month? This got him thinking. USE THE SCRIPTURES! There is no
other way to solve concerns. We must learn the scriptures.
Bottom story short, the Lord is hastening
His work. There are loads of other miracles that are happening throughout the
mission. I know that this is the truth. It is the only truth.
Please keep Zoe Guzman (she came to church
btw), Juana Maria Guiterrez, Fransisco Juarez, Maria Oralia Gonzalez, Maria y
Elmer Rodriguez in your prayers. This is the turning point for them and Satan
will do everything to keep them from being happy. This is the road to
happiness. Lets pray for them so they can enter in the way! This is a team
effort!
I love you all so much.
Thanks for your continual support.
Also, just a side note: I hit a year this Thursday...
I have no idea how that happened.
Keep smiling- I am!
Hermanita Parry
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