Week #32 - Cajamarca

Buenos Días todos!!!

Espero que hayan tenido una buena semana y que hayan sentido el amor de Dios, aun durante tiempos difíciles. Dios siempre esta consciente de nuestras problemas, y desea bendecirnos. Siga adelante con firmeza en Cristo, y ustedes verán de que estas pruebas realmente son bendiciones. 

This week was full of miracles and non-coincidental, coincidences. We were so happy to see 9 of our investigators in the chapel this past Sunday, and almost all of them stayed for all three hours! We had a ton of help from the members when our investigators entered, which was a relief, and thanks to them, many of our investigators had the motivation to stay a little longer than Sacrament meeting. 

It´s a feeling that´s hard to find words for when you see people walk in the church doors that you´ve been teaching and helping to make changes in their lives for so long. Violeta and her son Cristian made it to church this Sunday. We were so surprised to see Cristian because he has classes on Sundays and works the whole week because his mom can´t due of her  poor health. He was able to get permission to miss class since he too has health problems right now and was able to rest. But instead of staying home to rest, he decided to come with his mom to church. He had a huge smile on his face when he walked into church, which warmed my heart. We also saw Santos and Olinda again at church!! They only attended Sacrament meeting, but we witnessed a miracle right when the meeting ended. We noticed the Stake Patriarch moving toward Santos and Olinda after the prayer super fast, and we were really confused. We walked over to them, and he said: “You´re teaching my niece! It´s so good to see her here at church!!” We had absolutely no idea that we had been teaching the Patriarch´s niece for over 2 months, and she didn´t have any idea either that her uncle was a member of the church, let alone the Patriarch! It was so cool and such a blessing to see. Olinda has a huge smile on her face, and said we are going to stay for three hours the next Sunday for sure. We are so excited for them and know that that are going to keep progressing. 

We saw lots of miracles this week, because we committed ourselves to the Lord and to our goals to contact 10 people without fail every day. During our weekly planning, we asked God that if we did that, that He would guide us to the people who truly are ready to make commitments with him and be baptized. This week we met amazing people who listened to us sincerely with open hearts. Last night, we had an appointment with an old investigator but he wasn´t there. We ended up talking with his sister, and she was truly touched by our message and needed to be reminded about the importance of prayer because she was experiencing lots of difficulties with her family. She started to cry and thanked us for coming, and wanted to know right away when we could visit her again! It has felt so good to know that people recognize us as servants of God. I know it´s very crucial that people recognize us as people called of God to preach and share this gospel message with the world in order to have success.

Just yesterday we were contacting and decided to knock on someone´s door. A 15-year-old girl opened, and we talked with her and shared a summary of the Restoration. She seemed really receptive and seemed to know a lot. I asked if she had attended the church before and she said she had, 3 years ago. I then asked if she also was baptized and she said yes! haha... we talked some more and she said they aren´t attending because they moved recently and it´s hard to go to church every Sunday because of the distance.... There are many people that live in the Molina that are attending church and live even further away, but we were able to talk with her mom who was super kind. We set a day to visit them, and they were super grateful that we found them. Turns out that her name is Milagros, or miracle... how fitting!

Deisy ad Diana and Castilando FINALLY came back from their trip in Bombamarca!! And Castilando hasn´t been drinking alcohol for 3 months now! Deisy recognized that the promise we made to her truly had been fulfilled because she´s been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and applying what we teach in her life, she´s been able to see changes in him, and now he´s trying to do all he can so that they can get married and be baptized. Turns out, that years ago he got married to another woman, but they never got divorced (whoops) and now the lady lives in Lima which is super far... Castilando told us that he went to the Municipalidad by himself to know what he needs to do. He was able to contact the sister of the lady whom he was married to, and talked with her. Turns out the lady is living with someone right now and he doesn´t know anything about her past with Castilando (double whoops).... so she´s  super scared to have to tell him and come up to sign divorce papers. It´s kind of a mess, but I know things will work out because of their faith and diligence.  We told Deisy that many of the ward members missed her and were asking about her and her family when they were travelling, and she started to cry. 

So many good things happened this week, and we´re super excited to see more this week. We learned a lot about faith and hope and repentance this week in church. Hope is to have confidence that God, in His own timing (which is always perfect) will fulfill His promises. Faith is what we do to show this hope and always requires action. If we don´t have hope and confidence in ourselves and in the Lord, we can´t have faith. Don´t let the circumstances that you´re in right now overpower this hope within you until it weakens and destroys your faith. Have hope, exercise your faith, and you will see miracles. 

Love you all, and hope you have a week full of little miracles!!

-- 

Hermana Doney