Week #47 - Esperanza

This week was amazing because FREDDY GOT BAPTIZED!! His mom and his cousin and her boyfriend came and it was so special for him. After the baptism he came up to us with tears in his eyes and thanked us, and told us he could go home content as a completely different person. He told us he never was a good son for his mom, but now she is happy that he could make this decision and have a new start at life. What a privilege it was to be able to knock on his door and help him accept the gospel. The next goal: TEMPLE!

So, a few more miracles this week. Well, this miracle was from a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to mention it. My companion and I contacted a lady named Susanna one day, and during exchanges, I went to visit her with Sister Carstons, the nurse for the mission. I told her, “okay the house is M-35”. As we were walking and talking, we got to the street where she lived. and I stopped in front of the door that I thought was Susanna`s, and knocked. I didn`t even make sure it was the right number and didn`t even remember what her house was like but I knocked anyway because I felt like it was where we needed to be. A lady came out and warmly welcomed us in as if she has been expecting us. We talked we her, referring to her as Susanna, and then she told us she was actually a less-active member who hasn`t come to church in a long time and recently moved here. She told us she prayed that the missionaries would visit her because she was going through difficulties in her family. She told us she even had a dream a few days earlier that the missionaries came, and we did! At this point I still think she`s the same Susanna we met days earlier.

We taught her the Restoration, set another appt., and Sister Soldevilla and I returned on Sunday to pick her up to go to church. I realized then that her house was M-25 and not M-35...then I got super confused. If she wasn`t Susanna, who was she?! We never had talked to her before! We knocked and her husband was there and explained she had to visit her mom in the hospital.... super embarrassed, we asked what her name was, and he told us it was Milagros, or “miracles”. How fitting. 

We had exchanges with the sisters from my first area on the mission, Granados! I was with Sister Bonnell, and she brought me great news that Talia got baptized, the same Talia I had taught previously! I was so overjoyed to hear that she finally was ready to make a covenant with God and receive more blessings in her life. GOD IS SO GOOD.

Freddy also told us this week that his old friends he used to drink with invited him to come and hangout with them one day. He decided to do it, but said to himself beforehand that he wouldn`t drink if they invited him to. When they invited him to drink, he turned them down, and they were so surprised. He said, “sorry, but I actually came to invite you all to church with me this Sunday”. He is such an amazing example to me of integrity and commitment to the Lord in every moment.

I hope you all have an amazing week! How has your study of the Book of Mormon improved this past week??

Hermana Doney