Mexico Week 37 -- The Power of a Testimony

Hello dear sweet family!

This week was awesome!! So the good news is, I’m not sick anymore! Woo Hoo!!! Back to eating and everything! 

Okay now to explain the pictures. Enjoy our little skeletons! They make them out of sugar here with lots of colors and well, I’m a fan. 

And well, you just have to love a good Sunday selfie. 

 November 5, 2014 was a legendary day in my life. It was a little chilly here! I put tights on because I was cold! I am officially a wuss! I was all bundled and I loved it! I live in a dream city! 

We are finding so many investigators. We have whole days where we are in the houses of investigators.  Now we’re just lacking getting the ward more involved and excited! Wish us luck! 

This week we found two new investigators, Miguel y Jasmin. Miguel is an old investigator of the Elders, and we just barely found him after looking for a while! They’re not married, and only have two months together, but they are so humble. They are so sincere with strong desires to come unto Christ. We have to teach them super slow, but they are precious. I love working with them! 

I know that you are all asking about Oscar!! Well guess what?  He’s getting baptized on Saturday! Woo Hoo!!! He has 12 days without smoking and last week...wow. His testimony is incredible. One night his mom got mad about who knows what and we couldn’t have the lesson there.  We get in the car with Oscar and his family and we go and park and have a lesson there in the car. I’m telling you guys, the most powerful moments in my life have been in cars! We started talking about daily scripture study and he shares the most powerful testimony. With tears in his eyes, he tells us that this is the only true church. He says that not all of them bring us to God’s presence, they bring us a little closer, but they don’t bring us there. He feels so much joy and has received so many blessings and he shares his testimony of Christ and the Book of Mormon, with literal tears in his eyes. He wants to share the gospel so much and says, “I literally do not know where I would be without it. Let’s just say the whole car was in tears. It was one of the most powerful moments on my mission where I saw that people do change. They do turn it around.  They really can know for themselves and have strong life changing testimonies. This is what it means to come unto Christ. 

Hermano Oscar says that happiness is so close but so many people don’t see it or they choose not to see it. I realized this week that so many people feel bad. It’s impossible to not feel bad for our sins, for our mistakes. So many people are carrying that type of load because they don’t know how to alleviate it (I’m not sure if that’s the right word. I just asked my companion what aliviar was in English, but you know what I mean). We have to help them, we have to help them find and experience what Oscar has. 

I was reading a lot of General Conference talks this week and a story really, really touched me. One night a dad calls the whole house for family scripture study. They all have bad attitude, but they start reading, he notices that his daughter doesn’t have her scriptures and sends her to her room to bring them. She takes ten years and when she returns says, “Do we really have to do this right now?”  He’s trying to stay calm and says yes because it’s what the Lord wants.  She gets more annoyed and says, “I really, really don’t want to do this right now!”

The Dad loses it and says, “This is my house and in my house we read the scriptures!!”  He had raised his voice and hurt her feelings and she goes to her room crying. He goes to his room and kneels and starts praying about how to bring the peace back into his home. The idea comes to say he’s sorry. He keeps praying and the same idea comes. He goes to his daughter’s room and knocks a few times and then enters and finds her crying. He kneels at the side of the bed and says he’s sorry and that he didn’t want to hurt her.

She opens her scriptures and reads Mosiah 3:19 that talks about the natural man. The dad is thinking here comes the sass about how this scripture was written for him.  The daughter then says, “I’m sorry Daddy.  I’m really sorry.”  The Dad realizes that she was applying the scripture to herself. They hugged real tight and then have family scripture study in peace. 

I have been thinking so much about humility and how it’s a really important trait that I want in my home. We all have weaknesses, we all lose it, but I think the most important is being able to say, I’m sorry, my bad, and just being humble, taking responsibility for our weak moments. I loved it, reading this story brought tears to my eyes as I realized how much we used this in our home. Neither kids nor parents are perfect, and we both have to apologize, be humble, and work it out. I loved it growing up.  My parents weren’t afraid to admit when they messed up and apologize for it.  It’s exactly what I want in my home and in my marriage, and in the meantime, in my companionship. 

Let us all be humble and strengthen our testimonies. It’s going to be a great week! 

Love y’all tons!