More member referrals!

11/2  First, a little background on the miracle of the week this week: about two weeks ago in church, a member mentioned a friend she thought would be ready for the gospel. We talked to her a little bit, and she said she would talk to him then talk to us more. The next week in church, the same member told us she would try to set up an eating visit and invite us over. When we got to church this week, the first thing we see is Hermana Divina come up to us with a huge smile on her face and introduces us to her friend who she had brought to church! As it turns out, after the meeting he came up to us and began telling us how much he absolutely loved it here, and that next week he will bring his whole family! It made me so happy to see a member so involved in missionary work. She was giving him a tour of the chapel and everything! We also received two more referrals from other members that we are really excited about, one of which will be coming to church next week. I can see a huge increase in the members' excitement for missionary work!

Our investigators are doing well. We seem to have lost contact with several of them for a time, but we did just find a lot of newer investigators who have a lot of potential, so we are really excited for them. We found a young family who just had a baby, and we were able to set a visit with them on Saturday. They are from South America, and are very kind and open. The husband works late every day during the week, but he is free on the weekends, which means they can come to church!

One thing I learned this week is that our will is not always the will of God. I noticed this week that sometimes we planned on things happening, and then they didn't happen. Even when we did everything in our power, they didn't happen. It's these times where we can get frustrated and ask why God has done this to us, or why God didn't allow things to happen. It reminds me of a talk Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave about the will of God. He shared a story of a gardener who pruned down a very large and overgrown bush in order to allow it to grow berries. As he looked at the sad stumps of the trimmed bush he imagined it saying "how could you do this to me?  I thought you were the gardener here." To this the gardener replied that he is the gardener and he knows what he wants the bush to be. Later on in the gardener's life, he was in line to be promoted to general in the army, but he was rejected because he was a Mormon. He asked a similar question, "God, how could you do this to me?" He then remembered what he had said to the bush in the garden, "I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be." God knows what we need better than we do, and He knows what He wants us to become and who He wants His children who we are serving to become. All we have to do is put our will in line with His. I know that as we do that we will see countless blessings, and we will one day look back and thank God for loving us enough to cut us down.

The Cathedral of Burgos -- listed as the third largest in Spain