How great shall be your joy

5/31  We had a great week this week! We worked hard to prepare Sandra, Gloria, and Ana for their baptism, and it all paid off. Although everyone got there late, the baptism was great! The spirit was so strong, and afterwards the 7 year old daughter kept asking when she could get baptized. This is a wonderful family that we have really come to love in the past few weeks. It's incredible how fast you can get to know people and grow to love them while teaching them the everlasting gospel. The message we carry truly is a message of love and happiness.

Even after the three baptisms, our area is still full of potential! We have been looking at our teaching records, and it looks like there is potential to see another 3 baptisms in the coming month. Two of those baptisms are for sure going to happen. The work here in Valencia is moving forward at a fast pace. It is such a privilege be able to be here and witness it progress seemingly on its own.

Elder Lightfoot and I are working well together. We seem to compliment each other very well. Where one of us is weak, the other is strong. We are working hard, and finding joy in the work. We are really excited to receive 2 new missionaries here and to see the work progress even more with their help and inspiration.

This week, the privilege of taking part in three baptisms really taught me about the reality of the joy that missionary work brings. As missionaries, we are so blessed to be able to take part in the saving of souls. Sometimes it is easy to forget about how much of a blessing it truly is when our visits fall through, or when we are rejected in the streets, but the truth is all of the good things we see as missionaries far outweigh the bad. It's like Doctrine and Covenants says in section 18 verses 15-16: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" Those verses explain perfectly the lesson I learned this week. I am so thankful for the wonderful opportunity to be a missionary and to have taken part in teaching that wonderful family!

¡Un abrazo querido amigo!

Preparing for baptism

5/23  This week was fabulous! We had a few really good lessons with Sandra and her three daughters Gloria, Ana, and Wendy. Ana has been taking notes while we teach and then reviews them with us after the lesson. Wendy is only 7 and has so much energy, but she's been getting better at sitting still and listening. We had a great visit with them on Sunday with our ward mission leader. We taught them the law of chastity, the word of wisdom and the law of tithing. During the lesson, Ana made a comment about how her mom sometimes mixes wine with Fanta. Sandra then told her to bring the bottle of what she was referring to. When Ana walked back in the room she was holding a bottle of Horchata de Chufa. Everyone was laughing so hard! Sandra assured us that she has never smoked in her life, then her 7 year old daughter supported her by saying "me neither!" Haha. We really have come a long way in our relationship with this family and are really excited to see their baptism this weekend!

We are also working closely with Alexia and her mom. Alexia said that she is 100% certain that she wants to get baptized either this weekend or the next. Now all we need is the green light from her mom, and she can get baptized the next day. Our ward mission leader Hermano Bufoni said he was going to take care of things, so I guess we'll see what happens.

This week I was studying a lot in chapter 38 of Alma. I really love the advice he gives to his son Shiblon. Verses 3 and 4 really relate to what we do as missionaries and bring me a lot of comfort: "3 I say unto you, my son, that I have had great joy in thee already, because of thy faithfulness and thy diligence, and thy patience and thy long-suffering among the people of the Zoramites.

4 For I know that thou wast in bonds; yea, and I also know that thou wast stoned for the word’s sake; and thou didst bear all these things with patience because the Lord was with thee; and now thou knowest that the Lord did deliver thee." The Lord really is with us through our challenges, and He always helps us overcome them. As missionaries we face a lot of trials, but if we are patient and diligent, we will receive blessings. I'm so blessed to be seeing some of those blessings now.

The Lord is aware of our needs

5/16  This week was we saw such a huge miracle! We had a very important visit with an investigator and her mom, and at the last minute, the man who was going to help us with the visit told us he couldn't come. We were in a panic to find another member who could help us, so we called everyone, but nobody could help us. We decided to go pass by another member's house nearby to see if he could come, but he wasn't home. We finally decided to go to the visit and hopefully teach in a park or something. Right as we got to the front door, a member drove by and asked us if we needed help. He parked his car and came and helped us with the visit. We had an excellent lesson with Alexia and her mom who won't let her get baptized. They are going to set some goals and pray together to figure it all out.

We also had a really good visit with Sandra and her 3 daughters Gloria, Ana, and Wendy. They are a great family from Nigeria, and they have a baptismal date for the 28th of May! We are really excited about them! When we first talked to Sandra she told us that she really wanted her kids to grow up in the gospel and get baptized. When we asked her if she wanted to get baptized she said "why not!" I'm really excited to work with them and help them prepare for baptism.

It was incredible to see the Lord's hand in the work!. That experience I had this week really strengthened my faith. The Lord knew that we needed a member for that visit, but we needed to do everything in our power first before He put someone in our path. Had we not spent that time trying to call everyone we knew, and had we not passed by the other member's house first, we wouldn't have been where we needed to be when the member drove by who helped us. I learned this week that the Lord is very aware of our needs, and He always has a way for us to meet those needs. Our part is to do everything in our power to obtain what we need, then move forward with faith.

Having fun at an escape room on Preparation Day

The importance of hard work

5/9  This week was incredible! Although it had a really slow start, we had a super good week. We had a ton of set visits, and we ate a lot with members the whole week, but we didn't have a whole lot of time to find. On Saturday and Sunday, we went to work really hard in the streets, and we found 7 news in 2 days! The Lord blessed us so much this week to be able to meet our goals. There was no way we would have been able to meet those goals if it weren't for all the blessings we received.

Elder Lightfoot and I working well together, and we are seeing a lot of miracles. We get along really well, and work really well in unity.

The one thing I learned this week is the importance of hard work. As missionaries if we set high goals, then don't do the hard work necessary to achieve those goals, we will almost never achieve them. When we set inspired goals, that means the Lord will always prepare a way to achieve them. However, if we don't do our part to reach them, we can't expect the Lord to do everything. When we work as hard as we can, it shows the Lord our faith that the goals we were inspired to set are achievable, and the Lord will help us. We experienced that this week.