After all we can do

6/20  We had another great week here in Valencia!  Manuel and his family are progressing so well. We had a few good visits with them where they asked a ton of questions. I love it when investigators ask lots of questions because it means they are interested.  We were able to arrange things for them to make it to church yesterday as well. It was so good to see the whole family sitting in a row in sacrament meeting!  They really enjoyed it. They had to leave after the first hour, but said that they would love to keep coming back. We are really hoping to set a baptismal date with them this week and help them with the Word of Wisdom. They are a wonderful and humble family, and the gospel is just what they need in their life right now.

Unfortunately, Jorge and his family are still out of town. We got ahold of them on the phone and they said that there is a possibility Jorge may get a job in another city, and if he does, they will be moving there. We are hoping to continue teaching them when they get back, but if they do end up moving, I'm sure the missionaries there will baptize them. Also, we saw Dario and his daughter in the street the other day. We hadn't been able to get ahold of him since we contacted them and, as it turns out, we wrote down his number wrong. He was happy to see us and wondered why we hadn't called. We have a visit set with him this week and are also really excited for his family!

One thing I learned this week is the importance of our works in our own salvation. Many Christian faiths teach that it is only by the grace of God and our Savior that we are saved. Some say that it doesn't matter what we do, as long as we say we believe in Christ, he will save us. There's a scripture in 2 Nephi 25:23 that explains this subject very clearly. It says; "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." While it is true that we would have absolutely no way of reaching the heavens without grace, our own works play a big part in our personal salvation. There is a reason God gave us commandments and guides us through living prophets. It's because He knows that in order to return to His presence, we have to exercise our personal agency to follow Him. We have to show by our works that we accept the atonement of Jesus Christ and that we want to follow him. As missionaries, it's our responsibility to help people understand this principle.  I love teaching the plan of salvation because it helps people understand how important it is that we submit ourselves to the will of the Father in this life.