Helloooo
This has been a week full of miracles, so many that it's been a little overwhelming.
We have had so many people come to us rather than us to them. Where do I start?
Well I'll start with the email title. Coming into this area of Piñeyro, we were told by many that it is the worst area of the mission. I didn't want to think too negatively about the area, but I found us after a few weeks saying to ourselves after unfortunate events or lack success, " Well, that's Piñeyro for you". After a month of struggle, we knew something had to change.
I was thinking about what we needed to fix, and my companion and I had the same idea at the same time (spirit) that we needed to stop thinking and speaking negatively about our area, the investigators, or the members. Then my companion said,
"not only that, we are going to say every day as we leave, that: We are in the best area in the mission".
So we started doing that.
Some examples of miracles this past week and a half:
• Got Matias (13 years old) to church after 3 years of no progress with other missionaries. After the meeting he said that he wants to come back every week and be baptized.
•Spoke with Susana (80 years old) ,who has had a testimony of the book of Mormon for years, about her great fear of water and baptism. She is excited now to have faith and trust that God will help her overcome that fear rather than postponing that commandment.
• Somehow Ricardo (70) showed up to church. He is missing an eye, lives in the poorest part of town, and is slow to understand, but he took the bus 25 minutes to make it this morning at 10 and wants to be baptized. Wow.
• We had Fernando (45) stop us in the street and ask us to come over to his house to help him on Thursdays. He was baptized when he was 16, but when he moved he never found the church. Now he is a serious alcoholic and needs help. He wants to tap into the power of Christ and bring his 16 year old son and wife into the church. His son loves us and is excited to learn more.
• Last but not least, Adriana (50) has had a testimony of the book of mormon and the Virgin of Lujan for a long, long time. She has put off being baptized because she didn't want to stop believing in and praying to the Mother Mary. But she knew that praying to anybody other than God was wrong, so she was stuck for a year without progressing. This last sunday, she was in her hometown of Lujan where she was raised catholic, and she decided to go to the catholic church to pray and continue against what she knew she needed to change. She accidentally took a wrong turn, and passed by an Lds chapel. She had no idea they had one in her childhood town. That moment on Saturday night, she decided to come back the next morning. She received the specific answer she needed to soften her heart. That Tuesday she let us know, and we set her baptismal date for Saturday the 30th. Then on Friday the 29th, she called us in the morning and said "Elderes, I won't be able to do the baptism tomorrow, can we do it today??" Sooo we had a crazy day Friday, but she got baptized! Huge miracle after such a long time with the missionaries. Especially after telling us 2 weeks ago she wanted to be baptized in 2050.
Okay I've written enough for now! Hope you all had a wonderful week and count your many blessings.
Elder Telford