March 4, 2014

Hi mom and dad!

I love you!

And we have transfers this week, but Hermana Euceda and I are staying in Sololá together. We`re very grateful because there are miracles in the Works for this month and we want to be here for them. And we`re going to be working together for another 6 weeks. I`m very excited and grateful at the same time.

Sololá is small, but one of our zone leaders said that there might be 3 branches made. Right now there are two, but there might be three. I don`t know how they`d split up the branches. It`s small enough with two areas in Sololá.

I agree about inactive members. We have a few converts that don`t want anything to do with the church and I think that if the members do their visiting and home teaching, it would help the inactive members a lot to come to church, to have Friends, and a calling, as well. There`s a quote by President Hinckley that says as much and it`s true.

We use Mosiah 2:41 a lot when we talk about keeping the commandments. It`s just so simple - consider the happy and blessed state of those that keep the commandments.

I love hearing about the missionary work you are doing with your Friends and especially with our family. I know that it`s planting seeds in their hearts and helping these seeds grow, as well.

We`re going to have a baptism this week! 

We have an investigator that is the sister-in-law of the branch President. her name`s Irma. We`ve been teaching her for two and a half weeks and she`s gone to church twice. Her husband`s a member and he`s really supportive. We went to teach her last night to talk about the Spirit and prayer, because we felt that she was having a hard time recognizing her answer. At first in the lesson, she was saying that she had questions and doubts. But then she said that she had been reading in the Book of Mormon that morning (and she`s been reading more than we`ve been leaving for her to read) and she found a scripture that touched her heart strongly.  She said that she was going to tell us that she wanted to be baptized. We challenged her for this Sunday and she accepted. And the thing is, President Brough told the Zone leaders (who are in the other área in Sololá) that if we or they had a baptism this weekend, President Brough will drive here and attend the baptism. So President Brough is going to be here, as well! And I`m very grateful that we have been blessed to help this sister accept the Gospel. She has strong faith and she will be an amazing member.

This week, we read and finished Helaman in the Book of Mormon. I love that almost every page talks about repentance. This Gospel is about change - that`s what repentance is. It`s changing from what we were to what God wants us to become. Maybe we`re not terrible people, but we can always become better and become closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesús Christ. It`s one of the first principles of the Gospel and I`m very grateful that we can become better and that we can be forgiven of the things that we have done wrong in our lives.

I love you, dad! And mom. And our family. 

I hope that everything is well and that you all are having missionary experiences!