Hola a todos!
First off, Estrella had her baby 2 nights ago! A beautiful baby boy! We haven't had the chance to go over there and see them because both Hermana Arevalo and I have been pretty sick, but sometime this week we'll get to say hi and ooh and ah over his beautifulness!!
So, on Wednesday we got to go to the Visitor's Center! We went with Estrella, Yamiko, and Yasury and their daughters, and Hermana Correa and Hermana Faw (the other companionship we live with) took a 17 year old investigator named Alex! It was so amazing. We didn't spend a ton of time because the pregnant ladies can't spend a lot of time walking around, haha, but we did get to show them around the visitor's center and walk around the temple a bit. The display on families there is so great, it had everybody teary-eyed! And they loved the Cristus too. Overall it was amazing!
Then later this week we had a lesson about chastity and the Word of Wisdom. We were a bit afraid of offending them, since they all have children and no spouses, but everything went really well! They really liked everything we taught, and Yasury was so great in the end. We asked them to commit to living the law of chastity, and she frankly said, "Well we obviously haven't been living it before, but we're ready now." And they all agreed. It is so amazing to see the changes people are willing to make for the gospel!
Their baptisms have been postponed, though. But for good reasons! Yasury's daughter, Yasury, (Hna Arevalo calls her Yasury pequenita, haha), is turning 8 on October 5th and wants to be baptized too! And Yasury wanted them to be baptized together. So we're going to have a baptism after Conference!
Speaking of Conference, I am so excited! I loved the Relief Society broadcast. The messages were mostly centered on making and keeping covenants, which I don't think I have a huge problem with, but it seemed like every word was made for me. I really loved it a lot. Especially Sister Reeves, the second counselor. She said something along the lines of, "Is this what the Lord wants me to think about myself? Or is Satan working against me?" I love that! We always think we're so unworthy to do anything, like pray or study or take the sacrament, but that's not how Heaveny Father wants us to think about ourselves. Everybody remember that!
What else happened this week... Like I said, we were both pretty sick! We caught a nasty flu. But mom, you'd be very proud! I used the home remedy of hot lemonade and honey. It helped a lot, both our throats and our spirits :) We've been working a lot with less-actives, and the other day we stopped by a less active family's house, the Riveras. They weren't home, but we remembered that other less-actives lived on the other side of the complex, so we thought we'd give it a try and knock on their door. A woman named Isabel and her husband Daniel live there with their granddaughters, and they haven't been to church in about a year. It breaks my heart, because they used to love church, but from one thing or another, Isabel has been really offended by basically the whole branch. She was really happy we stopped by, though! She said nobody has visited her for several months (partially why she's offended), and was glad that we dropped by to say hi. She dumped her whole story on us, and I couldn't understand everything, but I could tell she's not very happy with the church, and I was worried she was really hard-hearted and wasn't going to listen to us. But Hermana Arevalo shared an experience about pride, and you could just see Isabel physically soften! Hna Arevalo didn't like slap her in the face to tell her to get over herself, but used so much love and was really able to open Isabel up to the idea of change. So great!
Well that was probably really confusing, haha. Isabel talked really fast, so I probably didn't catch everything that happened, but we're excited to go back and chat with her about going to the temple and stuff. Don't ever give up on anybody! They can change!!
Anyways, I love everyone! I'm almost out of time, so everyone have a good week!
Love love love
Hermana Watkins
No comments:
Post a Comment