Well, our
numbers were a little bit sad this week but we are trying not to be too hard on
ourselves because we want to keep our chins up for this up coming week. But we
had a baptism and it was really beautiful. This is one of the baptisms that we
were going to have last week but he actually had some problems with the word of
wisdom so we had to push it back. But he is super strong and he worked really
hard to stop his habits and we are so proud of him! Jonthan (that's his name ;)
) was baptized at 3:00 pm on Sunday, like, yesterday, and he bore his testimony
at the end and I felt the Spirit really strong...and cried a little. He is so
awesome and his wife is the cutest! They just barely got married like two weeks
ago or something and we went to their wedding. It was kind of weird and there
were tons of papers to sign...but we are hoping that in a year from now they
will be able to go to the temple and be sealed together! And I hope we can be
invited and actually go...that would make me so happy! I love them! They are so
cute and just super awesome! Oh , but his wife is a member and is a huge
strength for him! They are so cute and I have great hopes for their future
together, especially with the gospel more fully in their lives.
This week I
had a few good contacting days! I reached my goal three times this week and
some days I even contacted more than 10 people so that was pretty awesome.
Also, we have been trying to visit two less
actives for the past little while and we finally got in contact with one of
them and figured out her challenges with coming to church on Sundays so we are
praying for her and trying to help her resolve the issues that she is having so
that she can come to church! She really loves the chapel and the classes but
she is having other issues with a member so we are trying to figure out how to
help get this resolved. We told her to pray to the Lord to figure out what she
should do and we are praying to know how to help her as well. We still need to
wait a while longer to get our answer in full but we are getting there little
by little and are still going to visit her and follow up and all that. She is
so cute and has so much faith and desire to follow the Savior.
On Saturday
we were walking in the street and then we stopped and Hermana Kraczek asked me
where I thought we should go and gave me three choices. I had no clue because
they were all menos activos and they are all important so I just asked her what
she thought and she wa having like an inner conflict with herself and it was
actually kind of funny because she was all, "Let's go to the familia
Pimmental. No let's go to Hilda. No familia Pimmental" and so on and so on
and we walked up and down a tiny stretch of the calle for a while and then she
finally was like, yeah no we're just gonna go to the familia Pimmental. So we
went. And it was so awesome! They had been having a super hard week and one of
their family members has been in the hospital and it has been really hard on
them, especially hermana Pimmental because it is her sister who is in the
hospital. Anyway, we just talked about the plan that God has for all of us and
shared some experiences and scriptures and our testimonies.
We testified that
God and the Savior Jesus Christ love them so much and that he will never
abandon them because He has them engraven in the palms of His hands and things
of that nature. They told us that they knew that God lead us to their house
that night because they really needed us and our message so that was basically
super cool and spiritual and I love that family a lot! We had a few more
miracles and little tender mercies all throughout the week and we are helping
each other to remember them each day and write them in our journals so that we
can remember how blessed we are from the Lord in our lives. We really are so
blessed here in this area!
I am so
thankful that our Mission President listened to the Lord through the Holy Ghost
and his promptings and that he put me and Hermana Kraczek together in this
area. It really is super amazing and beautiful and there is so much work here
and so many people who want to here the word of God and learn more about the
Restored Gospel. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve here! (even
though I am getting super fat! Puebla has like the best food in Mexico...so
that is really awesome and really horrible all at the same time...)
We are trying
to become better missionaries everyday and I am so grateful for the atonement
and for the mercy of God because I know that we aren't perfect and some days we
don't study as well as we should have or we didn't contact as many people as he
set in our way or we didn't reach our goals or yeah, there are a lot of things
that we fall short on sometimes. But I know that with the Savior and through
His infinite atonement, we can repent and as for help to be better the next day
and the Lord will forgive us and help us to be better because He knows us
perfectly and He sees our potential and He wants to help us get there because
He loves us so much. I am so grateful for this gospel in my life and for the
Savior and His atonement. I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord and that
I am able to represent the Savior Jesus Christ and wear His name along-side
mine on a nametag that others can see and I really hope that I can live up to
this honor. I know that I am far from perfect but I am trying to be better and
be more Christ-like and to become the missionary that He knows I can be and
that He wants me to be.
This is where
the Subject comes in...so basically I thought of this analogy in the MTC and
hopefully I haven't already shared it but if I have...oh well! You can just
hear it again! :) I truly believe that this was an inspiration for me to be
able to understand better and also to teach things to investigators and members
in a way that is easier to understand. But yeah, it can really be applied to
like a ton of things in this Gospel. One way that
it can apply is an answer to this question: If there is a God and He loves us,
then why are there so many bad things that happen in this world?
This is a
really great question! And this is how I answer it. First, we tell them a tiny
tiny bit about the plan of Salvation and that we lived with God before our
lives here and all that. But the answer comes when we reach our life on earth.
I then tell them that our life here, and Heavenly Father's role in it, can be
compared to riding a bike. When we are first learning how to ride a bike, we
have training wheels to help us. But eventually, those wheels have to come off.
At first, our parents hold on to the seat and they walk along-side us and stuff
but there comes a time when they need to let go so that we can try for
ourselves. This is the part that is really hard because, many times, we fall
off and when this happens it hurts-really bad. WE get cuts and scrapes and
bruises and sometimes we get so frustrated that we don't want to keep going. We
just want to quit. But our parents never give up on us. They are always there
to help us up and encourage us to try again. This is the same with our Heavenly
Father. He gave us our lives so that we could learn and grow.
He is teaching us
to ride the bike of life. He never pushes us off our bikes, but He lets us fall
so that we can learn, so that we can say, "oh man, that hurt really bad
last time. This time, I need to put my feet down." or "I need to put
the brakes on a little bit faster" or "Dang, I need to turn a little
bit slower at this corner" things like that. But, Heavenly Father also
knew that this ride would be vigourous and that sometimes we would fall and not
want to get back up. That is why He gave us the greatest strength we could ask
for: Jesus Christ and His Atonement. With the Savior's atonement and the love
of our Father in Heaven, we have two people of magnificant power cheering us
on, encouraging us to get up and move forward with faith. And when we are at
our weakest points and feel that it is hopeless, we have two people who will
always always be there to lift us up and hold the seat for a few miles.
I know there
are days that I fall off my bike and I get a little scraped up and sometimes it
hurts really bad, but Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there for me
and they will always lift me up when I need them; they will
always encourage me to get up and to seguir adelante because they
love me and they want me to succeed.
Don't let the
challenges of this life and the adversary get you down. Don't put your bike in
the shed and let it collect dust while Satan does a happy dance. You have the
greatest beings on your side and with them, you can ride up mountains, you can
pedal faster and ride farther then ever before. You can fall with faith and
hope because you know that the Savior will give you the strength to get back up
and pedal passed the adversary and all his flimsy attempts to crash you for
good.
I hope that
you all have a really great and fantastic week!!! :) I love you all a lot! :)
Love,
Hermana Walker
Love,
Hermana Walker
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| Japanese Snack in Mexico! :) |
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| Killed a Pig! ;) |
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