Friday, January 8, 2016

¡Feliz Año Nuevo a Todos!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo a Todos!

We had some really awesome miracles this week. I thought nothing could beat last week, BUT I WAS WRONG!

Honestly, I have no idea how the Lord somehow thought we were worthy to see these miracles. Nonetheless, I'm thoroughly enjoying them. I love Lugo and I love the people here.

We met with Ka again, and we decided that we wanted to talk to her about eternal marriage and temples. We've been through the first few lessons and she had a particular interest in temples, so we showed her a video that explained temples (Between Heaven and Earth). We tried that morning to show it to her, but we couldn't get the DVD player at the church to work, so we set up an appointment with her later that day. She showed up with potato chips, popcorn and Coke. We watched it with her and her daughter, and she LOVED it. She kept telling us that she's been having dreams about going inside the temple.

We thought it was a good idea to teach her about the temple because, in the end, that's really the goal. Her desire to get baptized has increased since we started teaching her about the temple.

Actually what's cool is that she has appeared to have just decided that she's going to be a member. She comes with good questions about the lessons and what she's reading, and really wants to participate in everything. She even came to church this week and really loved it.

We had a good lesson with Aa this week, even though we didn't get a lot of chances to get in contact with her this week. We watched "A Summer With Great Aunt Rose," Elder Uchtdorf's talk from the Women's conference this year. She had a friend over who was visiting from
Germany. She's not of our faith, but she really loved the talk. I think it's a good stepping stone for her in the future.

We met with Ad, a member who loves missionary work, and almost always has someone for us to try and visit. We are preparing her to go to the temple, and we talked a little about temples this week. She's really cool, and I'm convinced that she has the gift of prophecy! We spent a lot of time talking about the dreams she has. She also got me cozy socks for my birthday.

We met with Eo again this week. The first time we met with him, we decided we were going to teach him the Plan of Salvation. We thought that maybe his lack of progression might have had something to do with the fact that for the last 5 years the missionaries have never
really progressed with the lessons after teaching The Restoration. We actually discovered that he has A LOT of doubts about the Plan of Salvation. He doesn't believe it all the way. Which is partially
because he refuses to pray about the Book of Mormon.

We saw him walking around one day by the Muralla (the city wall)  (like about 4-5times) and asked if he wanted to sit down and chat for a while. In his prayer he mentioned something that went like this:
"Well I guess you have a message for me, God... Because I saw the hermanas 5 times today..."

We talked about the Book of Mormon AGAIN. How's that for your message?

The next time we met with him, we decided we wanted to take him though the scriptures to help him resolve his doubts. We read some VERY clear passages about the plan, and asked him to pray about it. Still no. We even were able to show him that he does, AS A MATTER OF FACT,
have doubts about Joseph Smith, and told him very clearly that if he wants to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, he needs to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Because, duh. If you know the Book of Mormon is true through the Holy Ghost, then you also know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Because how else would we even have the Book of Mormon? It doesn't go the other way around. Much to the dismay of the members, who love him dearly, we've decided we're going to take a break from him for 2-3 weeks. Give him some time to think. He'll still have a lot of contact with the church because he reads the Book of Mormon every day and comes to church and the
activities every week. He even came to the church to fix some electrical problems. Also, he and the branch president appear to be best friends. He apparently stayed at the branch president's house for a couple of days this week.

We met with a less active member, Goo, who wants to come back.  He's really cool. He's Spanish and apparently came to church one day a few years back because he read a little of his dad's Book of Mormon. The missionaries snatched him up and he got baptized a few weeks
later. On his teaching record it says that he's one of the "other 3 immortal nephites." He went inactive a while back because his feelings got seriously hurt by a few people, including a friend who a year or two ago fasted and prayed to find to bring into the church (successfully I might add; she's one of the strongest members). This being a small branch and all, it got super awkward, and just stayed aloof.

His friend asked him to come back to church and we got to meet with him this week. We talked about repentance, and he committed to come back. He even helped us drive out to a town called Viveiro to track down a church referral. It was false, but we were grateful for the help anyways.

Later his mom (who loves us, by the way) called us and invited us to dinner for Noche Vieja (New Years Eve). We had lamb, shrimp and a lot of other traditional Spanish things. We spent most of the night talking to his sister who lives in A Coruña and she actually seems really interested to learn about the Gospel. We showed them a video before we left, and she and her husband and kids really liked it. We're passing the referral along to the missionaries there.

Ya  and Ge brought an old professor to family home evening on Friday. She loved the activity, and when we gave her a Book of Mormon she got really excited. She had apparently been looking for a church in Ciudad Real where she lives and asked us about it. She said she'd read it on the bus to Ciudad Real.

We met with Ya again for the first time in a long time. She's still reading. We're really impressed with her because she's studying and that's a huge commitment. We talked about temples as well, and she really liked it. We don't feel like it's quite her time yet, but she's progressing really steadily. She's really wonderful.

Sunday was the best day this week! This is the list of our friends that came to church:

Ya, Go (investigator), Eo, Ke and Al, and Aa's husband and stepson (E and Sa). That is SEVEN people. We beat both of our records. Also, they all appeared to really like the meetings.

After sacrament meeting Ad yelled over at me to come and talk to Sa, Aa's rebellious stepson. She told us some of the sad news that his older brother had passed away this week, and he was really struggling. His dad even recommended that he talk to us. Apparently Ad felt a strong impression to come and sit with him in Sacrament meeting. He sat there and asked questions about Jos, the boy who was passing the sacrament:

"Who is he?"
"What's he doing?"
"Can I do that?"
"How can I do that?"
"Do I have to talk to the sisters?"

We met with him later that night and talked to him about the Plan of Salvation. The spirit was really strong. I could feel that he felt a lot better after the lesson now that he knew where his brother was. We set up a return visit. We felt strongly that he'll be the one to do his brother's work for him in the temple. We set up home teaching assignments this week. Pray for the branch president, as he wants to do be in ALL of the companionships.  We met with Chr, the mother of two, young recent converts, Rl and Cs. Rl, as a side note, is a really good kid. He's the one in the family who takes church the most seriously. Also, he loves the missionaries and wants to help us on appointments. We had the rare privilege of meeting her husband who NO ONE has met. We're the first missionaries to teach him.

We also met with Er this week. She appeared to be doing a little better, albeit a little sad. We read about the atonement, and after the final prayer, we could tell she was about to cry. We both gave her a big hug and she felt a lot better. We can tell she likes and trusts us. We think she'll be ready to begin praying again soon.

That's all for this week!

Con cariño!

Hermana Sykes

No comments:

Post a Comment