my oh my! i feel like i have so much to say to you all! but first of all...
HAPPY DIA DE FAJAS VILLIAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sure love you!!!!!!
second of all
thank you soooooo uuuuber mucho for your sweetest emails etc. i know that i have the bombest familia ever. your support means the world. and the pictures are hilarious and precious and the videos don't work. not sure why--sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. but hey. thanks so much for writing! baby tab is presh!
lets just get right to it.
guess what happened this sunday? well, our little branch that normally meets in the relief society room was upgraded to the CULTURAL HALL!!!! you know what that means? our little branch is GROWING!!!!!! there were 108 people there!!!!!!! it was fantastic! granted it was rachel garcia's farewell, and the garcias are big dogs, so lots of their fam came for that, but still. it was amazing. SOOO cool. the neatest parts were: 1) a lady named ana alvarez, whom i love dearly and will probably hang out with at a later time we get along so well, who was baptized aeons ago but isn't at alllllll active anymore CAME TO CHURCH! here's my latest ploy: mexicans love to eat. and i like to cook. so it's a win win when i say, "podemos venir y hacer algunos hotcakes (aka PANCAKES!)" and then they have to come to church. haha. it's only worked a couple of times but STILL! she agreed. so we went over and she actually ended up cooking for us (typical mexicans) but then.. she CAME TO CHURCH. although it wasn't a number that we report on, we felt SO happy and so grateful that this precious daughter of God came to the rama. she felt it. she cried. she loved it. it was amazing!!!! 2) so ivan and raquel roman, oh hey! i forgot to tell you i think that we committed her to be baptized on the 22nd with him! she was a little hesitant, but she agreed! anyway, we invited them to church, along with the friend, juan roman, and their dad who was in the hospital forever aaaaaaaaand.... THEY CAME!!! it was soooo amazing to see them all walk in.. first hermana roman and then ivan, juan, and then papa roman wheeled in in his wheelchair and sister lewis and i were so pleased! ahhh it was amazing. best times.
so this past week we had mte with president donaldson. my love for that man... unreal. no words. inexpressible. able? ni modo. i seriously love the donaldsons sooo much! mte was amazing, mind blowing, of course. i can't even try to tell you what all went down because it's just not possible. this keyboard doesn't write in hebrew or greek. hahaha. no but seriously. the point is that, because he's outta here so soon, he kept saying, 'there's no time! we have been tiptoeing around this for waaaay too long!" and then it was all about us just being BOLD and blunt and just INVITING PEOPLE TO ACCESS THE ATONEMENT THROUGH ORDINANCES. sooo beautiful. the work is sooo much more simple and gospel of christ-driven when we focus on what ordinances we are going to get this people to. duh. it sounds so basdic. but ANYWAY. bc of schedule changes, our night opened up and we were able to spend time with a familia i mentioned last week who is in serious danger--the parents are 99.999% certain their separating and it's breaking my heart. so we went to their house and had a little lesson and it was just... simple.. we discovered that they aren't reading their scriptures or praying individually or as a couple/family. um? hello? we have a HUGE PROBLEM there! the dad told us that he felt so much paz peace as we read with him.. it was just soo simple but it helped me see that when we are not doing the small and simple things ourselves, everything else around us begins to decaer! what does that mean in english? crumble? worsen. shoot. whatever. THAT. and it's sooo true. this week has been hard for me. i'm not sure why. i've been reeeeeeal sad and just feeling so small and thin and useless. and i realized that it's because i haven't read my scriptures! what kind of a missionary am i?!! we always joke around about that, but i'm serioius. like, there REALLY isn't time. it's like real life, except somehow i always made time but now we just have all these other responsabilities. the point is! we invite people to ordinances that will save them. but they will ONLY get there by doing small and simple things that invite the spirit and testify of the truth. aka reading praying and coming to church. when we don't do those things, we halter. so check yourself. check those around you. we do those simple things ourselves individually, then as families collectively, and then we are able to succeed. i'm praying this family felt that their marriage was still salvageable if they just depended a little more on the lord and fed their spirits so they could serve and love each other.
mobat milagro. yesterday at the bat i was dyin. my head was killain and yikes. the sweet senior couples take such good care of us though and sister stallings wouldn't let me stand up. hahah. i was sitting in the rocking chairs in the front when this older brown man walked past her with a little guy. i asked her if she recognized him and she said that he was just going to use the bathroom and to stay put. she went inside to do something and then this dude came out. so i started talking to him but he didn't speak english... so we switched to spanish and the conversation was about 2.6 seconds long. he didn't have time for the tour and his family was waiting for him. i asked if he wanted a book of mormon and he LIT up and wrote down his COMPLETE ADDRESS, zip code and ALL! first name, middle name, last night, other last names. (hahahah huge mexican joke. their names are SO LONG!) then he was gone. manuel. it was just a HUGE testimony to me that we ALWAYS HAVE TO ASK. ALWAYS HAVE TO INVITE. some missionaries in el paso texas are going to be very pleased.
also. a younger dude came into the bat yesterday and left a referral in spanish, so elder stallings gave it to me to take care of it. the boy was a member but left his neighbor as a referral. so i called the neighb and talked to him and said that his neighbror wanted to share a really special book with him, and this guy was like, "CLARO QUE SI!" and again, gave me all his datos--social security number and all! no, jk, but seriously. he gave me everything and he gave it at the blink of an eye based on the sole fact that his NEIGHBOR, whom he knows and likes and trusts, referred him. bottom line: there is no better way than through the members. THAT is why it's every member a missionary. because you are the only way! the ONLY way! the only way that works! so PLEASE see yourselves as and remember that you are missionaries! you may not be baptizing, but you are finding, you are strenghtening and you are building the lord's kingdom! you made sacred covenants in a holy place to do that until the end of your life, so don't slacken but hasten!
and you want to know one way you can really help me to do that? MORMON.ORG!!!!!!!!! can't wait for all these profiles!!!!! are you sick of me saying it? hahaha maybe by november i'll actually get to see them in the red! (red = internet)
how could i forget?!!!! guess what else happened sunday? this is a true story. hermano chavez passed the sacrament. he did. he really did. and it was soooooo sweet. so so so special. ah. progression is beautiful. then? he spoke in the charla foganera that night and it was hilarious. it was actually kinda not hilarious, the funny part was that he'd written a poema about "dos lindas misioneras.." haha. bless his heart. i must say that hearing him invite all the investigators there at the fireside to just take the decision and GET BAPTIZED made my heart throb. here he is inviting them... being a m issionary. hermano chavez... huge baller. he's going out with us and with the elders multiple times a week, and i'm hoping he's going to the temple this week.unreal. so blessed!!!!
mosiah 9:17-18; 15:7.
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| I LOVE MOBAT!!! |
i love you dear family. hasta ver. :)
hermana christensen
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