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| THE BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!! hermano chavez baptized hno roman! |
so good to be able to write you about this incredible week! lets just hop to the point!
okay. SO. last tuestday hermana and i were a LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTLE nervous because we still hadn't taught hermano roman the three big laws (chastity, tithing and wow) and his interview was days away. we took hermano miller and his wife with us (he's the white guy withthe beard in the pics... our ward missino leader) and had a really really incredible lesson with him. the spirit was totally strong and hermana miller testified and hermano miller totally received revelash and taught by the spirit, but the coolest thing was that hermano roman ALREADY KNEW IT ALL. how? oh my goodness. hermano chavez taught him. all. everything. HE TAUGHT HIM. you may be wondering why i'm freaknig out right now. lets just think back to how many MONTHS of torment that man gave us as we taught in circles everything 26 times and he still wouldn't be baptized? well, we all know that worked out how it had to. but on tuesday night, my mind was opened and my heart was EXPLODING with gratitude because i could see that we NEEDED to teach him so clearly because he was going to be a teacher. :) unreal. so incredible! ahh. everything worked out and hermano roman had his interview and the zone leaders said, "he is 100% ready." on saturday the whole branch came out and hermano chavez baptized him. i know that i said this last week--that it was so beautiful to see him passing the sacramanet or telling people over the pulpit in the spanish fireside a few weeks ago to just get baptized--but this was the pinnacle of happiness... seeing a recent convert baptize someone he helped teach. ahhh. oh and on sunday he blessed the sacrament. !!!! we were exploding with happiness. :) and hermano roman is great. he says he was expecting to feel like a lightning bolt or something wayyyyy dramatic, but he didn't. at first i was a little alarmed, but he told us yesterday that it was simple... he feels the same, but really different somehow. he says he doesn't get angry and he feels clean, like a new person... ah. baptism. ordinances. it's the only way to access the atonement. i love the gospel. i love being a missionary.
on sunday we had the blessed chance to sing in the missionary choir for president and sister donaldson's final fireside. i tell ya... i am going to MISS those two. so much. so so so much. i love them like you--my padres!--and i'm so grateful to have been able to serve with them. mosdefinately go to their homecoming and keep in touch with them. ma, she said she wanted to go out to lunch with you and finally get to know the sweet woman sending her all this cute jewelry. :) i love them and i just feel so grateful for my mission to get to know all these people who bless and influence me in such an eternal manner. (ps. because the new mission president is coming in, this transfer is a week longer--so the next transfers are the 13th or something. of july. unreal. where did june go? i keep saying it skipped from may to july. i think it really did!)
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| saw jamie jennings hansen at the temple.. smallest world |
so. last week there was a car accident and we are now one car short at the battalion. that means 11 sets of sisters share six cars... and guess who gets to do all that fun scheduling? that'd be us. but! we try to make it as eeeeeeeeeasy as possible for everyone. yesterday we decided that we would give up our car and walk... all day in our area. (we get full days in our area once a week, where we're not in the battalion at all.) i was a little nervous because our area is huge and our hispanic people are so spread out....ah! but in studies i read alma 8. will you all please just go read this chapter immediately? i'm not kidding. it was from heavenly father to hermana christensen yesterday. maybe it's only in my book of mormon actualyl... hahah jk jk. god speaks to us through the scriptures. when we want him to communicate with us, we read. so it makes such sense that that should come FIRST thing. :) anyway, point being--we had an amazing day. we saw milagros left and right. we taught a TON. and as we street contacted, our testimonies were strengthened. there is a part in pmg ch 1 that i read this morning that says that as we preach throughtout our missions, we will learn that EVERYTHING comes back to the restoration. and it does! yesterday we walked with cynthia, a black minister for half a mile or so and she told us she was done with organized religion because it just separates us. i said, "i know, right? we need one lord, one faith, one baptism--like it says in ephesians!" and then we testified and it was almost silly how clear it all was and that it was EXACTLY what she was looking for... yet she didn't accept. she didn't care. she was open. she didn't hear. she didn't listen. and that is TRAGIC to me. absolutely tragic. but. sometimes i think that this mission is for me. to convert ME. because when i can't sleep at night because i'm so happy and smiling and laughing and feeling so awake and alive because i LOVE MY MISSION and i LOVE THE GOSPEL and i LOVE MY SAVIOR, i think that this time isn't a sacrifice at all. i am converted to Him, His ways, His gospel. as jeffrey r holland once said to some elect byu-jru students--"you have the responsibility to never be the same--" I DO. I have that responsibility and i will NOT be the same. I will not go back to the old me and I will not forget these things that i'm seeing, doing and learning, nor will i ever forget the people who have had such a lasting impact on me... even cynthia in the street who helped me see that each human soul REALLY is looking for the truth! bottom line: amo mi mision. do i say that every week?
the gospel is true. i come to that conclusion multiple times a day. it's a standing joke between sister lewis and me. we think it's true. it's pretty clear. we LOVE it. we are in the work of saving souls.
let us hold fast to the iron rod. enjoy alma 8, your conference ensign and your utah mountains and know that your missionary in san diego is pleading your cause. i love you.
hermana christensen
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| at the mission president's fireside. unreal. with my sweetest amor robles from my birthplace aka chula |
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