This Week on Elder Silva's mission it was one of the most saddest and happiest weeks in my whole mission.... Why? Well for many reasons but I would like to share a experience that my companion Elder Jenkins and I had that changed our lives.
So the sister that we baptized, Silvia, turned out to be the hardest baptism that I've had my whole mission. We've been teaching her for almost three months and she has gone to church like seven times and she has been reading the Book Of Mormon and praying constantly. So you would think it would have been easy for her to decide to get baptized however she has had three baptismal dates and all of them fell through. She had two baptismal interviews and she even talked with our Mission President on the phone but nothing seemed to work.......
I received a call on Thursday night saying that I was going to have transfers on Monday to Macuspana and that I was going to end my mission there opening a new area which means starting from zero :( I was really worried about the news and the first thing that came to my mind was Silvia and that she had to get baptized before I leave. I know it might seem kinda wrong but if you were to knew the things that she has received as a testimony of the veracity of the church it would blow your mind. She has had five dreams and three of them were about the Tree Of Life and how she ate the fruit of the three. The other two dreams were about her baptism and I happened to be part of the dream.... Sorry but right know I have to leave and I'll finish this story when I get back.
This week on Elder Silva's mission it was bomb! We Baptized Diana! She is awesome! So a little bit about her is that she was actually a reference from a member. The member was her college teacher and he brought her to church and presented us to her. She had a lot of questions about the church but she said that she liked it alot!
We started teaching her and she is a very nice girl. She didn't have a hard time in keeping any of the commandments because she didn't break none of them, she was basically a member already lol. But something kind of weird happened last week. We had a appointment last week with her and my companion went with another missionary. When they got to her house her dad came out and was kind of rude to them and she didn't come out. So we were worried about her and wondering if her family was going to let us to teach her still. But she called us and said that she was sorry about what her dad and that it was better if we taught her at the church so that's what we've started doing :)
One of the most amazing things that happened was when we invited her to be baptized and she said that she wanted to think about it. We invited her to pray about it and promised her that God was going to respond her. So one day we were at the church building for an activity she came up to us and said ¨Remember how you guys asked me if I was willing to get baptized?" "Well the answer is YES!¨ My companion and I were both in shock and she explained how she prayed and said that God answered her prayer! That's another testimony that God really does answer his children's prayers if they are willing to do his will he will ANSWER!
This week on Elder Silva's mission it was great. We had district conference and our Mission President talked and it was really inspirational. We are currently teaching a lot of great people. We are teaching Paola's mom and her friend Dalila. They are really great people and they actually went to see conference and loved it!
However, my companion Elder Jenkins is currently sick :( He has a fever and an infection in his stomach. We are actually going to do some divisions today with a member so that we can go visit some of the investigadores. One of them is Diana and she is planning to get baptized this weekend!
This week on Elder Silva's mission it was awesome. My companion Elder Jenkins and I are having divisions with the whole zone everyday and things seem to be working really well. The areas are getting better and the zone just seems stronger.
But one of the crazy things that happened was that I had my last zone Conference with the Mission President and all the zone leaders in the mission. It was really nice and also sad because there are a total of four missionaries that are leaving that were at the zone conference and they are really good friends of mine.
One of them was Elder Beal; we actually got trained in the same district. And Elder Lynch who was in my first zone and Elder Santos who I'm actually going to baptize some of his family that were in my other area in Parrilla in the coming weeks! It was really nice to hear their testimonies on how they were strengthened in the last 23 months.
This week on Elder Silva was pretty rough we tried to really find people to teach but for some reason we just get rejected pretty hard. But after hearing the 186th General Conference it was like a spiritual boost! I love to hear the words of the church leaders especially the Prophet and the Apostles.
One of the talks that I liked a lot was David A. Bednar's, how he was explaining that having faith in Jesus Christ is not enough but we have to actually believe in Him. Not only believe in Him but believe in His promises that they will be completed. For example believe in the commandments but most of all in His Atonement and that through His Atonement we can be clean and be saved and actually believe in the Savior!
I also like the talk of the Prophet Thomas S. Monson and how he just talked very little but something really important which was the Word of Wisdom and The Plan Of Salvation. How that is something very special and that we have the opportunity to know it and that we should share It!
This week on Elder Silva's mission it was awesome. We had the baptism of Guadalupe! She's great, she is friends with Paola who got baptized three weeks ago. We found Guadalupe when we were teaching Paola and and told about sharing the blessings she's received with others. She asked how she'd know who to invite to share the gospel with and we told her that the only person that knows this is our Heavenly Father. He knows all his of children's thoughts, desires and situations that they are going through.
So we invited her to pray and ask God to put someone in her way so that she can share her testimony. She said that she was going to do it and that she would contact us if anything happens. Guess what happened the next day she went to school? Yup, her prayer was answered; it was at 9:30 am when I received a phone call from Paola. She said "I can't believe it I can't believe it, I have someone that wants to hear you guys and she is right her next to me¨ and it was Guadalupe!
That's how we found Guadalupe but that's not all. While we were teaching her, we invited her to be baptized and she said ¨Yes¨ but she then said ¨wait my parents will never let me get baptized in your church¨ and we asked her why not and she said "because my parents are super Catholic and they will never let me.¨ We asked her if she really wanted to do this and if she wanted to receive the Holy Ghost in her life? She said ¨Yes," then we told her ¨have Faith and everything is going to be fine." She agreed and that same day she called her parents and her parents said yeah it's fine if is something that she wants then it's ok! She was speechless and started to cry because she never thought her parents would support her decision.
Last week Guadalupe had a lot of trails because random people would start talking to her and tell her that her that she was making bad decision. We told her not to worry and to always remember the feeling that she felt during church and during the lessons. This last Saturday was her baptism and she was extremely happy with the decision she made! I know that our Heavenly Father answers our prayers like Paola's prayer was answered that day. And they are answered so that other people can be blessed like Guadalupe!
This week on Elder Silva's mission it was amazing! We had another baptismal service for the Serrano family . So this family is amazing because they have showed a lot of faith in our Savior. We found this family when one day I was walking with my companion and he said "hey look at that family, lets contact them." The family was already passing us and I was thinking it would be a little awkward walking back to talk to them. But I said "whatever let's do it!"
So we did it and talked to them, the dad agreed to meet with us and gave us their address. We didn't really think much of it until the day we went to their house to teach them. The dad wasn't there because he is part of the military so we were only able to teach the mom and her children. They loved the lesson and the mom was just really happy and we asked her why? She said that her husband has never let any religious people pass by her house and that the day we contacted her she was in shock when he gave us their address. She actually asked her husband if he was sick or if he was ok because she just couldn't believe it.
After passing many times we still haven't had the opportunity to really talk the dad because he's always doing military work, but he supports his family going to church and that we teach them. I'm confident that the Lord softened that dad's heart so that we can share this great message with his family, now we just need the opportunity to share it with him! :D
