Mi querida familia,
This week just flew by! With divisions, and Hermana Pinto getting sick again, when we had time to be out, we worked so hard! I feel very satisfied with our work this week. Our numbers have improved so much, and we really have tried to talk with and contact every family we see! I`m kind of competitive, so when our District Leader told us that it was a competition with our companions, who could start the most contacts with families, I`ve really put in a little extra effort. Right now we only have one investigator with a baptismal date, Alejandra Vila, who has a date for the 10th of October. She came to church yesterday with Silvia, one of our recent converts, and her two sons. We didn`t have much time to talk with Alejandra afterwards because one of her sons was complaining so she left, but we have a cita with her on Tuesday to talk and see how she felt about churchJ It was just so great to see Silvia with her little row of family in the church. Proof that there truly are miracles.
We have other investigators and less actives with whom we are working, but the majority struggle with keeping the Sabbath day holy, working on Sunday, and so didn`t come to church. I guess the real problem is faith. If one has enough faith in the Lord that he will bless us with better circumstances as we strive to keep the commandments.. o sea to not work on Sunday, then we will have more investigators progressing. But that’s a little tough to just say to people.. You need to find a different job! We will keep praying about what we need to do to help our investigators progress.
I would like to share a cool finding experience. We were out contacting one day and I noticed a young lady trying to open her door, she looked a little annoyed and so instinctly I thought, lets just not contact her, but somehow I realized that I had already opened my mouth to say Buenas Tardes and we struck up a conversation. The door opened and out came her husband. We talked a little bit and found out that Paola actually is a member but has bee inactive for the past couple years due to some terrible girls in the young womens. She told us that she needed to talk with her husband in order to see if we could visit her. Usually that means.. "no" in Latino, but 30 minutes later we got a phone call and she told us to please come and visit her, her husband didn`t want to listen but she did. This week we have visited Paola a couple times and foound out that she had been praying very hard for the past couple weeks that God would show her what she needed to do. She wants to come back to church. She has a strong strong testimony and wants her husband to be baptized. Now we just have to get on his good side because he`s apostolico or something like that and thinks that every other church is of the devil, but little does he know!
The Lord is blessing us in so many ways in this sector. We have found so many new amazing people. Including a family of 5 that are practically neighbors to us. When we contacted them in the street, we started to share a short message about eternal families, and the Mother started to cry. We didn`t know why she was crying, and for the first time in my mission I felt a strong gift of discernment. I said out loud, you``ve lost a child haven`t you? And then her little son next to her, said yes. There used to be 6 of us, but 3 passed away. Apparently Mercedes, lost 3 children when they were babies and she is very interested to know how the family can be eternal. Last night we ran into them again in the street, this time with her husband. We felt inclined to leave them with a prayer, and by the end of the prayer her husband, Luis was also in tears. We have an appointment with them tonight. And I am super excited!
We also had divisions in Peguche, a cute town outside of Otavolo, and I was with Hermana Stevens. We found many families that day as well. If I learned one thing with Hermana Stevens its that I really just love to be a missionary. Hermana Stevens is wrapping up her mission and she is just so cute and works super hard! It was also nice to talk some English for a day. She also looks just like taylor swift! We really had a very spiritual day and contacted so many people, who were all indigenous.. which means that they are the remnants of the Lamanites! Whahoo! Just gathering the 12 tribes of Israel up here in the Andes Mountains! Hermana Stevens and I also went running in the morning to a waterfall, el manto blanco! It was beautiful! I just love Ecudaor!
I know as we follow the spirit the Lord places us where we need to be with the people that he needs us to find. There really are people who truly are suffering because they know not where to find the truth. I am so very grateful to be a missionary and to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I know who I am. I know God`s plan. And I`ll follow Him in faith. Have a great week everyone! Thanks for everything and don`t forget to pray!
Con Amor
Hermana Powley
