week 14

Dear Family, friends, and people who like to read about my life as a missionary...

This week was great. I got to experience the first baptism of someone that we found and taught. They are little angels. Seriously. Dilan(9) and Dustin(8). We have been going through the ward list and visiting less actives and they were the result of one of these families. We knocked on the door and the grandpa answered. He said that he wanted to start coming back to church, and he wants his grandsons to get baptized. We met their mom Jessica and she said the same thing. So basically they were golden contacts. haha and they are so awesome. They are so cute and it is so cool to see their lives change. Some day they will be missionaries and I´m so excited for them when that day comes! I´ll send pictures someday when I remember to bring my camera. :)

Oh, and we had some miracles yesterday too! We have been trying so hard to bring more people to church. Finally it paid off. We got several of our investigators to come to church, and one of our inactives that we just barely found like a week ago came to church. His name is French and his whole family are members and they live in Utah. haha. We haven´t even been able to teach him, but he came to General Conference and said that I called the prophet and told them to speak about how to gain a testimony and things like that. haha he said he felt like the talks were directed right at him...haha. I just laughed and said, now you just need to get a testimony and start coming to church. Anyway, yesterday he came to church and we didn´t hardly do anything. A testament to me that we as missionaries don´t do the converting. We are just mouth pieces of the Spirit. We help people come to places where they can feel the Spirit, and the Spirit is who does the changing.

Another example of that happened yesterday as well. We had a goal for a certain number of people with scheduled baptisms by the end of the week. We only needed one more and could only think of one person that might, maybe, if we were lucky commit to a date. His name is Juan Manuel, and he is re capo...as they say here. That just means that he is really cool. He is 22 and his girlfriend is 15. She is a member and she is who brought him to church the first time. That´s where we started talking to him. He really liked what he heard and so we invited him to be baptized for the first time weeks ago. then the aunt of the girlfriend didn´t like that (we don´t really know why because she is a member, but she didn´t want him to be pressured into being baptized I guess...or she thought we were trying to date him or something...we don´t really know) and she said we can´t call him, or go to his house to talk to him and things like that. It was really sad, because every chance we had to talk to him he really liked what he read and felt at church, etc.

So we decided that we would exercise faith and not be afraid of the wrath of the aunt of the girlfriend. We decided we would go to his house to talk to him. Before we knocked, we said a little prayer and asked for help in completing our goals. We asked that he would have the desire to be baptized.

We went and knocked and then turned around to see him running over to us from the opposite corner. The first thing he said to us (after our hey, how are you?´s) was "I texted you (oh i forgot to mention that after church he texted us and said that we could come teach him tuesday night...we were so excited!) because I realized today in church that I wanted to be baptized as soon as I can." We both started laughing because we were so happy. He said that he really wanted to be where Dilan and Dusting were (receiving the Holy Ghost and being confirmed a memeber of the church) and feel what he felt today in sacrament meeting. It was a pure miracle.

That right there is another example of how we do nothing to convert as missionaries. I am always surprised at how and why people desire to change. Because the funny thing is, we can try really, really hard with someone and they don´t progress at all (because they aren´t prepared yet...but they will be in the future) and we don´t have to do anything but provide an opportunity for someone to feel the spirit and they can progress so much. It is pure awesomeness... haha

Anyway, guess what I did today. We found a track, and I went running!!! I loved it. Except the part where I couldn´t run very fast for very long. But I still loved it. I think I ran like 3 1/2 miles total, and it was hard. I even had to stop. And I only went like 8 min. pace too. So so so so bad. I miss running like crazy. And my companion always says she is too tired to go running in the mornings...and I feel selfish if I make her loose sleep to run, so yes, we don´t hardly ever. And when we do...really, really slowly..haha. Except at night when we are trying to make it back to our apartment in time...then she books it. haha

What else? oh yeah. I played a violin at the baptism. it was so fun. but the A string (aka the most important string for all the hymns etc.) kept slipping because it was bad...and it had a funny buzzing sound, but i think everyone still liked it.

and I cut Dilans hair too. good thing I bought haircutting scissors in the mtc. it has provided a lot of service opportunities...and i get to practice more and more. thanks mom and gina for teaching me how through example. :)

and that´s all folk! love you lots and lots!

to all my friends...sorry if you don´t get letters from me very often. I don´t really have lots of time. But you´ll get one eventually... :) and thanks for all the letters I´ve received!

love,
sarah