Happy New Year 2012...weird. Oh and i´ve been a missionary for more than one year...even weirder. Time has flown.

Ok, this week has been a good one. We are working with a guy named Miguel. He has really progressed a lot. He is quitting smoking and went to church on Sunday. It was a miracle that he came to church. Because of the holiday, we only had 12 people in church. sad day! but even though Miguel went out partying for the New Year and came home not in the best conditions at 6:30 am, he got up and went to church with us. He told us that if he didn´t go, then there would always be an excuse not to go. And good thing he went to. He felt the spirit real strongly as everyone shared their testimonies. It was really satisfying to see the spirit working in his life.

It has been a real dry last 2 months. Not just because it hasn´t rained in a while here, but also because no one has been able to make sacred covenants with Heavenly Father through the waters of baptism. for 2 whole months. i will admit. i´m super concerned. usually from my experience, Heavenly Father blesses us for our efforts and a member of a family decides to be baptized, as long as we are doing what we need to do and being obedient. But, that hasn´t happened yet. I´m sure that Heavenly Father is trying our patience and our faith.

I know Heavenly Father puts challenges in our lives to bless us. To strengthen us. To develop more Christ-like attributes. I can definitely say that I have learned lots from the challenges of the mission. It has been interesting here in Junín because the members don´t know how to work with the missionaries. It isn´t something they are not used to doing. We are basically trying to restart the branch from scratch. The members that we have, are not willing to make changes in their lives to come back to church, and the few that do come are not willing or not able to do much to strengthen the saints in this area. The sad part is that like 10 years ago there was an attendance of 100 on average every-single week. Now we get about 20 on average. We are learning more and more why things have changed so much in these last 10 years, and it is a processes changing things around. I´m sad because it seems to my companion and i that I will be transfered at the end of January and i will be really sad, because we are just starting to see some changes in the members and in the branch.

But the good thing is, that i know planting seeds is the first step to producing fruit. We are at the point of harvesting the fruit of missionaries from years ago. It just shows that God works in mysterious ways. Lots of times, the missionaries will pray that an investigator will go to church, or that they´ll get married, or that they´ll quit smoking, or that they´ll get baptized. And lots of times the missionaries get sad because they don´t get to see the investigator go to church, or get married, or quit smoking, or get baptized. But little do they know, that 5 years down the road, other missionaries stopped by, and that same investigator has had a change of heart and wants to go to church, or has since gotten married, or has quit smoking, and those missionaries have the opportunity and the blessing to see the miracle of a conversion. To see the miracle of someone enter into the waters of baptism.

That is my consolation and my hope. I know that is how God works. So, I continue praying, because yes I do wish they would change now, that is always so much better, but the most important is that they change; in the timing of the Lord.

Anyway, love being a missionary. and

love you all,
sarah