Week 70: Filled with the Spirit and a Musical Miracle

 Hola todos! This week sure was good here and I hope it was for all of you too!


On Tuesday we had a lesson with Nayeli and Maria. We talked about Joseph Smith and the Word of Wisdom. I was worried about how Maria would accept it because they have wine bottles on display, but she ended up having more questions about tea and coffee. But after we read the blessings in D&C 89 she said they were beautiful and accepted to live it! That night we picked up Juan Burgos, our ward mission leader, and we went over to San Francisco for our lesson with Elis. We went with hermano Jimmy, too. It turns out it was Elis' birthday too, so Jimmy brought her a little gift. Elis told us that she liked church, but that she wants to keep getting to know the church more before she gets baptized. Hermano Juan gave a powerful testimony about his conversion and we left her with the commitment to pray about it.

Wednesday district council. We've been talking a lot about faith and the faith to find recently so I focused on that too. Elder Lopez was feeling a little sick again so he rested while I did calls. Afterwards we finally got out and finally had a lesson with hermana Araceli and her son Rodrigo. They're people who were taught in the past who have potencial, but they kind of forget about out lessons so they were dropped. We'll see what we can do with them. That night we visited hermano Apolinar Garcia, the stake patriarch, and his wife Eufemia, they told us a lot of funny stories about their conversions and we had a great time. They even gave us some pomegrantes to eat. 

On Thursday night I gave the baptismal interview for the Castillo family in Jardines! They're a family of 4 who got married and then baptized later that day! We're supposed to give interviews atleast 2 days early, but the family surprised the Jardines Elderes and moved their date up a day, so we had to rush and do the interviews. They went well, although I did end up doing them pretty late. On Friday I payed a taxi to take a pair of white pants all the way to Jardines. We then had a good lesson with our friend Merly and her nephew David, who were references from hermana Marta. We had the lesson in their seafood restaurant about the restoration, focusing on the Book of Mormon. They are golden! The only thing is that Metñy is going to go to Spain for a while to work in June, so we might have to work fast. but when we pulled out the Book of Mormon, Merly said she could feel a sensation she couldn't describe, and as we explained what the BoM 8s and what it contains she said the feeling only got stranger. I called attention to it, and I can say the spirit was undeniable. I even said in the lesson I was filled with the spirit. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't actually feel filled with the spirit. Now I understand what the prophets spoke of when they were "filled with the spirit of God." It was a legit filling of my body with the spirit and I couldn't deny it. Of course that doesn't mean that being filled with the spirit has to be a full feeling in your body, but that's what it felt like to me in that moment. And with that I could testify of the spirit and what it can do to us when we endeavour to follow the Lord’s commandments, especially by reading and following His words.

We were told by Elis that she wouldn't be able to come again to church because her daughter was sick, again. She literally is sick every other week. And when she's not sick her brother or Elis herself is. Bur we were able to help her out with Gospel Library so she could read some scriptures from D&C we wanted to show her. Later she asked for help so she could understand the topic "Covenants" from the Gospel Topics section. But she also asked us about polygamy, and we did our best to explain it. She said it didn't bother her. So we'll continue to guide her and hope that she'll listen to the enticings of the spirit. That night we also gave a BoM to Lesli. On Saturday we found a man named Andres, and when we mentioned the Gospel of Christ we started talking about baptism. We'll see where we can go with him and his family.

On Sunday I saw one of the biggest miracles of my mission. Our friend Nina last week said she wanted to postpone being baptized and then during the week told us she was receiving threatenings and warnings from her old adventist church. She was also very worried about her house, her daughter, her cancer, and everything. On Wednesday when we visited her she said she had lots of questions she wanted to clear up but wanted to wait until after a small vacation to Huamachuco to ask them. She told us she would be gone over the weekend. But later in the week she told us her flight was canceled due to rain, so she was here for the weekend. We invited her to church through a message, but she only reponded with the fact that her old church was telling her all this horrible stuff. We passed by her house on Sunday morning and listened to her, but by the end she agreed to come to church again. She's being careful about who she lets into her house now because oneof her neighbors is saying some mean things. But an hour later we picked her up and sat next to her in the chapel. It was a normal meeting except for the fact that Gabriel gave his farewell talk for his mission in Argentina. Nayeli's baptism was announced, too. The closing hymn was "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go." I gave Nina my hymnbook and she read the words. After we finished she looked at me and said, "such powerful words." And after the prayer she was saying that she was going to be baptized! She wanted to talk with us right then about it! At first I didn't understand what she was saying because I was so surprised. But after that we gave a blessing to a woman in the ward and Nina went to the Soc Soc class. Then we got to talk with Gabriel one last time before he left for his mission. Afterwards we walked her home and then talked with the secretary for a little bit about the transfer of the church accounts of some recent converts. But for some reason here mother's day is a reason to get drink and not come to church so attendance was minimal.

At 5 we went over to Nina with hermana Ángela. I had been prompted to keep my hymn book in my backpack that day when I normally take it out, and it turns out that that was the first thing she asked for when we arrived and after Ángela gave her a mother's day gift. She read through the hymn again and explained to us that years ago she had made a promise to the Lord tha she would go and do whatever the Lord asked her too. And then, when listening to the song, she said the spirit spoke to her and she knew what she had to do. We talked for a while and then planned for her baptism this Saturday! The Lord really does exist and miracles do happen. I'm so happy to see what the Lord can do. That night we went to hermana Marta's house but she was the only one there so we couldn't do much. So we came home and listened to the Sunday night devotional.

I guess another miracle that happened this week is that with pur faith to find we were able to find 9 people this week, 2 every main day of the week! And happy mother's day mom!

"...let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life" (Proverbs 4:13)

With that I hope you all have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Jensen

1. Frac (Will told me this is the Cookies they eat in Chile and I saw it here so I had to try it)
2. Patriarch and his wife
3. Modeling baptismal pants
4. El río seco
5. Weird Deadpool ghost Elder Islas drew at DC







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