Buenos
Dias!
Monday was
great. After preparation day was over we went to a cita with J- and C-, and it
was wonderful. Hno V- and his family came with us, and it was so good to have
them there and have them share their testimonies. Then we went to see J-, and I
learned a very important lesson about searching out and doing the Lords will
and not my will. We have a terrible time getting meetings with J-, and he
hasn't really been keeping his commitments, so I went into the lesson with the
idea that we were going to let him know we couldn't teach him any more.
However, just a couple minutes in I felt the Spirit teaching me that I needed
to seek the Lord's will for J-, and not just do what was easiest for me. I was
also able to feel the immense love that the Lord has for J-. Instead of what we
had planned we were able to set a baptismal date for him. I still don't know if
he'll be able to keep the commitments necessary to reach that date right now,
but I have a much better understanding of the Lord's will, and of His love for
each and every person no matter what they do contrary to His will. Another
experience that we had on Monday night was with our investigator E. He had been
avoiding us for a couple of days, and we found out he'd been up to Vegas, and
had a party at his house. In the end, we ended up dumping 8 Coronas down the
sink for him. I was worried he'd just get mad, but when we left he actually
said thank you, so I think he understands that we really just want what's best
for him.
Tuesday we
had a 1 Week Follow Up meeting for Hna Watts. It was a good meeting, but it was
hard for me to have a second all day meeting within a week. (Last
week was the 6 Week Follow Up for Hna Allen.) Luckily Hna Allen was able to go
with the Hna Training Leaders and didn't have to come sit in the meeting with
us. It was also a good opportunity for me to be able to see the hand of the
Lord in our lives. I'd forgotten that we needed a member to take us to the
meeting (since we can't ride our bikes all the way to Santa Clarita). Luckily
Hna G- works in Valencia, and was willing to go into work a little bit early so
she could drop us off. Then a couple of English sisters were able to bring us
home. That evening we were able to visit with a less active family in our area,
and we were able to show up at their door at just the time that they needed us.
The Lord truly does guide us in His work!
Wednesday
was a long successful day. We had a lot of lessons fall through, but through
that we were able to talk to other people who we really feel are interested in
the gospel! I love seeing how the Lord guides every situation to become
the situation it needs to be to best help his children. The hardest thing about
Wednesday was actually the hardest thing about the week. We had a lesson with
E-, and it just didn't go well. We've been trying to help him pray and he just
isn’t' ready for it. I was having such a hard time not being able to
communicate with him, and not knowing how to help him that I just started
crying. Unfortunately he took it badly, and just felt like I was trying to
pressure him even more... We eventually had to leave to get to our next
appointment, but I just felt so sad because I just felt so much love for him,
and I just couldn't help him, and he didn't understand that all we wanted was
to help him.
Thursday
was weekly planning, and we were able to finish in time to have dinner before
our 5:30 appointment!!! It was sad because E- texted us and told us he didn't
want us to come over anymore because he felt like we were just trying to
pressure him. All of our lessons that night fell through, but because of riding
from one end of our area to the other it took almost all the time we had so we
just headed up to the church early for correlation and did nightly planning
there.
Friday we
were definitely able to see the Lord’s hand in our work. We had forgotten that
we had a Zone Training Meeting that morning so we had appointments scheduled
for all day. Then with the meeting that morning we weren't going to have time
for all of our studies. Normally it would be sad that our first two
appointments of the day fell through, but it allowed us to do all of our
studies for the day after all! We were able to meet with C- and J- again, and
it was great to see how they're progressing and really wanting to know what we
have to teach. We shared the Restoration video with them and tried to help them
understand the connection that makes it so important for them to know if the
Book of Mormon is true.
Saturday we
were able to see the Lord's had strongly again helping us with the work here in
our area! Normally Saturday is our most productive day, but we had been asked
to participate in a youth conference for the Spanish stake that was going to
take the entire afternoon. We were going to be on splits with them knocking
doors in North Hollywood because we didn't have any way to get them back to our
area. However, when we got there it turned out that there were members
available to take us back to our area. We ended up having 3 companionships
(each of the 3 of us had a Jovencita with us) working our area for 4 hours! We
got so much good work done with our current investigators, and were able to
find a couple of really good potentials as well. Specifically, Hna Watts was
able to go talk to E- and convince him to let us come back and teach him if we
promised to do better about not being pushy. That night we were able to have
appointments with two families that we're teaching. The first family was the E's
who the San Fernando Elder's found for us a couple of weeks ago. The second
family is P- and M-. That lesson was interesting because they left right as we
got there but promised to be back in 5 minutes because they really wanted to
listen. We ended up waiting for almost an hour for them to come back, but we
all felt like we should just keep giving them a few more minutes. They did come
back! and they wanted to listen. It was a great lesson getting to know them and
their needs a little bit, and explaining why we were there.
Sunday was
mostly church and studies, but we were also able to meet with E- that night,
and the lesson went much better than usual. I could actually feel the Spirit
helping me to have more patience, and be calmer, and know how to explain things
so that he would actually understand.
I know that
the Lord truly does bless us when we are trying to do His will! I know that the
Book of Mormon is true and blesses lives! I know that if we look for it the
Spirit will be there guiding us in our decisions. I am so grateful for this
opportunity to learn so much about myself and about God! I love you all!
Love,
Hna Marin
Hardy
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