Week 22

Hello all! 

What a busy week it has been! It really just flew by! EVERY SINGLE LESSON WE HAD PLANNED FELL THROUGH!!! (except for 4...)  Needless to say it was pretty frustrating! We did not let that get us down though! We worked hard contacting literally everyone on the street walking the majority of the time to everything! We were exhausted but we actually got some pretty hilarious stories out of it!

So we contacted this lady by knocking doors and we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and she was pretty religious (She was super religious) and she was also very nice. She was saying "Amen" and "Halleluja" (I don't know how to spell that...) to basically everything we were saying, so we decided to give her a Book of Mormon and set an appointment to come back the next day. We returned the next day and she came out to the gate to greet us but said she read the pamphlet and the Book of Mormon but didn't think it would be a good idea if we were to come in.... That really hurt because she didn't want to listen to our message of the Restored Gospel because it was just "different then her beliefs"... So as we were kind of standing there not exactly sure what to say because we didn't want to fight or argue all I felt like I needed to do was bare my testimony to her of the Book of Mormon and how I know that if she will continue to read it that it would change her life. We then left her with one more chaptture to read, 2Nephi 29. She was very nice in her rejection to us. It definitely was the nicest rejection I have ever had but It till hurt.

We had a lesson with Linda this week who has been an investigator for a little while but has not been progressing at all. We had a lesson on the Book of Mormon with her and promised her that through this book she would find all her answers and that she will want to follow the commandments and be baptized if she would just read it. We then said that the Lord would answer questions and she could open to whatever page and read whichever verse and there the answer would be. So she tried it there with us and opened to Jacob 6:7-8 and there was an answer alright! It reads  

"7 For behold, after ye have been nourished by the goodword of God all the day long, will ye bring forth evil fruit,that ye must be hewn down and cast into the fire?

 8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject thewords of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?"  It was a fantastic kick in the pants with her and tomorrow we will see once and for all if she is really and truly progressing to baptism.

On Thursday we had a lesson with José who is supposed to be baptized this Sunday! We just need to finish teaching him the rest of the lessons but we are having a difficult time finding times to meet with him because he lives in an area that we actually can't enter into with out the elders or a priesthood holder. So the Elders were with us and we taught José Lesson 3 the Gospel of Jesud Christ and right as we were leaving it started to just pour rain! It was extremely unfortunate because it was already 6:45 and we had to get going to make it to dinner at 7. Well the rain was so bad we had to wait for it to even kinda ease up to run through it. (Umbrellas were completely useless in that rain). We ended up waiting for about 15 minutes talking to this group of teenage girls who just thought we were hilarious. Then we ran through the rain getting drenched all the way to the bus stop! We were soaking wet and were still getting wet from the rain and the wind as we were waiting for yet another 15 minutes for the bus. We were very blessed that there was still a bus running because those Diablo Rojos are very unreliable! Needless to say it was an adventure for us all and was really entertaining! Los pobrecitos elderes got sick though so it just proves that Las Hermanas just have stronger immune systems!

Saturday was our day in Portobelo again and all those sitas fell through as well... We ended up having a very entertaining street contact with a very drunk guy on the word of wisdom after he offered us beer! It was quite hilarious especially after he said that he didn't need us to tell him the word of God because he used to be a pastor. Hermana Patrick pointed out the six pack of beer in his hand and he got all defensive saying " Before, before!" (I am sorry it is just a lot more funny in Spanish!) We left him with a pamphlet of the Word of Wisdom and then walked away. I honestly thought he was going to fall over he was just swaying!

On Sunday The Alston Family came again to church and stayed all 3 hours and it was fantastic! Unfortunately attendance yesterday was low "because of the rain" but its rainy season so this will be rough... Anyways so they came and it was fantastic and they are just such a blessing! We has a lesson with them later after church on the Plan of Salvation and the first question we asked was "What do you think the plan of salvation is?" or something like that because I said it in Spanish! Elizabeth ended up answering and she basically gave the whole lesson! It was fantastic and the whole lesson was so great! Before we could even invite them to be baptized she was talking about how they know they need to be baptized so that they be an eternal family and they know they need to get married so that they can be baptized. Hermana Patrick and I were just dumb struck! It is so fantastic and they have a fecha for the 5th of September! We just need to get all the marriage stuff done before that! Pray that all will go smoothly with them! They are so prepared!!

I thought I would just share a little thing that I loved on Humility. I feel like everyone is always saying that they need to be humble but we never really realize what causes pride. I have been focusing on this a lot this past month and have learned that humility is directly tied to our obedience. When we are obedient we are showing the Lord our humble heart. We are showing to Him that we will do whatever it is He asks us because He knows best. When we aren't obedient it shows that we think we know better therefore showing the pride of our hearts. I have really loved learning and searching more on this subject and have learned so much and realized just how proud I really am. I am working daily to have a soft and humble heart to really prove to the Lord I am His servant and I encourage you all to do the same. The blessings that come will be many.

I love you all so much and thank you all for your love, support and prayers!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Garcia