Miracles and Service!

July 8, 2019

This week was really fun! It started off with us eating sushi with the family Monar, it was really good but as far as the work, WOW, I want to express it all.

So this week the Loaiza family has been progressing a lot because they have been reading in the Book of Mormon. And they are really loving it. The mom, Marileny, has been taking the initiative and reading with the family, even though the family is not perfect they really feel the peace that comes from reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon. They promised “Sí o sí” yes or yes that they would go to church. I don’t know what happened why they didn’t go. It makes my inner soul sad. 

On a happier note, we had an appointment with the Bucheli family (which I found out how the dad´s name is spelled, it is not Luiggi but it is Luige) But two things happened, they didn’t answer their phone and so the appointment fell through because they weren’t at home. But the good thing was is we didn’t even have time right then so we set for another day, Saturday night and we went and we had just enough time to talk with them about family history which is the spark for Hermano Bucheli so we installed the application on his phone and they loved it! Super awesome! The whole family went to church for the first time since I have been here! It was so cool to see them all walk in. Later that Sunday we were able to talk with them about scripture study.

President Alarcon inspired us with an experience that he had when he was accompanying the missionaries on a visit. What we did based on that was we sat down with the Bucheli Family and we had them read 2 Nephi 32:3 and we gave them crayons. We told the daughter Nicole to read and highlight what she liked and the same with her dad. After reading the scripture you could see that we did not teach the lesson because each of them got something different out of the same scripture and were willing to apply in their life! So know their commitment is to read and ponder and apply the scriptures everyday in their lives. 

What else happened… we were able to find so many good people this week. One powerful experience happened because in the MTC we all listen to a talk about an apostle that served a mission and in his mission he saw a family in a park walking and he never went to go talk with them. He then had a regret his whole life because he ignored the prompting. – After church we were in our suits and it was really hot outside and we had been talking with people that we knew on the way back to the apartment to drop off our suits. So of course the only thing I had in mind was “Hace calor” Then I see a family walking towards us strolling down the hill, the first thought that came into mind was, they probably don’t live here because it looks like they are coming from outside our sector. Then I had a such weight put on me remembering the talk. Without further hesitation I walked didn’t turn left I went up and shook the Dad’s hand and asked them how they were doing, I kind of thought they would stop to talk with us but nope, they kept on walking, so we walked with them! We had a fun conversation and the dad, Raul, knows quite a bit English and he tells us that he is the next door neighbor to a part member family that we were teaching not even a week ago! Raul didn’t know that the dad in the other family was a member! We are going to be teaching them in the future weeks! For future reference they are the Manyoma family (pronounced Mahn-jo-mah) 

With the Lazo Family it has been a little strange this week because my companion and I have been doing some divisions / splits with the members so Elder Olsen and Hermano Tobar were able to teach them. We were able to cut their grass (which we did with a machete hehe and was actually not so easy to do) Anyway they are really praying to get an answer to their prayers.

Adriana is the mom of Nathaly who got baptized not too long ago, she has been listening to the missionaries for a long time and she is going to church but she admitted that she needs to dedicate more time do God by reading the scriptures. I find it astounding how many times people realize the importance of following the commandments daily when we explain and demonstrate the blessings that come from doing so.

Thanks for reading this week we are going to have an exciting week this week so I will tell you guys about it soon!