:D 06.08.2009 (Email)

Hola mi familia! How are you all doing? I hope that you´re all doing well. My hands are kind of cold so we´ll so how this typing thing goes. jaja First off, great news! Sergio, Patricia, and their two little girls went to church yesterday! YAY!!! So good. So now here´s the story.

The week before we hadn´t been able to meet with them. Then Wednesday, we were with a member, Lorena Villegas. As we were passing by Sergio and Patricia´s house I thought to myself, we should stop by. Then I talked myself out of if, reminding myself that we had an appt. in life 3 minutes about a block away. But then we got to the other appt. and they were´t there. So of course Sergio popped back into my mind. We went, and he was there with a friend. But since Lorena was with us, we could go in! Yay! The lesson went well, and he mentioned that he had seen us walk by, and was wishing to himself that we would stop by... but then we came back! The Spirit is amazing.

Anyway, Friday night I called Patricia to ask if we could stop by Saturday in the afternoon. She said great, no problem. So we went Saturday, and to our dismay, she had left. Leaving only Sergio there. So we couldn´t enter. We ended up talking for a good while outside, and we talked about the importance of acting, and how they need to go to church. So we said we were going to come in the morning and that we would go together to church. :D So we stopped by Sunday morning, and they were all getting ready! Yay! We didn´t do very well explaining before hand about church so I felt bad about that, but I think they enjoyed it. I´m sure they´ll have plenty of questions for us this week.

So Hna. Panero. An interesting week. We weren´t sure about whether or not we should wait to talk to her about baptism, with the fear of offending her or her family, by talking about baptism so soon. But I really thought about it, thought about the blessings of baptism ( peace of conscience, joy, basically all the feelings of the Holy Ghost) and we decided the sooner, the better. I tried to think the way that Jesus Christ thinks, and I don´t think that He would want her to wait to receive the blessings. So we talked about The Gospel of Jesus Christ Thursday night. Her son was there for part of the lesson, and I wasn´t so sure what he thought about it all. But she said she wanted to be baptized June 20th. So we left it at that.

So Friday night Elder Jensen called us, and told us that he had heart that Victor, the son, hadn´t taken it all very well. That it was too fast. I felt AWFUL. So then we were worried as well, that Hna. Panero felt pressured into it. I don´t know that I slept much that night. But after a lot of praying the next morning, reading the scriptures, talking to leaders, and I must admit a little crying, we headed to Hna. Panero´s house Saturday morning to talk to her.

We talked, and she assured us she doesn´t feel pressured. She wants to be baptized, and has been waiting a long time. The problem being, that Victor wants to be baptized for his dad in the temple, before his mom is baptized. I don´t really understand why, and that means she´ll have to wait a long time! So we´re going to see what we can do. I´m just praying that it all works out like Heavenly Father wants it to. But I´m confident that the ward members will help us as well.

Santiago Peñalver, the 10-year-old we have been teaching, has a baptismal date for June 20th! Yay! He´s really progressing, and he´s very excited to be baptized. He has a lot to learn and do in the next two weeks...

There were a lot of people in church on Sunday. So good. The elders had like 7 investigators, and we had five, and a couple of other less active members went as well. So good. And we had great meetings, especially sacrament meeting. So good.

Hna. Hedquist has been sick this last week. A pretty bad cold. I feel bad, and never know what to do. An adventure always.

We found some more new investigators this week. Yay!

Oh, remember Fernando and Fernanda? Yesterday we were with Sylvana, a member, and our appt. wasn´t there. :( We thought of Fernando and Fernanda. Why not give it another try? So we went, and to our surprise, Fernando was there, and he let us in! The lesson went really well, and we talked a little about the Plan of Salvation, and why we have trials in life. And how we can increase our faith. I love teaching with Sylvana. She went on a mission in Chile, and her Gospel knowledge is incredible. I can improve a lot.

I discovered something neat in the scriptures this morning. I am reading a little in the new testament. I read in Mark 8 about a blind man that Jesus heals. Jesus Christ lead him by the hand out of the city, placed His hands on him, and then asked the man what he could see. The man could see a little bit, but not very clearly. He then placed His hands on his eyes again, and then, the man could see every clearly and perfectly. I thought about the man, and how even though he couldn´t physicaly see, he trusted Christ to guide him by the hand, because he knew that Christ could see.

I compared this to me. I´m not physically blind, but I think I´m often spiritually blind. But, I need to let Christ take me by the hand, to guide me. He will then help me to see things more clearly, as I look with an ¨eye of faith¨. I may not see perfectly at first, just like the man, but He´ll help me see/understand, little by little. I can trust Christ, and let Him guide me, because I know that He has perfect vision, and perfect understanding, even though at this time, I don´t. It all made me really think. We need to have faith in Christ.

I know the church is true. I love you. I´m grateful that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have given us so much. Search the scriptures, and listen to the Spirit. If we do what They ask, we´ll be happy. I love you, and want to live with you forever.

Love Always,
Hermana Jamba Pincock :D