"by faith all things are fulfilled" - Lages week 66

we saw miracles this week! sister maldonado and i have been setting one (different) goal every week and this week was to invite two people to be baptized and this is what happened:

-leomar was baptized on friday, quit drinking coffee in two days and is already in 2 nephi of the BOM. and i tell you that because literally no one actually reads, let alone reads more, than what we tell them too... top demais!

-jandira has been an investigator for 3 years . she wants to be baptized but has to get married first. we promised her that if she set a date for her baptism and had faith that ,if it be His will, Heavenly Father would help her achieve this goal. her boyfriend, who has never wanted to get married and always rejected the idea, agreed to signing the marriage papers this week! (if we brought them to him and he didn't have to pay anything hahah) this is a HUGE step!

-wednesday we had a lesson with another investigator of 4 years.  he has been to church a handful of times but has never accepted the invite to be baptized. he now has a date to be baptized the 24th of august!

to finish things off i wanted to share a story about rejection. as missionaries we are faced with rejection on the daily. so much so that we almost get used to the feeling. one day we started teaching a couple from a referral we got from some other missionaries about the restoration. i began to talk about the part where the people rejected Christ, which i almost never go into in much detail, and a feeling came to my mind that i would be rejected as well. we got to the end of our lesson, and i asked him if he would accept a BOM... he said no. i bore my testimony about the book and asked again. they said no again. i was feeling persistent this day so i asked them to read just a small part and if they didn't feel anything i wouldn't ask again. they read, and said no one last time. i left feeling really discouraged and confused as to why they didn't understand and accept the message that had all the answers to all their questions. but by the end of the day i was overcome by a feeling of gratitude for Heavenly Father allowing me to feel and better understand what our Savior went through and how He felt/feels seeing His children go astray.  i know this experience was for my own understanding.

 "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." mosiah 14:3-6

this gospel is true! it is the only way we can return to the presence of our heavenly father and live with our families forever, in everlasting happiness! "mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me."

loves, sista kener