Hola Familia y amigos,
This week has been so awesome! Christmas makes everything better! Haha. We had Christmas Conference with the southern half of our mission on Thursday, and it was great! Plus they served us the kind of food that I would normally eat at Christmas, whish made me so happy! They had leftovers, so I got to take a small sour cream tub of Sweet potatoes with brown sugar home!!! Ah, it made me sooo happy, haha! Plus, CHRISTMAS PACKAGES! So much fun to open on Christmas, thanks fam! I loved the stocking, haha, but too much junk food! At least I haven't eaten any of it yet, ha.
So this area has been a little tough since before I came here, we do not have any progressing investigators. We have been trying to work more with the members and do MMGP's with them to see if they can work with their friends and invite them to church, etc, to come up with referrals for the missionaries.We have also been visiting less actives and encouraging them to work in the Lord's Vineyard and to make it back to church. I love working with the members, and I remember being so excited in the MTC at the prospect of getting members involved in the missionary work, and now I am here, doing it! I love it.
So we had an awesome miracle last night! We were planning on going to Dural for an FHE activity with the Fuentes family, we MMGP'd them last week, and their non-member friend Lilliana, but Lilliana couldn't make it so it was canceled. We had planned to proselyte in that area that night as well, but were no longer sure since the activity was canceled and we are running low on miles for the month. (We only get 900 and are over 800..) We thought about it, and still felt good about going down there, and so we did. We went to visit a potential we had set up an appointment with, but she was out of the house at the time. So we then went to visit the less active member, Hna Barillas, who lived in the same gated community. We had tried to visit her before, but she was in the bathroom and her husband doesn't like the church anymore, so he didn't answer. Luckily, she
answered this time! We had a really good lesson with her, encouraging her to be a member missionary and that the Lord would bless her with the strength, health, and energy to do so. It was definitely what she needed to hear, because she is only less active because of serious health problems, she has menopause, and was feeling so guilty about not even making it to church on Christmas because she has no energy, and then we showed up! She told us we were like an answer to her prayers! In all reality, she was an answer to mine, helping me to feel that what I am doing here is really important, and that even when we don't have a whole lot of success getting New Investigator's, that we are still tools in the Lord's hands to bless His people! It was humbling, and I felt so much love for her, and I could feel our Savior's love for her as well. I am so grateful for that miracle, I definitely needed it. And what made the night even better, is that she referred us to the family that lives directly across from her. The Dad is from the Dominican Republic(Yay for Dominican companions!) and has been here 12 years. He is the nicest man! We started out as a normal door approach where we offered to share a prayer, and when we found out where he was from(we knew before hand) Hna Rosario jumped right in, and it was great! He was so nice to us, I said the prayer, and then basically tried my best to understand the conversation, haha. It was challenging. But we are meeting with them on Sunday. What my comp told me afterward is that he told us if we ever need anything, or if our car breaks down or something, to call him and he would come help us! What? Who does that! She also told me he offered to get us a nicer phone to be more up to date with technology, but of course that is kind of the point of not having nice phone, haha. But overall, I think we might just have found the elect family we have been praying for this whole time! We are so excited!!
I love all of you so much, and I invite you look for the small missionary opportunities the Lord places in your path, even just strengthening and fellowshipping the members. I know this Gospel is true, and that it truly blesses Our lives. Have an amazing week!
Love,
Hermana Stokes
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