January 9, 2017

Hola Familia!

This has been an amazing week! So many miracles have taken place across the whole mission! We have something called Mighty Prayer every Monday and Friday at 9:00am. We have a conference call with all the missionaries in our zone (Hialeah Heartbeat Zone, 3 districts) and have goals set as a whole zone and then district goals, etc. But in this call, on missionary is assigned to say the prayer, and every companionship sends them the names of the investigators/less actives etc that we want them to pray for, and it is so awesome! The whole Zone is participating in the same prayer for our investigators, and this happens all across the mission! It truly is Mighty Prayer. I invite all of you to join us and pray at 9 on Mondays and Fridays for anyone you know of who could use the Gospel in their lives, or who are just going through a rough time (yourself included!). Prayer is sooo powerful. I love being on the Mission, because we pray ALL THE TIME! Before we leave the house, before we leave the car to knock, teach, whatever, and just all the time. I know it truly makes a difference, and that God hears EVERY PRAYER! It can be a simple prayer, even a prayer in your heart. Like yesterday! Ah, yesterday. Sundays are the best, especially fast Sundays, and then even more so when TWO of your new investigators come to church with a member family!!!!

Okay, so let me elaborate. So we met Isnelda and her two sons, Samuel (12) and Daniel (9). We were knocking and we had just started, and they had just gotten back home from somewhere bc they were outside their door. We asked if we could share a short message with them, and straightway she invited us into her home. So we talked with her, got to know her and her family a little bit (She's from Venezuela and her husband is still over there working. Venezuela is really not doing well right now, I don't know if you guys know this, but there is a lot of violence, starvation, etc, so definitely send prayers their way. We have so many Venezuelan members, and we meet tons of them who have only been here for a few months. It is really sad, especially since so many of them didn't come with all of their family.) But anyways, the lesson went good, and she accepted a baptism date for the 21st! (Kind of, she said she would pray about it.) But we had a second lesson on the 6th with a member, Sis. Fuentes. We told her about Isnelda and she though she might have met her 2 months ago because their sons go to the same school, but she wasn't sure if it was the same person. So when we knocked on her door, Isnelda and Hna Fuentes saw each other, and immediately embraced! It was so cool! That lesson was on the BOM, and the spirit was so powerful. Hna Fuentes shared a story about how her youngest son couldn't walk, and how hard that was for her. She shared the scripture her huisband showed her, and it was about faith and receiving no witness until after the trial of your faith. To make long story short, she bore her testimony very powerfully about the BOM and how she knows that God speaks to us through its words. Her son later started to use his tiny tiny deformed legs, and now he is perfectly healthy! Let me say, it was amazing. And we committed them to church, and Hna Fuentes and her family were able to pick them up, and they camed on a fast sundy so all the ward members bore their testimonies, which are so strong! Ah, it was perfect! And Samuel and Daniel both loved church, they stayed for all three hours. But we also had three of our less actives make it to church too! It was a miracle!!! I was sitting up on the stand (I have been playing the piano for the last two weeks, not sure where their pianist is, haha. We don't know her..) And so I didn't see when Marcial made it, but once Sacrament started I had time to look around, and there he was, right by Hna Rosario!!! I cannot tell you how much joy I felt at that moment, it was truly so amazing. It is so humbling being able to work with God's children. And we had a lesson with Isnelda later that night, and it was so good! I love Samuel, he is so elect! I just hope his dad lets him get baptized, because Isnelda said he is against children being baptized. We explained about the age of accountability, but we will have to see. He is so cute, though, while he was reading the pamphlet, he raised his hand like a preacher while reading silently to himself, ha.

There are other mircales from yesterday, like the Dominican family we finally had a lesson with, and now we have 5 new investigators!!!! Ah, the mission is great, and God is soo good!

I love you all so much, and I now have another Brother! Welcome to the family Brock!

Love,

Hermana Stokes