Buenos dias!
Todo bien por aca.... my bike scrapes are all gone now, I have a new (well, new to me) bike, we're working super hard, having a great time, our investigators are great, and I love being a missionary.
The End.
No but really, life is super great. Hard days, great days, moments so filled with the Spirit I think I'll just melt into a little puddle of joy, moments that are discouraging....you know, mission life!
Last week when we planned, we both felt like we were going to have a really great week. Lo and behold: we did! We were out knocking some doors last week and there was a teenage boy playing around with a soccer ball in the street. As we were walking up to him, I asked him something vague about soccer in English, to which he relplied "No speak English" My VERY huera (huera=anglo girl) self told him in Spanish "That's ok, me neither!"
This boy's name is Martin. He just barely arrived a few months ago from Honduras. He spent a few months on the border between Mexico and the US and learned to love the Bible in that time. He loves God so so much and has such a solid understanding of how He operates. We taught him about prophets and the Restoration on Thursday and he LOVED it. We asked him if he would be baptized if he prayed and received an answer from God that these things were true and that this church has the priesthood authority to baptize in the name of Christ today, and before we even finished the question, he said "Yes. Yes of course." So we invited him to pray that night, but the Holy Ghost was so strong and I felt like we should pray with him then and there (which I really don't like doing because it's just super awkward for the most part). He gave a sweet, sincere prayer, asking for our safety and thanking God for sending us to him, but he didn't mention anything about our message and he didn't ask God to help him know if the things we taught him were true. He closed the prayer, but didn't move, so we stayed kneeling in his kitchen for another 4 or 5 minutes. He started praying again, inaudibly at first, but then he said, almost whispering "I want to know if this church has the Spirit in it and if I should be baptized again." We knelt in silence for another few minutes before he finally looked at us. We asked how he felt. "Good." "Do you feel that that is an answer from Heavenly Father?" "Yes. I think this church has the Spirit in it."
Oh my goodness, it was such a wonderful, peaceful, exciting moment. We could feel Heavenly Father's love for Martin and it is such a privilege to be a part of his coming closer to God. Please please pray for him to continue reading and praying and feeling that this is giving him a greater understanding of God's plan for him. He's such a good kid and we're so excited for him!
We also started teaching a 31 year-old woman named Estela who is very downtrodden by mistakes and poor choices she has made. She has led a very rough life, but it has been wonderful, even in just these 2 visits we've had with her, to teach her about Jesus Christ and help her see how living His teachings will take away that awful burden of guilt that she feels.
I love being a missionary, I love God, I love the Savior, I love my mission president, I love my companion, and I love you more than my new bike.
Hermana Manzana
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