A week of Miracles

Sami had a great week with lots of missionary miracle moments! And she actually sent a nice newsy letter to tell me about it!
HELLO!
 
Hna Enders and I saw a ton of miracles this week! We had our zone conference on Wednesday in Talca so we came back charged from that and with a resolve to search out all the less active members on the ward list (our ward list is 39 pages long and only about 120 people attend church actively). So we wanted to clean up the list and find some inactive and less active members to teach to help strengthen the ward and hopefully gain some more of the Bishop´s confidence. The next day (Thursday) we picked some names and looked all morning, we found some new investigators (from houses were the members didn't live here anymore) and some inactive members who were willing to receive visits from us. We were feeling pretty good about it, we had an efficient morning and everything. Then in the evening, we had an appointment with our investigator Pedro Barrillas (a contact of our Zone Leaders when they were working with us in Constitución), and Pedro is always great at inviting his friends or neighbors to come it and share with us because he feels so good when we share (the Spirit) and he always tells us of blessings he sees after we are there (the hand of God). It´s pretty cool. So anyway, we are sharing with him, his son Pedro, and one of his friends named Pancho. Then he invites 2 more people to share with us. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and by the end of the lesson, all 5 of them wanted their own Book of Mormon.

One of the men there (they were all old men with the exception of 13 year old Pedro who made the cutest comments about how youth today are straying from the good path), is the husband of an inactive member. When he married his wife she was an active member of the church and he was very Catholic. He told her that he was the man of the house and that she couldn't go to this church anymore so she stopped. Then a few years ago he started questioning his testimony of the Catholic church and studying about the reformation. He was really interested in the Book of Mormon and asked if he could buy one and he invited us to his house this coming Thursday to share with his wife and all his family. So please pray that that goes well.

One of the other men is named Hector Fuentes. He also invited us to his house to share with him but before we left he asked us if we knew Jaime Fuentes (one of the YSA who has been a member for almost 2 years). We said that of course we knew him and asked if they were related (same last name and everything). He laughed and told us that he is his DAD!!! We didn't know that Jaime had a dad (he lives with his mom). Well he does, and we shared with his on Saturday night with Jaime there too. Not only did Hector invite a friend to share with us (her name is Francisca and she is another miracle)but he also told us that from that moment on he wasn't going to go anywhere without the Book of Mormon (we went over to give him his copy and explain more about the Restoration). It was really hard not to sit there with my mouth hanging open. We don´t usually hear that as missionaries. But this isn't even the end of the story. Hector and Francisca both came to church on Sunday and they LOVED IT! They absolutely loved it and want to follow he rest of their lives. That is what they told us. We are going to invite them both tonight to prepare to be baptized (we have an appointment with both of them, but in their separate homes). I am so excited. Seriously. So many miracles.

Even though we have seen a lot of miracles, we still need more. Gladys and Diego haven´t come to church for a few weeks. We haven´t been able to find Gladys (she is NEVER home) and whenever we talk to Diego he acts really strange so we still don´t know what is wrong. I´m really worried about them and it´s tough because I want to help them but it seems like what we are trying isn't working. I guess we need to trust more in Heavenly Father on this one and see what we can do differently to help them better.
We have interviews this Thursday so hopefully I will be able to be even more recharged afterward. Thanks for being great and loving me.

love,
Hermana Smith