November 25, 2013

Important note about mailing packages:  Please mail all packages through normal US Mail Postage Services (or Canadian Postage Services) and not through private postal service, such as Fedex, UPS, etc. etc.!!! These private services will charge the recipients of these packages (most of them, at least $100.00), or the packages will have to be returned (if not paid for).  

HAPPY THANKS GIVING!

Because Chile doesn’t celebrate thanksgiving I took it upon myself to celebrate the holiday in my studies. 

-Give thanks to the lord Salmos 100 (psalms)

-Thank your heavenly kind with all your soul Mosiah 2:19-20

-Sing to his praise give thanks to his name alma 26-28

-Live in thanks giving daily alma 34 38

-D&C 59 7 give thanks in all things

-Do all things with prayer and thanksgiving alma 46 7

-Give thanks unto go for everything you are blessed with alma 46 32

-Be thankful in all things 1 Thessalonians 5:18

and my 2 favorites

-D&C 78 19 ¨he that recieveth all things with gratefulness, shall be made glorious¨

-D&C 136 28 ¨praise the lord with singing music dancing and with a prayer of thanksgiving¨

be grateful. amen.

Because there is no Thanksgiving the missionaries decided to celebrate Christmas EARLY! Last Monday we had a Christmas family home evening in the church for all of the investigators, recent converts and less actives. We shared a message about Christ, sang Christmas songs and watched a short movie on the birth of Christ. It was so great! We decorated the room with Christmas light and a Christmas tree! In that same room as the baptismal fount, and we decorated that too with lights and even floating candles in the water... I don’t really know if that is against the rules of the church building to have fire in the buildings.. but if it is, I hope the prophet is not reading my blog, and if he is, that’s awesome that he’s reading my blog. And I’m sorry about the whole candle thing. 

It was really fun to decorate for Christmas, I kept thinking of how we decorate our house with an explosion of lights and nativities too.

This week my companion and I realized the pitiful state we were in, not having that many investigators.

…Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUS...yeah we decided to pray and fast about it.

I have been studying a lot about the importance of fasting and praying specifically for things we need. I prayed specifically that I wanted to find a family to teach. A family of 4 with 2 teenagers a boy and a girl. I prayed specifically that I wanted to share an experience in my life that would help the family progress in their knowledge of Christ.

The Lord always answers our prayers, maybe not in the way we expect. and not in your timing, but he always answers.

I expected to find a perfect family. I expected to knock on a door; a family is all sitting there. We teach them, and they all want to get baptized. 

My answer came through a less active that we found this week. She was baptized when she was young and hasn’t been to church for about 20 years. We found her while we were contacting and visited her the next day. During the lesson, we began to talk about her life and her family. She has 2 kids a boy and a girl Cecilia and victor (ages 18 and 12)

During the lesson, her daughter walked in and we were able to teach her too. I felt prompted that I needed to share a story about this gospel in my life. It was only after the lesson I remembered what I prayed specifically for.

The Lord is always willing to bless us and help us. We just need to ask, and then work to achieve what we asked for.

Fasting without prayer is just not eating for a day. Fasting with a prayer of faith provides miracles.