We really worked hard to get people to church this week, and we saw so many fruits from that!
There is one family we´re working with right now, the mom was baptized about 12 years ago, but went inactive soon after. She has been going to the catholic church for years now, and we´ve just recently started visiting her. Her husband and 9 yr old daughter aren´t members. It´s funny though, because we´ve been teaching them the missionary lessons, and we´ve talked about a lot of things. We´ve invited them to pray about Joseph Smith, the plan of salvation, read the Book of Mormon, pray as a family, many things. But I´ve never known why she decided to switch to the Catholic church. I´ve been going over it in my mind for weeks, trying to study out her needs.. then this last week we go over, and Hna Jones hasn´t visited them lots of times, because she´s usually on intercambios when we visit them. So we go, and she just asks the lady straight out, ´´so how come you decided to go to the catholic church?´´ and the woman then told us that she went to our church when she moved to Málaga, didn´t know anyone, only went twice, then found out there was a catholic church in her neighborhood that was closer and she just started going there. Hermana Jones then invited her to come to our church on Sunday, and she told us she´s been wanting to come back to our church, and she wants to bring her daughter! It just hit me really hard that if we don´t invite people they can´t accept. I was trying to think hard about things, never invited her daughter or husband to baptism because I was too afraid of offending them. We invited them that night and they both said yes. The husband is having a more difficult time, but the daughter came to church with her mom yesterday and it was amazing! They loved it. It just really built my testimony that we can´t be afraid to invite people, they will then choose their way, but it´s our job/joy to invite them! How many of us have people in our lives that are ready to accept an invitation to listen to the gospel (if they´re not members) or an invitation to come to church or come back to church? We sometimes complicate things I think, for the fear of offending or thinking ´´well i don´t know why they don´t come...´´ well if you don´t know just kindly ask. I´m sure they´ll have an answer, and most likely it will not offend them especially if they know we´re just doing it out of love. So ask them, and most of all invite them. Give people the chance to say ´´yes!¨ It was a cool learning experience for me.
Also, last pday we had concilio! It was so fun! We talked a lot about charity and obedience and about scriptures in the Book of Mormon that talk about baptism and repentance. I just have such a great love for the Book of Mormon and for President and Hermana Deere. Seriously, I just love the mission. I broke down a couple times last week, ha, once in companion study as we were reading ´´I´ll go where you want me to go´´ I just feel very lucky to get to do this, talk about the gospel, the thing that matters most to me and has brought me so much peace and joy, everyday. Mom, I was reading that convert´s letter to Harrison last week and it really impacted me. It made me want to give even more than I´m already giving. I promise you I´m working hard, but sometimes I worry that I´m not reaching my full potential as a missionary, and that scares me, especially when I look at the calendar. I just want to take full advantage of this experience, I´m relishing in every minute. It´s still hard, people keep failing our citas and sometimes not answering our calls, but we´re finding lots of news and we recognize we can´t control other peoples actions. But something cool that happened! So, on friday we had zone meeting (we gave our taller on obedience and charity- Hermana Jones is the cutest and unlike me she actually enjoys speaking in public so it was fun to do it with her!), but yeah so after we always go eat with our zone at dominos. Well, this man walks by, and I´ve seen him several times but never talked to him. So I point him out to one of the elders, and was like, ´´elder, if you ever see that man you need to contact him, the next time i see him I´ll do it but if you see him before me you do it!´´ and then one of the elders was like, ´´Hermana, why don´t you just go contact him now?´´ and haha how embarrassing that I hadn´t just done that before haha. But yeah, so anyway, I get Hna Jones and we run up and talk to him and he´s not interested. But we gave him a card with our number. Well, that same night he calls us! He was like, ´´yeah, it´s Pablo.´´ and we mouthed ´´who?´´ haha and we paused and he was just like, ´´the one who you talked to today...?´´ and we were just really surprised! Cuz lots of people say they´re gonna call but they never do! Also another man that we apparently met like 2 months ago and gave a card called us this last week and we met with him in the church and set a baptismal date with him! So we´ll have to see where that goes. Fun stuff though.
Well, have a great week!
Love, Hermana Miller
3 Nephi 27:19-22
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