Oh my GOODNESS wow so much to tell you!
First off, AUBREE! I would LOVE to see pics from Winter Formal! It sounds like it was soo much fun :) Send me pics por favor :) I hope you had a great time. I love you! I hope you know that I wish I had more time to write you individually :)
Also....Grandpa! Thank you so much for sending me those explanations! I love it! I got them and I printed them off. Thank you for always writing me every week! I always print off all of your letters in Spanish and have them to read throughout the week. Thank you for always writing and helping me with Spanish. You are the best!
And....ok....we´re SUPER DUPER excited we´ve got a Christmas Devotional with David Archuleta this weekend on Sunday night!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we´ve got 3 investigators lined up to come!
And....speaking of those 3 investigators. We have had some insane miracles happening this week! This week, a reference from Barrio 2 was sent to us (the 2nd Ward in Madrid)....the other hermanas told us that she was their best investigator right now and that she has a date to be baptized the end of this month...Dec 28th! Her name is Janine, so we called her and finally got to set up an appointment with her to meet her! Wow! She is so wonderful! AND....EVEN BETTER....she is living with her aunt and uncle that are also SOOO prepared! We just walked in to their house, Janine greeted us, and the first thing she said was...."hey! I live with my aunt and uncle right now who also are really lost in the world and they need to hear the word of God like me!!¨ Hermana Toone and I just looked at eachother like....wow...seriously?! Ok! Then she took us to their room and we just sat their and talked with them for 3 and a half hours about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, temples, the Plan of Salvation.....I have never been in a lesson where people were asking us soooo many questions, and soooo eager to learn!! It was incredible! The aunt´s name is Rocío and the Uncle is Oswaldo. They are all from Equador. Janine is 25 years old and has a 10 year old son, and when she met the Hermanas in Barrio 2 she said she was a wreck! Her life has been so difficult and challening, and talking with the Hermanas about the Gospel gave her hope for a new beginning and a new life. We found out also that she had tried to commit suicide a couple of months ago before finding the hermanas. Wow! Talk about prepared! Even though she hadn´t met us before in this area, the other hermanas had told her that we would be calling her since she was moving to our area and that she was going to have a wonderful experience here just as she did there with the church and that the church is the same here! She was SOOO excited to have us meet her tios and talk with them....she told us that she wanted us to explain the Plan of Salvation to them and went on and on about experiences she had with the other hermanas when she first met with them. Both Rocío and Oswaldo were SOO wonderful and open-minded and just kept asking us question after question. It was INCREDIBLE. I can´t even explain how incredible it was to feel the Spirit working in that room, touching their hearts, opening and expanding their knowledge about the purpose of this life, and understanding the Role of the Book of Mormon, and how it is what gives us the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. I felt so humbled, and felt so much gratitude in my heart. That all happened on Saturday night and they told us that they wanted to come to church the next day....AND we also told them about the David Archuleta concert which is this upcoming Sunday and they were totally down for coming!!!!!!!!! WE ARE SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!! All 3 of them came to church yesterday along with another women named Renata from Poland and one of the Menos Activas that we´ve been working with named Diana.....all 5 of them came to church yesterday!!!!!! That has never happened before to me here....to have 4 investigators come to church all on the same day....along with a menos activo!!!!!!! So....needless to say.....we were SOOO excited and felt very blessed!!!!! And then on top of that, fast and testimony meeting was SOO wonderful! The Spirit was so strong in that room. Oswaldo was crying! Renata (from Poland) wasn´t able to stay for the rest of the meetings, but Janine, Rocío and Oswaldo stayed for all 3 hours and they loved it!!!!!
We were beaming all day long. What a miracle! After church, we went home with them on the bus, and we found out that Janine is actually going to Belgium at the end of this month to go work for 2 months! Ahhh!!! She expressed to us that she wants to wait until she feels prepared to get baptized after she gets back from Belgium and that she wants to invite all her family to come and see her.... we felt kind of bummed after that....but she told us she still wants to be baptized and she has such a testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith! We are going to keep encouraging her to get baptized at the end of this month and help her understand the importance of the Spirit, and how she needs that gift, that constant companionship and guidance from the Holy Ghost to help her when she´s in Belgium. We shall see :) And....other news....we found out that Rocío and Oswaldo aren´t married....hmmmm.....it will be challenging....there´s lots of paperwork and money involved in getting marriage licenses here. But! The Lord´s work won´t be frustrated. It will all work out. We are just so excited to see them be so excited about the Gospel and about Church. We are thrilled!
Anyway....it´s been a great weekend! Especially after being really sick this week! Well....I´ve just had a really bad cold and cough.....I don´t have a cough anymore, but the cold is still lingering....and now I¨ve gotten my companion sick! So....we´re two sickies just trying to get better :) But, I know the Lord is blessing us!
Other fun things this week...Hermana Toone and I made snowflakes to decorate our room for Christmas....and we´ve been listening to the Living Strings oldy Christmas music every day.....Hermana Toone and the other Hermanas are in love with it! I´m glad to have it with me to remind me a little bit of home and Christmas time at home :)
I love you guys! I am SOOOOO EXCITED to skype you on Christmas!! Holy Moly! And just in case you didn´t here, our p day here will be on Christmas day....so I won´t be sending any emails next Monday....we´ll just talk on skype on Christmas :) It is going to be a party :) I love you all and I hope you have the best day and week before Christmas ever! I am SOOOOOO excited to start opening my Christmas package on Dec. 21 :) I´m countin down!!!!!
Ok....love ya all :)
Con MUCHO Amor,
La Hermana Carroll
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