1-12-15

Hola mis cariños!!

Wow!  What a week!  This upcoming week is the last week in the transfer and we´ll get transfer calls on Saturday night.  Both Hermana Toone and I are really hoping we´ll get to stay together for at least one more transfer!  But who knows :)  We´ll see.  She is the best.  I´d say she´s been my best friend here as a missionary and I am so grateful that of all the people I got to train, it was her!  She is the best and she is doing so great.  I´m so proud of her!  And.....I promise I haven´t really been counting.....I´ve just thought about this the last few days since I got my email from the mission office telling me my release date....I only have 3 transfers left!!!!!!!  Ahhhh!!!!  What?!  That´s crazy.

Ok...so I´ve gotta tell you about some really wonderful people we´ve been working with.  I have been feeling so grateful and blessed here to work with so many recent converts and menos activos and other people who are also preparing to be baptized.  It really is an honor to be apart of the process of helping someone as they are learning about the church, no matter what phase of the learning process they´re at...before or after baptism.  There are so many less actives and recent converts who need support and help! 

Some recent converts we´ve been working with:

1) Beatriz (mom), Pamela and Selena (daughters)...they got baptized in Barrio 9 and recently moved here and we´ve been trying to help them feel more comfortable here.  We had some extra tickets and they came with us to the David Archuleta Concert and loved it!  The daughters had some really good friends in their old ward that were there, so they were so excited to see them when they went.  Pamela is 18 and really wants to serve a mission.  Both the daughters are alot more soft spoken, but they are the sweetest!  We have had the opportunity to start re-teaching them all of the lessons and they love it.  I have been learning so much about how much recent converts and menos activos need help and support from members.  Missionaries come and go, but members are there to stay and can be an even greater influence on these new members than the missionaries.  Missionaries really are in each ward to help the members with their missionary work.

2) Sunny....is from Nigeria and was baptized last April.  He is doing SOO good!  He found the church at a really vulnerable time in his life.  He has a daughter that lives in another city in Madrid and he is just so faithful and good.  He has now received both the Aaronic and Melchezidek priesthood, has been starting his family history work and is now starting to prepare to go the the temple!!!  It is really amazing and wonderful to get to be apart of this process, in helping someone who hasn´t grown up with the church, who doesn´t have the knowledge we have.  It´s such a blessing to help someone understand knew things and progress in the Gospel!

Menos Activos that we´re working with that are progressing:

3)Viktor....is Español....and actually served a mission in Spain when he was younger.  He is awesome! He actually lived in Utah for a long time and speaks English really well.  But, it was a fluke how we met him.  We met this girl on the bus randomly, who turned out to be a menos activa and the daughter of the current Stake President here.  We went over to visit her at her house (she lives with her parents) and this random guy was there....a friend of the family who lives with them....come to find out, he´s actually a member too and hadn´t been to church for 6 years.  2 Sundays ago he came to the church for the first time in 6 years, which is HUGE!  If we hadn´t have met the other girl (Gloria) we would have never really met him, and after we visited him, he came!  People need friends, they need to know that someone cares about them and if they weren´t at church.  And sometimes it just takes someone to say, ¨hey...we miss you at church, where have you been?¨  Viktor knows so much about the Gospel, and has always given really thoughtful answers to the questions he´s been asked.  He has so much to offer, but doesn´t realize it about himself!  But, we have been so excited to see him progress just these last few weeks.  He happened to be in the church when we had an investigador come in and he helped us give him a tour and talked with him.  He even told us to that he LOVES doing missionary work!  Being a missionary really is the best remedy to feeling happier in our lives....because we have to forget about ourselves and our problems to do it.  In a way, it really forces us to get our focus on others rather than on ourselves.  Viktor knows that and so it´s been wonderful to see him start coming back, little by little.

4) Diana....is also Española and was baptized when she was young with her mom.  and well, she hasn´t been progressing too much, but there is still hope!  she has a really bad smoking problem, but came to church for the first time a month ago!  The Bishop had come with us to a lesson with her a while back and offered to buy her a 10 ticket pass....to come to the church, 10 times....she doesn´t have a job and lives far with 2 kids, so the fact that the Bishop offered to do this for her was huge!  It was an incredible lesson.  The bishop bore a powerful testimony of the importance of coming to the church and of the importance of quiting smoking!  I felt the Spirit so strongly when he spoke.  And then she finally came to church once, but she was really sick, and then was gone during the holidays with her family.  but, por fin, we got ahold of her this week and she said she´s going to come again!  We are SOOO hopeful!!

5) This last week and a half we found 2 really wonderful prepared people!

Santiago: this cute Ecuadorian man who we contacted on the street and gave him a book of mormon.  He said he has a wife and 2 kids....and we´re pretty sure he´s actually married!!!!  YAY!!!  That´s HUGE!  They´re never married!  And the other struggle we have usually is that people always work on Sundays....and because jobs are so scarce, they take the jobs no matter what.  So, we got ahold of Santiago within the next few days, and he agreed to a lesson in the church.  And HE CAME!!!!!  He didn´t fail us!!!  Hallelujiah!  That is a BIG DEAL in case you´re wondering :)  We gave him a tour of the church (that´s when Viktor happened to be there) and then another member (named Jessy who is also SOOO wonderful and has been helping us in lessons alot) came.  We watched the peli of Joseph Smith (the short 15 min. movie) and he loved it!  He said there was a time in his life where he didn´t know the things of God, but that now he knows he needs to come to know God more in his life for his family and personally.  He is SO cute!  He told us....without us even asking him....that he wanted to come to church....he said that this week he had to reorganize some things in order to come to church the next week but that he would do it!  So, we´re expecting him now this Sunday!  He also accepted a fecha (date) to be baptized!  January 31st is the goal! So we are SOOO excited for him!  Hopefully we can meet his family and help them more too.

6)Doli: she was a random lady that we met on the bus and started talking with.  She is from Bolivia and she is the sweetest lady ever.  The hard thing with her....she also works "interna".....it´s the job that so many people work here (working with an older person in their home) they´re never aloud to leave the home!  If the person they work for is nice, sometimes, they´ll allow them to go if they come with them to church (usually they´re in a wheel chair and they have to wheel them around)....anyway....Doli is so wonderful.  She has questions and is eager to learn and wants to know for herself.  We taught her the Restoration the first time, and gave her some scriptures to read and we visited her the next day and she had already read everything!  She is truly seeking and we are just hoping and praying that she will be allowed to come to church.  We have invited her to pray at the end of our lessons with her, and every time, she has thanked God for us for coming to her home to help her.  she is the sweetest and it has been such a privilege to see her grow and learn too.  She also accepted a date to be baptized Jan. 31st!  We just got to get her to church now! 

Anyway....there are so many other people and potencial people that we´ve been meeting.  We are giving our all and I know the Lord is blessing us because of that.  You only get the opportunity to serve a mission once and I want to give my all.  I am so grateful for the principle of obedience.  Exact obedience really does bring blessings conditioned upon our faith.  Our time and our hearts are what the Lord asks of us.  Hermana Toone was telling me about a talk she read by Tad R. Callister....I´ve gotta find it and read it, but something he said that she quoted has really stuck with me.  When we truly come unto Christ, our nature changes, not just our behavior.  I love that and I know that is true. 

Ok...I´ve gotta go!  Love you!!!  Have a great day and week!!!!

The Church is TRUE!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Carroll