Hola family and friends,
Well like always I just spent 20 minutes writing my email to all of you guys and then guess what . . . it got deleted. So I won't be able to write as much or in as much detail as I wanted too, but well that’s the life. I guess I said something in my previous email attempt that was going to hurt someone and the Lord didn’t want me to send it! haha! I hope that is not the case but anyways here we go . . .
I hope that you all had an amazing Halloween this past week. We as missionaries didn’t get dress up and go out. We had to stay inside. But it was fun. We played Risk and talked about how we can improve our work! It was a good Halloween. But definitely not the same as the ones back home. I hope that you enjoyed it!
Anyways this week was perhaps one of the hardest weeks that I have had on my mission. I learned two things: the first is that the mission is an emotional roller coaster, and the second is that we must experience opposition in all things.
The week started out great! I had a day of amazing Spanish where I talked was able to speak as I had never spoken before. I also taught like I have never been able to teach before. It was an amazing blessing from the Lord and I felt like I was on fire.
And then Friday came . . .
We had a lesson with the family we thought were our most promising investigators, Alexis and Alexandra. We were ready for what we thought was going to be an amazing lesson with the Branch President. We came in, we all sat down, and we sang the opening hymn. Alexis and Alexandra didn’t sing with us. After the prayer they pulled out the list.
Someone had handed them a great little list of anti-Mormon scriptures along with some other anti-Mormon stuff. They began to read off the scriptures and even though we answered every question with complete ease, the seed of faith that had been planted by the Lord had been removed and buried by some conspiring servant of the devil.
It was hard to go through that lesson and to hear all the opposition that they had chosen to believe. It was so full of contention and so false that the spirit was just gone. It was really cool to see the way it came back when we all bore our testimonies and when we knelt down to pray. I could just feel the love of the Lord that he had for these people. I started to just bawl like a baby.
Every time that I had looked at this family I would think about how families can be together and how they were choosing the path that the Lord wanted them to be on. We now knelt in prayer knowing that they had chosen to get off of that path. I just couldn’t help but deeply feel the sorrow I had for them. It was hard for me to realize that they had just delayed their opportunity to be sealed together as a family. It was a hard night (as you can imagine) but as we went back to the apartment, I had the opportunity to pray and ask Heavenly Father to get me back on my feet. It was amazing to feel His love pick me up that night and the next day during stories.
I want you all to know that I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ on the earth today. There is no doubt in my mind that He is at the head of the church. This church receives so much devilish opposition. This opposition is actually the most blatant evidence that this is truly His church. Why would satan try so hard to destroy a church if it wasn’t the church of God? I hope that none of you have had to deal with this crap . . . having someone try to destroy your faith in God and in our Savior. But if you have, I would encourage you not to listen to man, but listen to God. Get down on your knees and ask Him yourself. You can’t deny a witness from God and God will never lie to you. He will tell you the truth! But a man will just tell you what he wants to tell you, true or not.
I am so thankful for this opportunity that I have to fight in this spiritual war. Satan’s influence in the world is so strong and he is growing everyday. Moms and Dads, don’t let him tear your family apart. God created this gospel to help our families stay together and live in a way that we should. The teachings in the Church of Jesus Christ are His teachings and they bless the family. And the biggest blessing of all is the knowledge that our families can be together forever.
I hope that you all have an amazing week! Enjoy the crisp fall weather and I will enjoy the nice tropical weather.
Never forget who you are, a Child of God, and never forget to do the things that will bring you closer to Him!
I love you all so much thanks for all you do! Have a super fantastic Week!
PS FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!!!!
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