Sunday, September 4, 2016

August 29th, 2016 - "The Rains Came Down and The Floods Came..." Week 66

What a week...the weather has been super strange here in Arica. There have been huge wind/sand storms and on Sunday it rained! It didn't just drizzle, it actually rained! 

Anyways we have had a really hard time contacting our investigators. They have all seemed to drop off the map. But that didn't stop us from enjoying our week, and it forced me to look for all the miracles. 

We planned the ward activity on Wednesday and it was super fun! We had everyone start together in the cultural hall and we explained that we had 8 activities planned, some related to the gospel and others just to have fun. They had an hour to use their time doing what they wanted. However, after participating in an activity they received stars. In the end we all gathered back together and our ward mission leader had decorated the cultural hall and separated it into 3 separate places. He started talking to everyone and told them they had just been resurrected and were waiting to be judged. He ended up diving them in groups according to how many stars they had. We were able to illustrate the importance of filling our lives with good things, that help us progress spiritually if we want to get to the celestial kingdom. It was super fun! 


We had lots of contact with Rosalia this week being that her baptism was scheduled for Saturday. On Wednesday we visited her and reinforced the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy. She asked what we needed to bring to her baptism and we got everything planned. On Saturday Hermana Gemin and I went to the chapel about 3 hours before the baptism to start filling the font. We locked up the chapel and left to work. We had a lesson and then went to pick up Rosalia. She wasn't in her house and wouldn't answer her phone so we decided to just sit there and wait. It got closer and closer to 5 and we didn't know what was happening! We asked our ward mission leader to come pick up the keys and open the chapel for the members that were there waiting. Rosalia never showed up and when she finally called us she asked if we could postpone her baptism. We decided it would be best to cancel her baptism until she is really prepared and keeping better her commitments. We called the elders to ask them to tell the ward mission leader we had decided to cancel the baptism and they asked if he had told us what happened. We ran to the chapel to find that the font had overflowed and flooded the church hallway! Oops....we helped clean up. I never thought I would be able to say that my investigator didn't show up to her baptism and that the church flooded as a result... (when it rained Sunday, the soccer court flooded too...wasn't the best week for the chapel).

We felt we should visit a woman that wasnt in our plans. As we got to her apartment complex we realized the lights had gone out. As we knocked her door a man walked down the stairs and said "my son is a member of your church".  We asked if he was there and he said there was no problem if we went and visited. We climbed the stairs knocked the door and 3 people showed up in the door. Mauricio is a less active that moved here with his family a month ago from Santiago. They invited us in and we sat down and started talking. Mauricio was baptized 6 years ago and his family often went to church with him. When we started talking he said, just about 2 minutes ago I told my mom that she shouldn't worry because the light would come. Then you showed up on my doorstep! I was right!!! He told us his birthday was the next day and that they were waiting to celebrate. He also told us he had lost his Book of Mormon in the move. So i told him we had the best birthday present ever and handed him a Book of Mormon. He started weeping and told us he was beyond happy because he had been asking God to help him find his way in life again. 

I love feeling that the Lord puts me where I need to be exactly when I need to be there. He is aware of all his children and he loves us all equally. The gospel is the brightest light we have to offer to the world and we should never be ashamed to share the gospel!

I love you all so much. Be lights!


Hermana Freedman

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