Up's and Down's

It was a very busy, stressful, amazingly spiritual, heart-breaking, learning week! We had cosechas in basically every area in our zone, so I was able to visit Simón Bolívar, Capotillo, Maria Auxiliadora, Villas Agrícolas, and we had one here in  Gazcue as well! I like cosechas-being able to help other missionaries and being able to see how different this country is from one place to another. We were able to help the Elder´s put fecha bautismales, we were able to animar their investigators, we saw many miracles! They really help our zone become more united. Because if we´re not untited, we´re not the Lords (that sounds awkward in english....) haha

We weren´t able to see Legna for the whole week because she was working A LOT. Like, overtime. So we wrote her a letter of everything we wanted to say to her as if it was a lesson. It worked out pretty well! On Friday night we were supposed to have her baptismal interview and so we were waiting at the church with our district leader and our ward mission leader. Legna never showed up. She wasn´t answering her phone either. It was already too late to walk to her house and still be in the house on time. So the next morning she still wasn´t answering. We got to her house at 10 in the morning and her car was there, but she wasn´t coming to her door.....so we waited. We ended up doing our weekly planning outside of her house....haha....becasue we didn´t want to lose any time. Eventually at 12*30ish she woke up or something and we were able to talk to her. She told us she needs more time to be baptized. That this passed week she hasn´t even read in the book of mormon because she´s been so busy and worried about work and making money. She also told us a couple of other things, and I am grateful that she was honest with us. I´m going to admit, I cried after. I was just so confused as to why HeavenlyFather wouldn´t bless her in her work like we have promised her time after time. But I know that he still loves her. And he can only bless us as much as we put in. I don´t know how to describe everythign I learned, I´m not very good with words, But I do know that heavenly father loves us. We´re still helping her prepare for baptism, so she´ll get baptized soon :)

We had zone conference this week! Hermana Jensen was asked to do a special musical number with her violin and another elder playing the piano. They divided the mission into 3 days of conference, so she played everyday! But, being her companion, somehow I was roped into being the singer....luckily it wasn´t a solo, though. We did Savior Reedeemer of my Soul. It was BEAUTIFUL (other than my voice haha) I sang with different people every day, so it was cool! President cried every single time :)

We´ve been working a lot with Andreas Santana. I can´t remember if I´ve talked about him or not, but he contacted us in the street and has come to church a bunch-he has been to president and hermana smith´s house, and he is so cool! He is so impressed by us as a church, but most importantly he says what he feels at church and when he is with us is peace and he want´s that all the time! We invited him to be baptized and he said he want´s to, but he wants time to keep learingin, but he will be baptized soon! 

As many times as I have felt down this week, thinking why people aren´t getting baptized as fast as they have in the past or in other areas, I have felt good remembering my real purpose as a missionary. Hermana Jensen is teaching me way more than I am teaching her :) We´re doing well! and we are working hard!

Love you all! Have the greatest week ever!

Hermana Lawrence

(we set up my hammock for p-day today!)

Another week of miracles!

Another amazing, miracle-filled week! There are definitley challenges everyday, but it´s just Heavenly Father making sure that we deserve the miracles! On Tuesday we were searching for a menos-activo familia. We didn´t really have an exact address, but I thought I knew what apartment building they lived in, so we just went to a random door and asked if they knew the family. They didn´t...so then we contacted them. We asked them if they believed in Christ or something like that and they said ¨were baptist¨ and then sent us away. But we were determined to find this family. So then we went to a different member´s house to ask where the menos activos lived. (Elder Fortuna...he´s a 70 and lives in our ward...haha) The wife told us that it was the second building on

the second floor to the left. So we went back to the other building and went to the second floor and the door on the left. We yelled ¨BUENAS!!¨because knocking doesn´t exist here. A woman stuck her head out and told us to wait a second. Then a minute later a guy came and opened the gate of a door for us.We asked them if they were members, and they said no. But they told us to come in. We went in and we sat on the couch. It was a little unconfortable how it seemed like they knew us so well. But we got talking to the mom, whose name is Dalma and her son, Sanky who is 19 years old. She said ÿou´ve been here before! It´s been a long time!¨ we told her that
we had never been to her house before and she seemed just as suprised as we were! She told us we looked like missionaries from a different church that had been there before. We explained that we were different missionaries and then Sanky started showing pictures that he had on his phone of the TEMPLE! He said that he could see it right outside one of his classroom windows and he has always thought that the gold guy on top was cool. This 19 year old non member (yet) literally had pictures of the temple on his phone because he thoght it was cool. Like....that´s a miracle in and of itself! They then fed us dominican pasta and invited us to come back on Saturday. So on Saturday we went back and we found that Dalma has other sons! We ment Yohansel, who is 30 years old. The second we walked into the house, Yohansel was so suprised! He was so attentive to the lesson (which ended up being like 2 hours long because they had so many questions and were SO interested!). We gave Dalma and Sanky copies of the Book of Mormon the first time and they had read it, and Yohansel was telling us that he wanted one as well, so we gave him one as well! He kept it close to him the rest of the night (they fed us dominican spagetti and tostones....again.....just becasue I said I liked tostones. You really need to be careful about what you say you like in this country....because the people will give it to you. For example one time I told someone I liked their shoes and they tried giving me their shoes...haha) at the dinner table he had it as well. We invited them to be baptized and Yohansel said yes! He´s preparing for the 29th of this month. He was a little nervous about it being so fast but then he was like ¨YES! I CAN BE BAPTIZED ON THE 29TH!¨ The next day he came to church and he loved it! and was particiapting a lot! Another testimony builder that Heavenly Father truely prepares his children, we just need to find them! We are still working with the rest of the family for baptism. And we still haven´t found the menos activo family...

Sunday we had 7 investigators at church! It´s crazy how one week it is difficult to have one investigator and then this week we had 7! Hard work is paying off and Heavenly Father is blessing us! 

We were doing a cosecha in Villa Francisca on Sunday, in which each missionary was given 2 copies of the Book of Mormon because President told the zone leaders that we would see a lot of success if we used the Book of Mormon in the cosechas. Hna Jensen and I contacted a 10 year old girl using the Book of Mormon and then we left. A couple of minutes later we saw her running down the road towards us and panting said ¨my grandma wants a book! Can she have one?¨ We then went back and gave her grandma the Book of Mormon! It was a cool expierence! We gave away our four books within 30 minutes! We needed more! Everyone has seemed very excited when we have given them a book!  We have been giving away a TON of books of mormon recently and it is so much fun! I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON!

Legna is getting baptized on Saturday! She´s amazing! I am praying that everything goes well! 

LOVE YOU ALL! Have the best week ever and try to see the miracles in every day....every hour even :)

Love, Hermana Lawrence

Milagros! (Miracles!)

This was a crazy, miracle-filled, spiritual week! On Thursday we were so blessed to be able to go to the Temple for the first time with Pte and Hna Smith! In the Temple, I was trying to recieve revelation about something specific....and I didn´t recieve it. But I know that Heavenly Father works in different ways than we normally want, and I have been able to recieve answers in different ways! But while inside, I was looking at the picture of when Jesus Christ came to the America´s. I have probably looked at that picture a million times (we show it to so many people every day) but for some reason it just really got to me. I thought about what it might be like when He comes again. Will Heavenly Angels Sing? Will the Earth know spring? (that song came to mind haha) I do know that if the day comes soon, I want it to be a happy day for me, I want to be able to touch His hands and feet and be worthy for Him. The thoughts were kind of changing for me.

Friday we had our Zone/District meeting. At the end, we were making plans to help areas baptize. We had the promise in September that every companionship was going to baptize...and September was ending the next day. So we made our plan and we went out! Hna Jensen and I went to the area of Villa Juana to go ask a little girl´s mom for permission

that the mom wasn´t wanting to give her. We only had an hour because we had to get back to our area for a testimony meeting we had planned with Estela. We rushed to the area in a carrito and then sped walked and then said a prayer before we walked down the alley to the house. The elder´s took us to what they thought was Clariss´house (the little girl). The elder´s left, and  We sat down and started talking to the women inside, thinking that one of them was the mom.....but they weren´t. I didn´t know what to do! WE WERE RUNNING OUT OF TIME! I have no idea how it happened, but somehow they were able to take us a couple of BLOCKS down the street and we were able to meet Clariss and her mom! We got talking to them and then we went upstairs into their house. We invited Clariss to be baptized the next day (saturday, the last day of the month!) and she accepted! Then came the nerve-racking part....the permission because she´s 10 years old. In the past she wasn´t able to get baptized because her mom didn´t want to give permission. But we talked to her and I don´t know

how it happened, but the elders´showed up at the house (I don´t even know how they knew where we were....) and she SIGNED THE PAPER! It was a miracle! The pictures attatched are with the family! Then we had to RUSH to our area to make sure that we got Estela to the church. We were late....but God is great and God is good and we literally showed up at Estela´s door at the exact same time that she did! Then more miracles happened and we got to the church and we had a testimony meeting with Estela, her less-active brother, our ward mission leader, and basically all the missionaries in our zone. THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG. I couldn´t help but cry various times. Towards the end of the testimony meeting we invited Estela to be baptized the next day. She told us that she has been depressed (she had a baptismal date for the 17th but then her husband died on

the 15th and we lost contact with her for a little because she went to Santiago). The assistants (because they´re in our zone) asked if she would like a blessing of comfort. She said yes. So the assistants and the ward mission leader gave her a priesthood blessing. I WAS BAWLING. Even though the blessing was for her, I could feel the comfort as well. I am so grateful for the preisthood! She didn´t end up saying yes to baptism for the next day, but I know that the testimony meeting and the blessing helped a ton! When we went to visit her the next day she was SO much happier and a lot different and then she accepted to be baptized tge 21st of October!

Saturday was amazing with conference and everything! SO MANY ANSWERS TO PRAYERS!Then after the second session, we were walking to go visit people and the Zone leaders called us and told us that Clariss wanted us at her baptism, so we hurried and got there. Turns out the Grandma almost didn´t let it happen unless we showed up...so good thing we were able to get there! And of course I was so happy to be able to see her get baptized! When we talked to her after, she said she felt ¨something¨when she came up out of the water. haha She´s adorable! She gives the best little hugs!

Sunday was amazing with conference AGAIN! For the afternoon session, Pte and Hermana Smith invited us to go to their house with one of our investigators! We took Legna, and boy was it the best thing ever! We watched conference and then we talked for a while afterward. Legna was explaining to them that she really wanted to be baptized. President asked her ¨What is stopping you from being baptized?¨She told him that she has the faith to be baptized, she is just scared about falling away or not knowing enough. They promised her that with her faith, she would be ready. So now we´re helping her prepare to be baptized on the 14th of October! And she wants Pte Smith to baptize her! Then they fed us homemade chili and cornbread! YUM! The night was such a miracle and I am so grateful for leaders that care for us! THe night (conference, conversation with Pte and Hna Smith....etc) really probably changed the whole conversion story for Legna. It was a crucial point! 

Last transfer Hna Jensen and I worked so hard and saw very little results, but I know that Heavenly Father blesses us when we are obedient and diligent, sometimes it´s just later than we want. I know that Heavenly Father loves every one of his children....especially YOU!

Love you! Have the best weeeeek ever!

Hermana Lawrence

PS. Sad news! They took missionaries out of Yamasa.....I am really sad about that, becasue of converts I have there and Hna Jones told me even more of the people we were teaching got baptized there...but that´s why we make sure people get baptized because they have a testimony of the the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not converted becasue they like missionaries. I am praying they´ll put them back in next transfer!