More Miracles!

We were able to see a lot of miracles this week (pretty much every week...haha) But the week didn´t start without difficulties. Monday night we went to go visit Jefferson to be able to make contact with him every day before his baptism. It´s a long story that I don´t really have the patience to tell, but long story short, we were found in a very awkward situation where a grown man was yelling at us and saying completly horrible things about Jefferson. My heart ached not only because I literally felt the spirit run away from the house, but because Jefferson was listening to everything he was saying. I don`t think I´ve completley gotten over my easiness to cry...so I cried. But then we had a noche de hogar with a member with a reference and she made us food, so tender mercy!  

Jefferson was baptized, and it was really great! 

We´ve been seeing giant steps with Maria Luisa! She´s the CUTEST girl (and apparently she´s Leo and Joanna´s ¨cousin¨) She was at Mutual this week (which started at 4pm and then she was at the church until 8:45pm becasue she went to Jefferson´s baptism! I was watching her during the baptism and she had the BIGGEST smile on her face! We talked to her afterward and she said ¨I want to make myself mormon and be baptized!¨ She loves being at the church and has made a lot of new, good friends!

A family showed up to the baptism that I had never

seen before, and turns out they´re members that haven´t been to church in 6 years! Right now there´s a little girl in our ward that has cancer and is in the US being treated for it, so they´re doing a lot of fundraisers and such here, and many members wear t-shirts with the cause on it. Pedro, the dad, saw a member wearing the tshirt and asked about it, which then turned into sharing about the church and She invited him to the baptism. He showed up with his wife and 3 kids! They´re the sweetest family and they have a strong desire to come back to church! Their 10 year old daughter is also preparing to be baptized!

I am grateful for all the blessings that God gives me

everyday. I am grateful for ¨coincidences¨ that really aren´t coincedences. I am grateful for leaders who guide us. I know that Russell M Nelson is a prophet of God and that he guides us! I am grateful that I am serving a mission! Love you all and hope you have the greatest week ever! 

Les Quiero!

Hermana Lawrence

Elder Renlund

It was a great week! We had little time in our area due to immigration, cosechas, and an APOSTLE visiting our mission, but the time we had, and the time we had out of our area was great as well! 

I have gained an even greater love and appreciation for the Book of Mormon this week. I was having a stressful morning one day and in personal study I was reading in Alma and the greatest feeling of peace hit me. I know that the book of mormon brings peace, comfort and JOY! There have been several times this week that we have been contacting people with the BOM and they´ve never heard of it, but when we explain to them about it, they´re so interested! I can´t imagine my life without the book of mormon, and I´m so glad I can carry it around in my hand all day!

On Saturday ELDER RENLUND came to our mission! It was amazing! At one point, he asked for a whiteboard and I was sitting on the front row and they put the whiteboard right in front of me. He came and looked DEEP into my plack and then looked at me and asked me how to say attitude in spanish. I had a mini freak out for a second and luckily I remembered how to speak! haha He talked about how we need to have a good attitude and effort as we do the work. If we only have one or the other or we don´t have either, we won´t be successful. We need to have BOTH of them.

Jefferson is getting baptized this weekend! We´ve been working with him since I got to the area, and it´s been a long proccess, but he´s excited for saturday! 

We are seeing some good things happening in the work! I´m excited to start this new weeek! Les Quiero mucho! Have the greatest week!

Hermana Lawrence

Great Week!

What a great week! Tuesday we took the journey to the capital to do transfers! I got my new companion, Hermana Walburger from Fresno, California (my first and last companion is from califonia....haha) The training meeting went a little long, and on Wednesday we had consejo de lideres planned, so we stayed in GAZCUE for the night, which means that we got to proselyte in my old area for a couple of hours! We went to go visit a family that I was teaching when I was there (Dalma and Sanky), but for some reason they stopped visiting them (i assume it´s because they stopped going to church, but who knows?) Dalma was there and she accepted to be baptized! It was really cool though, because Hna Walburger is the one who invited her to be baptized (she kind of freaked out when I told her to invite her to be baptized....) but Dalma accepted and now the hermanas are working with her again! 

Wednesday we had consejo de lideres, I learned a lot! And then after we had to go to another meeting in La Romana with the stake presidency and Pte and hermana Smith and the Zone leaders, which ended late...so we stayed in La romana (I felt bad for my companion....starting her mission and the first two nights she didn´t get to sleep in ¨her¨ bed...and I was in meetings all day)

Thursday we woke up and headed to HIGÜEY FINALLY! And after that all of the days kind of mesh together, but we saw some really great and amazing miracles!

One miracle that we saw is that we contacted a girl named Maria Luisa on friday (we were walking in the street and very few times have I felt the spirit tell me so strongly to contact someone...) we went back to teach her on Satruday, she came to church on Sunday and during sacrament meeting she leaned over to me and said ¨yo quiero convertirme¨ which means she wanted to convert and be baptized! In the afternoon on sunday we went and asked her dad to sign her baptismal record for permission, and he said he really wanted this for her as well, and signed it! She´s already invited 3 of her friends to an activity we have on satruday and to church on sunday. And she´s only 12 years old! 

Another miracle is that on satruday night we passed by Enrique, who´s 10 years old. We invited him to church the next day, and he said he wasn´t going to go because the church was too far away to walk and that he was going to go to a church that was closer to his house. And to be honest, the church is VERY far away from his house (probably a couple of miles...) So I (having very little faith) just invited him to come to church, but I wasn´t expecting much. We sat down in sacrament meeting and then....Enrique walked in! ON TIME. He sat down in back of us. He then leaned forward and told us that he couldn´t remember exactly where the church was (he´s been once before) but before he left his house, he prayed and asked God to help him get to church and to find it. He also said that a couple of times he arrived at points where the street split into two and he didn´t know which way to go, but he explained that he had a thought, but not like his own thought, that told him which way to go! He was being guided by the spirit! And he arrived JUST on time! He also told us that he wants to be baptized really bad! 

So overall, the work is going pretty good. We´re seeing miracles for being obedient and working HARD. I know that when we´re happy and have a positive attitude about all we do, not just the fun things, we will be able to better see all the blessings that Heavenly Father has given us, which are a LOT of blessings! The Book of Mormon is powerful, READ IT!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Lawrence