"I wish we could give her a blessing.."

Hej hej!!

What a wonderful week! We have had tons of help that is for sure. I have realized being a missionary that I am a much better follower then leader or that my personality as a missionary becomes very white. My main goal is to make peace with everyone. I find that it helps in that I can then get along with all different types of people. With S.J. it helps her to work as hard as she wants to and at the same time helps me take charge sometimes and slow us down. I found we have a good balance and we LOVE the work especially together. Its nice too that we have similar issues with our feet and so we are able to do the same workouts and push each other in that sense. I think this is the first time in the mission that I have lost weight instead of gained actually.  Well I am always up to do what the Lord has in store but I also would love to stay together!! 

This week we read in the white handbook about emailing and that same day I checked my email to see when Manal get skype us and there were some pictures people had emailed me and S.J. and I just had to laugh. We know that the spirit probably wouldn't leave us for looking at a picture in your own email but we should only email and look at our emails on Mondays. So we laughed about how simple the rules really are and how simple they are to break. We thought if you really can't hold these small ones what will happen when your not in this missionary bubble and have big rules. Self discipline!! 

 

We read some of 1 Nephi 11 with a member this week and try to help her better understand what is going on. In verse 17 when Nephi answers the angel that he doesn't know the meaning of all things but that he know God loves his children.. it was a huge reminder to me. I shouldn't worry that I don't understand everything because first I'm not meant to and second.. I know God loves me so its okay!

I have been reading in the Laws and Ordinances chapter and realized that I have never actually taught the new lessons to a new convert. But I'm happy at the same time because the wards have always been good at taking over and helping the new member feel welcome. My favorite part in the chapter is about missionary work. We ended up teaching 3 different people that section and it felt so good! I have seen again and again when a member starts to share the gospel they have so much joy that comes to their life and so many blessings. Like in Matt 10:39 If we can only forget ourselves we will find ourselves.. I have come to understand this scripture more and more as my faith increases and my testimony grows. 

Our investigators are doing well. We don't know what to do with Princella right now. She really has moved away from a progressing invest.. or she is just very slow progressing maybe. Its hard to even meet with her at this point. Nothing like Maria and Ronald who we still meet with everyday though. Maria is doing awesome! She received an answer Saturday night that what she was doing is right. She prayed about the date we had set for this Saturday and when she came to church yesterday and told how she got her answer. She said when she was praying about baptism she had been feeling afraid and as she was praying she just felt someone wrap their arms around her. I'm sitting there listening to this but its in Spanish and yet I understood and you could just tell how much it meant to her. She wrapped her arms around S.J. to show what it was like. Agh I love being apart of these peoples lives. She loves coming to church and she loves reading the Book of Mormon. We listened to the prophet speak and he told a story about prayer and how he had almost lost a 5 dollar bill in the wash and he prayed that his money would be safe. He ended up still having his money and it was one experience that strengthened his testimony that God answers prayers. Well the exact same thing happened with Maria and a 5 dollar bill. Agh awesome! She will be baptized this Saturday and noon. Bob is doing pretty good. He is really searching for an answer as to whether he should be baptized on Sept 1st. He knows so much about the church and loves it but he doesn't feel that he needs to be baptized again.

I felt like we had a lot of guidance on Friday when we met with Bob. He has been very negative before but we started bringing a member named Linda on the teaches and I feel like she has done a lot to soften him. He can get very worked up but we were able to say the things he needed and he was able to set a date for the 1st of Sept and we are really hoping he will receive the answer he needs before then. All we can do is pray and continue to teach with the spirit. It was awesome though we had planned to teach him and go over the questions for baptism. Right after the prayer he says,"I have a question and I want to talk about baptism today. What are the qualifications for baptism? And how do you guys baptize here?" Haha we couldn't believe how well we had planned for him. He even came to the baptism the next morning and got to see it in person. 

The baptism Saturday was in our chapel but was in the other ward. Her name is Mary and just about didn't go through with it. She met the elders like 1 month ago and was sooooo prepared... or golden!! A member found her 3 days after praying in the temple to find someone and it was one day after she had prayed that God would help her. She was ready to be baptized and take all the steps to get there. But the day before she had many friends who had said if she were to continue reading the Book of Mormon or get baptized they would never talk to her again. She told the elders Saturday morning she wasn't going to go through with it. So they come to the church where we are playing sports and the elders say to me she doesn't want to go through with it so we have told her to read and pray then he says, "I wish we could give her a blessing.. " Agh haha so basically we kicked the elders out and fixed everything up at the church and they went and saved the day. She cried for an hour and finally they offered her a blessing. She sat 10 minutes in silence and then turns to her son and says,"Come on were going to the church to have a party." He has downs and doesn't love to come to the church so she said it would be a party. I helped her to get dressed and she told me about this and then.. the coolest part was in the closing prayer the woman thanked Heavenly Father that we could come and have a spiritual party. Wow talk about being led to say something!!

I love this work. Thanks you for your support and prayers!! 

Have a wonderful week !

Love Syster Sprague