We had an activity with the youth in the district. The theme was "Mini CCM" They all got their own little custom-made paper name tags and they got to experience one day in the mission field.
First we had classes for all of the first three lessons to train the youth a little, then we all went out with pamphlets and pass-along cards to the plaza to talk to some people. We met a lot of people from different countries because Santa Cruz is a big tourist spot. There were people from the states, Germany, Korea, Italy, France, etc. etc. They all spoke Spanish because they were mostly foreign exchange students. Anyways, it was a lot of fun and the youth had a blast once they got over the initial nerves.
While one group was working in Hermana Alvarez´s and my sector, they set up a baptismal date with one of our oldest contacts here named Ines. She accepted a baptismal date for the 14th of November but it fell through as of yesterday because she couldn't come to church.
At the end of the activity, we had Ana´s baptism. And it was so beautiful. When she came up out of the water, she looked so happy that Hermana Alvarez immediately started to cry. I didn't cry right then, but I seriously couldn't stop smiling. Ana gave her testimony and said that she had been investigating the church for a little more than 8 years, and she never wanted to be baptized at the time when the missionaries before us extended the invitation. But she said that God knows our time, and He knows what we need to hear. She said that with Hermana Alvarez and I, she heard what she needed to hear, and she knew that the time is now. Needless to say, at that point I was crying. hahaha The whole thing was just so beautiful. We had a lot of help from the members and a lot of the missionaries who were in the Mini CCM activity were able to attend.
I´m so grateful for the whisperings of the Spirit. It is so important to have the Spirit in missionary work. We wouldn't have found Ana without his influence. God really does know our time and He knows when people are ready to accept the Gospel. The missionaries just have to be ready to receive instructions on where to look.
In other news, President Warne recently changed all of our key indicators. Now we just focus on baptisms, confirmations, baptismal dates, church attendance and temple attendance. We don´t count lessons with members or other lessons or anything like that anymore because President was worried that we were focusing too much on the numbers and not on the people. I think it´s great. It gives a new outlook to the mission. And he´s right. The focus should be completely on the people.
This last Sunday a less-active couple who we've been trying to bring to church for the longest time finally came!!!!! We were so happy!!!! In the same day, a less-active sister and her daughter also came to church for the first time in a long time. It was a great day. Hermana Alvarez and I were absolutely ecstatic. =D
We found a new person this last week named Gloria. She is really receptive and she likes to listen to the lessons. Actually, she used to attend church with her LDS friends when she lived in Santiago, and she already has a Book of Mormon. She says that she would love to keep learning, but she's afraid that she can't dedicate as much time as we do to studying the Gospel or going out to preach like a missionary. We assured her that church members don't have to go out every day and preach like the missionaries do, but she didn't seem convinced. She was receiving the Jehovah´s Witnesses before, so she thinks that it's the same with us. So we´re going to bring a member with us to the next lesson. She's such a cool lady. I love her. :D We´re going to extend a baptismal invite in the next lesson.
We had another interesting experience in an Almacen this last week as well. We felt like we should go and talk to a little old lady who was sitting out front knitting, and we found out that she was an inactive member. She said hasn´t been to church in years! Almost all of her family has been baptized into the church and they haven't gone to church, either. But as we were talking to her, her daughter came in to listen, then the neighbors that were walking by started to take notice and walked into the Almacen to listen to us. Then some of their kids showed up. In the end, we had about 15 curious people standing shoulder-to-shoulder in this little Almacen peppering us with questions. We got phone numbers and invited them to church, and we told them about English classes. We're going to see how many of them we can visit this week. :D
Anyways, that´s it for now.
Love you all! CHAOOOOOO!
-Hermana Darley
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| Ana's baptism!!!!! |
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