Sacrifice, Love and Heart

These Elders are great examples of Sacrifice, Love and Heart!

Elder Reynolds and Elder Marquez

Hello everyone!! This week was a great week!! It was sure a cold one too!! I have no idea what happened for every day it rained and we sure were not ready for it! lol The worst part is we don't have a very good house so we have lots of.....opportunities for the water to find us haha! But it's all good. Elder Marquez is such a great example to me. He is the district leader and one of the sisters in our district has been having problems with her hips and been in extreme pain. Even though we have been crazy busy with our own schedule, He has been just as attentive to her as to our investigators. It is so amazing the sacrifice other missionaries have wrought to be here out here on their mission and to stay on the mission. Crazy story of the week is one Elder in our zone got kissed.... haha by a pit bull! I don't know all the details but unfortunately he had to get emergency surgery and has 50 or so stitches on his face but he's a strong Elder and is still on the mission! I feel so bad when I think woe is me with my little bruises, or little pruebas de fe (faith tests) that I have when others are so willing to bring forth this work no matter the cost. It is such a testimony builder to me to see others making these sacrifices. What I love most is that it doesn't matter the amount of sacrifice each of us make. All God requires of us is our heart and what sacrifice we can give. Like the parable of the woman with the one penny. haha I don't know what it is called in English lol Now I am having the problem of not being able to speak English or Spanish!! haha But anyways we had a great humbling week this week. Full of problems and full of trials but all for our well being.

Our investigators are progressing slowly but surely. We had actually quite a few investigators committed to coming to church but....none of them came.. ha It was frustrating but I love what our president of the mission said to us. That the reason investigators don't keep their promises is due to the fact that they don't understand fully what or why we are asking it.

We had an awesome experience in one of our lessons. We were teaching a less active and his spouse is of another religion and doesn't really like us coming to visit haha. They fight a lot because they have 2 kids and want them to be baptized. But one of their kids was so sick and the less active asked us for a blessing. How humbled we were because one all eyes were on us and two it was almost like the spouse was scowling at us because we were giving her daughter a blessing of our faith. But we shared a lesson beforehand and talked about faith and explained how Jesus works by faith and you could just tell her heart was being softened as we spoke. We later gave the blessing and in it said that the very next day she would be completely healed and ready for school and everything. This was important because this week was finals for all the kids and the little girl could hardly get up let alone she couldn't speak or open her eyes... After the lesson we looked at each other like what..... hahah but sure enough the next day, there wasn't a trace to be found that she was sick. The authority found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the power of God. I believe that with all my heart. I had the opportunity to give the blessing which I was nervous about because I could just tell the spouse was eyeing me closely but once I started the blessing, it started flowing and the most amazing part was when the spirit instructed me to say "Te digo sea sanada (I tell you to be healed)." I literally felt this power inside of me I have never before felt. It was such an amazing experience. I know this church is true!! I love you all! We need all of you in this work. I love you!
Elder Reynolds