What a week. What a week. Tempted to say it a third time but my goodness I am just so thankful to be serving the Lord in my life right now. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else or in any other place. My time is winding down here in Lebanon and it is starting to get real....my love for these people exceeds all of my previous expectations. Some highlights from this week will be included and also some fundamental things I am learning to help strengthen my own personal testimony of the Restored Gospel.
Angela: story behind this wonderful lady. She saw one of our English class posters and walked into the chapel where we were giving a church tour. Ever since then she has been a faithful student of English and of the Gospel with us as well. This week we taught her how to pray in English and started to teach her about the importance of living prophets and the Book of Mormon. We testified that she come to know that the Lord is working through HIS church today and that those Answers are given to us through the Holy Spirit. She opened up to us about her previous experiences of receiving answers to her prayers. She shared a particular dream she had in which when she woke up from it she was in tears and had accepted Jesus has her Savior. While tell us this powerful, personal story she was in tears and even asked me, out of the 4 people in the room to share my testimony. I did so and let her know about my love for the Savior and how I know he lives. She is so sincere and close to the truth. I could feel the Spirit work through me so strongly.
We had district meeting today. To be honest it was a very powerful and spiritually edifying meeting. Elder Lovell is one member of my District who is from Highland, Utah. He was struggling from the beginning and even when he entered the field, but he has grown so much since we had sat down and talked in the chapel. Lo qué pasa es que he gave a training today about God. He share a lot of personal experiences including his family background. He has such a broken up family and is also adopted. He has such an inspiring courage. I felt the Spirit testify to me how much God loves each of us. I had a role play or....real play....with Elder Peterson today. After talking for a little bit I asked him what the hardest thing about the mission is for him. He told me with tears falling from his face that he is always preoccupied about his loved ones. He has a few inactive siblings and wants to help them. I testified to him that if he serves with all his might, mind, and strength that his family will be blessed by his service and that he will meet someone in this area whom will teach him how he can better help his family. Later that day, we finally helped Miriam Xiquin and the girls move into their new apartment. We got to drive to Mt. Juliet and on the way home we, with Hermano Carrillo, tuvimos que pararnos on the side o the highway to readjust our trailer. Hermano almost got wrecked by a semi-truck hahaha classic times. Got home at 10:30 PM tonight....
“Coincidences”: back in the day when I was with Elder Ney we had been in this Mexican ice cream shop and I saw this girl probably around my age there and I had the impression to give her a temple pass along card. She smiled and went on her way and I thought nothing more of it. On Friday though (I talk to everyone) but we saw her again at Starbucks where we use wifi sometimes, only I didn't recognize her...she was reading like an Atheist book so to make conversation I decided to point that out. It turns out that she remembered me and then through that I remembered her and we started talking about her life and what had happened. Sh recounted to me how she was grateful that I gave her that card...because it turns out that very same day she had found out one of her close friends had committed suicide....and she went online and read all about temples. I was stunned but not surprised because I knew that I followed an impression for a reason. Her name is Danielle Redmon. We will see her on Wednesday.
I had attended this nondenominational church awhile back as well because we were invited to do so. There was another young girl my age who was a singer there and performed really well. Never met her until Saturday night when we got home to our apartment this girl just happened to walk by and I stopped her and starting talking to her about the church. We made that connection and got to give her some church materials. I hadn’t made the connection until we started conversing and she said that she attends that church. Just another testimony of following the Spirit and talking to everyone and the blessings it brings.
We had to deal with the police on Sunday because the landlord of Miriam’s old home had mistakenly thought that they had abandoned their house (we just helped them get a new apartment) so he went their with his crew and started to throw stuff in the streets. Miriam arrived their to get her stuff and ended up calling the cops. We went there to make sure nothing bad went down. This landlord and his crew really just are not good people...a lot of arguing from them was cast towards us and Miriam but we just chilled and now the girls are out of there finally.
Elder Lopez is a stud. He’s like the most in tune student of the Gospel I have ever met. He has helped me so much to get my animo back up with studying the Gospel and Spanish! Love that kid.
We still have Doris Ortez on Baptismal date for the 29th of October (Jakes Bday) haha... she fasted with us this Sunday to receive her answers.
I invite everyone to listen to Elder Maynes’s talk about integrity and gaining trust from the Lord and from our families. Coinciding with that, Elder Nelson’s talk on the Book of Mormon. If we read and follow the principles of the most correct book on the face of the earth, we will gain that trust that will ultimately bring peace to our lives.
Love yall, les amo:) Ciao Pescao
Elder Mac
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