Loved ones!!!!!!!! What a wonderful time of year! I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas and are enjoying the new year. It is so crazy to me that it is now 2014. Where did the year go?? 2013 was such an amazing year! It was the year I finished my first year of college and left on my amazing mission to Rosario, Argentina! :) I have been so extremely blessed! I have experienced so much and grown un MONTON! (a lot)! Seriously, my testimony and love for the gospel have been strengthened immensely and I am forever grateful. This truly has been one of the most amazing years of my life and I am never ever going to forget it.
And now I am about to start another one of the most amazing years of my life- 2014!!! This is a mission year! How cool is it that this whole year I will be a full time misionera for my beloved Savior and Reedemer Jesus Christ?!?! I am a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That is so incredible. I am so honored and humbled to be where I am doing what I do. I am so excited for this year! It is time to put forth an even bigger and better effort to changing and improving myself and giving everything to this great work of salvation. Bring it on 2014! :)
So quite a few things have happened since the last time I was able to send an email. We have some new investigators!!! One of them is named Alejandro. He is a great man who has come to church twice now and has accepted a baptism date for the 18th of January! WOO! He has a lot of faith! We just have to make sure to teach him simply and clearly. He doesn't understand a lot of things very quickly and we are not sure if he knows how to read...but he has a strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that this is the true church of God. What I absolutely love is that you don't have to know everything to be baptized. Baptism is just the begining! Baptism is just the door to learning so much more. We are excited to help him strengthen his testimony and make this important step in his life.
The other new investigators are Monica and Jonathon. Now they have an interesting and sad story. This live in a place called the esponicio. It is basically a very humble campground. They don't have a lot of things. A lot of the time they don't even have light or water. They have 3 kids right now and she is pregnant with another one due in a month. Jonathon isn't working right now either. Apparently he has done some bad things with the law and can't work. Any of the money they somehow manage to get usually goes to his addictions to alcohol. So most days Monica goes around to the neighbors asking for food so her kids can eat. They seriously have one of the saddest stories I have ever heard or seen. Monica has been super sad (understandably so) and talked to a recent convert about it one day and how she wants las misioneras to visit her. SOOOOO we came. :) We have taught them twice now. AND they came to church this past week! I just love how the bright light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring such hope and happiness into lives. There are some challenges they have to overcome but we have a lot of hope and love for them! This wonderful gospel can and will change their lives!!!!!
Another experience. A couple weeks ago we were teaching a contact from the bus. This women's daughter is of another religion and has a lottttttt of knowledge about the Bible and religion. She has also investigated our church a little bit and has a lot of questions and doubts. So we went in with plans to teach the Restoration. And we did...in a way...with a lot of side questions and stuff. We eventually just told them that we don't know the answers to everything but we do have our testimonies. We told them that the important thing was that they pray and ask God for themselves. A question they asked that hit me pretty hard was- why don't they send older, wiser and more experienced people out as missionaries who can answer more questions? I thought about this one for a quite a while afterwards. Why are young people out as missionaries who are trying to speak another language and preach without perfect knowledge of every single thing??
It hit me in the lesson and afterwards that God works miracles everywhere and has been doing things differently then the world expects or wants ALL throughout history. Jospeh Smith was FOURTEEN years old when the first vision happened. Mormon was 15 years old when he was a captain of the Nephite army. And Jesus Christ, the SAVIOR of the world, was born in a stable. Not in a palace or another place of high stature. God does his work in a different way- a better way. The BEST way. And if 18 and 19 year old boys and girls are being sent out to preach the healing word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ then by golly I KNOW God has a reason for it and has prepared the way. I may not be able to answer every single question or resolve all doubts but I CAN and WILL trust in the Spirit and say what I feel and know to be true. And that is what we did. We bore our testimonies and invited them to read and pray and feel for themselves. My testimony was strengthened through this intense experience. I know I am here for a reason. I know God has prepared a way with all of his commandments. I am SO grateful for that. :)
WEEEELLLL, happy new year! We all have so many blessings! Let's all make this year one of the best yet! There is so much to experience and learn. Life is good. :) Con an immense amount of amor,
Hermana Lindsey Woodfield :)
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