July 22, 2014

July 22, 2014

So this week.... BIG SMILEY FACE!!!!

So, this week was REALLY, REALLY GREAT!!! Our amazing and fearless and maybe just a little bit crazy Lideres de Zona put the goal to have 100 lessons for each companionship in our district which includes them. Well at first, I will be honest, I was not totally okay with this idea. We were worried that we would just be teaching lessons, not people. And well that would be bad. So,with a lot of prayer and discussion, Hna. Blackmer and I decided we were going to try to do it. I will go ahead and tell you straight out right now, that no, we did not have 100 lessons this week. We did however have 72. More than we have ever had in this area since I have been here; and as we were told by the zone leaders, it was the most the area has had for a long time in history too!!! I was VERY GRATEFUL!!! I have found that when the lideres (or life) places a high goal, from our bugs eye view seems to high, we just have got to break it down into doable parts. Like 14 lessons each day, or at least 2 lessons every hour. That is doable. It requires ALOT of work, and ALOT of concentration on your goals and the people and their needs, but I testify that God lives and as you do all you can, all that is required of you, He will ALWAYS make up for the rest and you will have peace in knowing that you can do all things with Him. It felt really good this week to come home tired each night, to feel that we had worked, and really worked. And I found that EVERYTHING else went well because we stretched ourselves. We were able to meet almost all of our other goals. We came really close on the ones we didn’t meet yet, and most importantly, we found more positive people to teach and we now have a good pool of progressing investigadores!!! Such miracles and mercy the Lord gives to us!! I feel even more love for the people as I feel the Lords, Love and gratitude for me and my companion and our district as we show love and gratitude for Him and His Atoning Sacrifice by Serving with all of our hearts, might, minds and strength!! I still feel like I have a LONG way to go until I am a completely a consecrated missionary, there is still SO MUCH to work on and improve, but that is what makes it fun, growing better each day! It is fun to put goals and then WORK for those goals! I Hope that is a lesson I never forget!

The thing I liked the most of this week is how the time becomes more precious, more sacred. I learned that as we looked for more lessons, I got more changes to testify of Christ, better opportunities to be a true representative of Him!! (After the first 6 months) the Mission really flies by! I am SO GRATEFUL I still have a decent chunk of time left!! And I am

SO GRATEFUL for every opportunity I have to testify, and the cool thing is

I don’t have to stand there and wait for them to come, I get to seek them out, dig them up, it is only up to my dedication how much closer I get to grow to the Lord throughout my Mission, by how much I seek and cherish the opportunities to Testify that He LIVES and LOVES US!!! I know that God LIVES!!! I know that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us and I know that by Him and ONLY by Him can we return to live with our Heavenly Father for ETERNITY!!!! I am SO GRATEFUL that for at least a year and a half, that is my only job, to teach and testify of Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer!!! Come unto Him; be changed for the better by Him!!!

It for me is really hard to change. It hurts to stretch and it hurts to grow,but that is the only way and I testify that He takes the pain away. God will not let us suffer one moment longer than needed for our Eternal Salvacion. Just remember in those hard times that Heavenly Father is the teacher and it’s a lesson worth learning. Be obedient with exactness and as you do that you can stand cheerfully, peacefully in Fe to wait and just see the miracles of God!!!

We had a great chance to practice that this week as our two bauptisms came late to church. In order to be bauptized in this Mission, you have to come to church at least 3 times within a span of 2 months and you need to be there for the part of the Sacrament. Well, this week we were preparing diligently Javier and his little brother Josue to be bauptized and this last Sunday would be their 3rd attendance. Well they came just after the Sacrament. So we called the Zone leaders to see if there would be a chance still that they could be bauptized, because they have been attending the church their wholes lives with their aunt and uncle, it just wasn’t until now that their Mom, Dalila, had given them permission to be bauptized and we started teaching them and counting them as attending. So the Zone leaders said that they didn’t have too much hope that we would get permission to baptize them, but that we could have the Bishop call Presidente Markham. Well my sweet companion was a little worried and I just felt peace, cheerful even, I felt that I knew they would be baptized. That we were all on the same team here, that if Heavenly Father was willing to have them baptized this Sunday and not wait until the next, that they would be baptized. And that is when we got the miracle! We received permission to baptize them and it was one of the MOST powerful baptismal services I have EVER attended!!! Their Mom Dalila came and she had tears in her eyes, and well we don’t feel that that was just a coincidence, she felt the Spirit too!! We are Hoping, praying and WORKING diligently that in the next few weeks she too will be bauptized!! She hasn’t come to church yet, but I have Fe she will this Sunday for the confirmacion! Please pray for her!! The special thing too is that her husband past away, so the Plan of Salvacion will really help them as a family. Please pray that the Spirit will prepare her to feel the truth and LOVE from Heavenly Father for her as we teach it to her this week!!! We were wanting to somehow show her the Mormon Message of Essa’s Story if we can get it and they have it in Spanish. I think it would be really powerful for her and for me to bare my testimony!!! So yeah, just a shout out to HOW MUCH I LOVE THESE BOYS!!!!

JAVIER Y JOSUE!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!! ALL I WANT TO DO IS HUG THEM, BUT I CAN’T!!!!!! Sorry,just a little venting from an obedient Missionary....

Hahaha!!!! Seriously though, this little Josue reminds me SO MUCH of Kannon

Man!!!! SO MUCH!!! He was even climbing up the door the other day!!! And if we’re not teaching him, he is out playing fut (soccer)!!! I really can’t wait until they can meet in the future!!! And it is SO SWEET to see how these brothers LOVE each other, it too reminds me of Vallan and Kannon!!! I am going to come back to visit, just so I can give them hugs!!! And then I am going to write them all through their Missions. They are going to change lives!!!! They are totally little stripling warriors!!! The Spirit is really strong with them!!! Okay, ya praising completed. I just feel so proud of them!!!

It says in our Mission calls that we are promised to experience more

Happiness than we ever have yet experienced before! And even though I can tell you I have had a heck of lot of EXTEMELY Happy moments with my family that it is really hard to compare, I can tell you that that promise is being fulfilled!! And I know that only more Happiness waits as I continue on here in the Mission, and in life as I am reunited with my family here on

Earth and then more in the future reunited Eternally with all those who have passed on, and with all of those a taught here and their familias!!!!

I just want to say HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! (Family and friends)!!! I could never of had this much Happiness and all these GREAT experiences if y’all hadn’t prayed and fasted SO MUCH with ALL your Fe for me!!! I am SO GRATEFUL for ALL you ALL have done for me!!! Especially you Mommy and Daddio!!!! I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!! Thank you for being the PERFECT parents for me!!!! THANK YOU for teaching me to stand True and Strong!!!! And THANK YOU my AMAZING sibilings (and yes Morgan, that now includes you!!) for ALL YOUR LOVE AND PRAYERS!!!! I miss you all!!!! Have a GREAT WEEK!!!!!

Love,

Hna Tarah Ray Sherrod!!!!!!