This week was one week that I will never forget. Many things happened this week that I have never seen in my life and things that I will definitley remember. I am going to save the best for last. One of the most special things that happened this week was in a lesson with an investigator named Jorge. Jorge is 20 and has some trouble with smoking. It almost seems like he is someone I knew before and seems very familiar to me. We were teaching about the Plan of Salvation and wow, it was a great experience. He wants so stop smoking and has a baptismal date. We promised him that he will be able to stop smoking and that he will have the strength to overcome it. He is stopping little by little! He says he prays all the time and his friends actually make fun of him becuase he prays so much. Nothing compares to the faith he has. We just tell him, forget what everyone else thinks or says.
One of the biggest experiences that we had this week was with a convert of one of my companions that I have had. He was in this area and had a ton of success and baptized many families here and he literally taught me a ton and I really respect him. We know one of his converts here and she was baptized alone because her family didnt really want to listen to the missionaries. We hadn't seen her for a while and we passed by her house. I felt an impression that we needed to go visit her. When we arrived she received us well. Everything seemed well and then she began to cry. She had told us that she felt very alone because she is the only member in her family and just before we arrived, she was very tempted to do something. We don't know if it was something really big but we know that if we hadn't have arrived, it wouldve had a big impact in her life. Luckily we arrived just in time to help her. She has a lot of faith. I want to remind you all how important it is to remember converts and also members that are living the Gospel by themselves. Sometimes they feel alone. I am glad that God allowed us to be there in time and that something big was avoided.
Another crazy thing that happened this week was that a dude was killed 2 streets from our house in a restaurant where we eat dinner sometimes. It actually was a miracle because that night we said that we were going to eat there but, we decided to go teach an investigator instead. On the way home from the lesson, we saw that a man had been killed inside and the police were there. It was amazing to me because the Lord protected us because he guided us to the lesson instead. If we had been there, it would've have been something that could have affected and put us in physical danger.
The last experience I wanted to share was about our investigator Mayra. Many of you all prayed for her this week and we want to thank you so much for that. We also were praying the whole week so that she could be baptized. We were preparing everything in the chapel on the Saturday of her baptism and we told her that she could arrive at 5:30 to start on time at 6. No one arrived to the baptism except her daughter, her friend, a sister that gave a talk about the Holy Ghost and the mission leader because she didnt want anyone to go. She honestly was super nervious and didnt want anyone to go or see her baptism. My companion and I were in the chapel getting ready and we were honestly praying so much that she could get to the chapel and overcome her nerves. I felt completely at peace and I didn't doubt that she was going to arrive. I honestly can say that I felt positive the entire day and knew that she was going to be baptized. Before we were a little nervous because she had recieved several missionaries, several bautismal dates/goals and many bautismal interviews but she always ended up not arriving to the chapel and hiding in her home because she was honestly so nervous. This was a pattern for months. But this time, it felt different. I felt something different. We proudly can say that 7:30 (2 hours after) she arrived to the church and was baptized. It was honestly a miracle and we have to give thanks to our Father in Heaven because He made it possible. The baptism went great and afterwards she told us "After I changed my clothes, I looked in the mirror and I saw myself differently. I feel different." We are witnesses that baptism changes people and that the work is true. I want to thank every single one of you for your prayers. I feel so grateful for the work and the reality of this work. This is the church of Jesus Christ. He is real and this is His church. Like the eight witnesses of the Book of the Mormon said And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that which we have seen. And we lie not, God bearing witness of it. We give our names to the world also for what we have seen and we know that this work is true. And like them, we lie not. Thank you for your prayers this week.
Giddy Up
Elder Smith
