I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ so much! Coming out on my mission was the best decision I have ever made in my entire life. This past week was one of the most spiritually filled weeks I have ever experienced. So let's get right into it...
We had a 3 meals with families that are members of the church this week! It was so nice to get to go into members' homes, get to know them, and share the message of the gospel with them. All 3 of the lessons were with less active members. This ward is really amazing and our members are very nice. Now that the COVID restrictions are lifting more people are being receptive to the gospel! We have quite a few less active families in our ward. We're excited to get going on that and start visiting them more. I love this ward and we are trying to do our best to help as many members come back into the fold of God!
We we able to start teaching 3 new friends this week! The first one was Lilian! Here is a little background story about her. We have a member named Sister Timothy and she is amazing. We had a Come Follow Me lesson with her at the beginning of the week and the Spirit was strong. We felt like we needed to ask if she knew anyone who would need help or hear this message. She gave us about 3 names of her friends that live in the area. One of them was Lilian!
Both Lilian and Sister Timothy are from Nigeria. Lilian is so prepared! The day after our lesson with Sister Timothy we had a lesson with us, Sister Timothy, and Lilian. It was a very spiritual lesson. We taught her about the Restoration. She was so receptive to everything we taught and after the lesson we brought a Book of Mormon to her and she said she would read and pray about it. My testimony of caring and working with members was able to grow with this amazing experience. We're excited for Lilian and her progress!
The next friend we found was Ana! Ana was the lady I talked about in my last email. She is the lady that lives in our apartment complex. She is super nice. We were able to have a lesson with her and one of our members (Sister Rodriguez!) We had a lesson plan but we didn't follow it one bit. Elder Christensen and I both felt prompted to teach something completely different to address Ana's needs. It turned out really well. She was able to open up a lot and we got to help her quite a bit. We're meeting with her again on Tuesday at the church building while her daughter is going to the youth event! We have high hopes for her :)
Our last new friend was Alexis! Alexis has been taught in the past several times. He actually was supposed to be baptized but something was always holding him back. One night we got a call from one of our members named Brother McOmber. (Side note Brother McOmber is an absolute beast when it comes to missionary work. He goes street contacting for us missionaries all the time. He is a huge inspiration to us missionaries) He told us Alexis called him and said he has been reading the Bible a lot and he feels like he needs to belong to a church.
The next day he was at church with Brother McOmber and his family! The McOmbers were able to pick him up and sit with him for both hours of church! (BTW we had 2 hours at the church building for the first time since the pandemic started) After church we had a lesson with all 4 of us. Alexis is a very quiet guy so it was hard to get him to open up, but the Spirit was able to guide us.
Alexis said he felt really good during church. We asked him if he would want to feel this feeling more often. He smiled and said yes. We asked Alexis if he would be willing to follow Jesus Christ and prepare to be baptized. He said yes! We are so excited for Alexis and we know he is ready now. He may not have been ready in the past but the Lord works in mysterious ways. Everyone please pray for Alexis!
THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
ROBERT'S BAPTISM!
On June 5th our friend Robert was able to enter into the waters of baptism and was confirmed a member of the church! He truly was a prepared soul that was placed into our lives. He has taught us so much. He is by far the most humble and caring man I have ever met. After he was baptized and confirmed he gave one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever witnessed. Robert is an amazing example that the Gospel really can bless and change our lives forever. Elder Christensen told me while they were changing Robert asked, "What do I have to do now to go into the temple?" It's those words that bring me so much happiness. Robert knows the blessings from the gospel and he's always wanting to improve. I'm so grateful to be apart of this part if his journey to Christ.
I truly love this work and I'm grateful to be a representative of Jesus Christ and his Church. Love you all
-Elder Espiritu
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