February Updates

Feb 3rd

We had a really neat miracle this week. We were teaching María Angeles, one of our recent converts, about temple and family history work. She had said that she felt comfortable to do the work for her brother who was open and passed away at a young age, but was hesistant if she should do the work for her father, worried that he was "pure 100% catholic" and impossible to change. We were explaining the principle to her, and was still kind of unsure. In part of my example about how it works, I used "Juan" as an example (being the random name that came to my head) as someone who had passed through to the Spirit World, heard the Gospel message, and wanted to progress but couldn't until someone did his ordinance work. Then the most interesting thing happened: I had no idea what her father's name was, but apparently it was Juan. She said when she first heard it she got the chills, and thought, "Oh, it was probably just an example. Next he will say "Pedro" or something. When I kept using the name Juan 3-4 more times, she was just overwhelmed and knew it was the Holy Ghost inspiring me. She understood not only in her mind she said, but then also in her heart. As we read scriptures from DyC about the ordinance work and binding the families on earth together, she understood perfectly. Then, Elder Gleason extended a bold invitation and promise: That if she would prepare to enter the temple and begin preparing names, that her desires to smoke will leave her (her big challenge still). It was such a powerful lesson! The member who was there with us, Bishop's wife Karen, had a little booklet to help get her started and was explaining it to her. It was such a powerful lesson!

As far as charity grows, it is interesting. In one of the talks they invited us to think about our goodly parents. As I thought about my great parents I was filled with love and apreciation for all that you do. I also imagined you both teaching, in Sunday School and in Elders Quorum, and I'm proud of the great teachers you are. It was also funny, President Pace said something that reminded me a lot of grandpa Valberg. I wish I could remember what it was, but I can't.
My thing to work on this week are my 3 things I took away from Specialized Training:
1. Use the Sacrament as a moment for revelation.
2. Pray earnestly for the ward and stake leaders. Work with them to build them up!
3. Consecrated obedience for personal sanctification.

There was a neat experience we had in the second day of our zone conference. President Pace had invited one of the counselors of the Lleida Stake Presidency to come and share something. He shared his family's conversion story and it was so inspiring. After he finished, President Pace felt inspired that we all kneel and pray. It was such a powerful moment!!

Feb 10th

We had a good week. It felt like we worked a lot and then it seems like we didn't because we didn't get a lot of huge changes, but hey, I figure most things happen a slower pace than we want. We passed by a lot of names on the lists, but not many of them were home or still live there so that was a little frustrating. There also seemed to be an unusually large amount of mockers and fingerpointers this week haha. They always come on harder weeks, those weasels... Nice faith refining for us I guess =)

A miracle this week was trust that we've been starting to see from some of the ward leaders. We decided to start supporting Hno Diaz in his institute class and it seems he talks to us more. He even got a hold of a guitar and a saxophone for us to play for a little bit today during preparation day, even after we said it wasn't necessary (I hope that's ok haha...I probably don't remember how to play anything by memory...I guess I can play through the whole hymnbook haha). We've also seen the Bishop become more energized and active in the work. The past couple ward councils have seemed to be a little more productive. We gave him an organized list of menos activos and he's been starting to assign us few to go and seek out.

We had an Enfoque de zona that talked about faith and hope, which was good. Now it's just a matter of exercising that faith, which sometimes feels harder than exercising muscles, but obviously the first is more worthwhile haha. Speaking of which, Elder Gleason is starting to worry about his coming home appearance and wants to get in top shape again, so we're probably going to kick on some more crazy workouts in the morning than push ups and situps haha.

Have a great week! I pray that God bless you all with the strength and ability to do everything you need to! Keep up the great work in everything. Love you all! Un abrazo.