Adventures in Mesa: You Can Pray To God In Your Mind

Hola familia! (7-28-14 Email)

Holy cow this week was just amazing. Seriously, God is so great. He is really working with His children here in this area, and it is such a humbling blessing to be able to be apart of it. Ok to start off though, Transfer news!!! (Can you believe it's transfers already?) I am staying in Liahona 1 with Hna Hurd for another transfer! So she will be my first companion that I will have 3 transfers with. Which I am excited about because we teach and work very well together. But I did get a call Saturday morning from Sister Jenkins asking me if I would accept the assignment to be a sister training leader! I am super excited for that! I don't really know how to do that, but I am sure God will guide me as I seek it. They are doing it all a little different this transfer, no overnight exchanges. And I am over English speaking sisters instead of Spanish. I don't know anything about English work, so I hope I will be able to help them. I will be a part of the mission leadership council and everything now, so I will get more trainings from Pres Jenkins & the AP and everything so I am really excited to learn from them! I hope I will be able to help strengthen our mission.

Ok, I just have to say Vanessa is the most prepared person I have ever taught in my whole mission I believe. She has in-depth studied every single chapter we have ever given her (with a study journal and everything). She just soaks in everything that she is learning and loves it. We were only able to meet with her twice this week, but they both went really well. We taught the 10 commandments/Sabbath day, and she is really working on getting Sundays off so she can come to church. I think next Sunday should be the last one she has to work because the back to school sales will be over (one more week til school starts here. crazy huh?)

So I was thinking about it, and I realized that we had never told Victoria that she could pray in her mind. So during one of the lessons I asked her if she knew that, and she didn't! I felt soo bad haha. She had been waiting up late for every one to go to bed so she could say her prayers alone or say them at work during her break. She has even been reading the Book of Mormon at work and isn't embarrassed when people ask her about it.

When we were scheduling our next appointment she said that Monday is her birthday, so of course I was expecting that she would be busy, but she said that she would for sure have the day off so we should come then! Gina is little by little building her interest, and Vanessa is really motivating her to read the Book of Mormon. I hope that she feels a greater desire to learn and read for herself though.

And after two weeks of struggling to get investigators at church, you are never going to believe what happened yesterday! WE HAD EIGHT INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH! Does that even happen in real life? Apparently it does! I was so so happy! Alexia and Sophia Ramirez came, Marcos (part member family we are working with), Martha, and Anna with 5 of her children (2 of them aren't baptismal age, so if you count them, that's ten!) Her kids were not super excited to be there at first, but by the end I think they enjoyed it. She has one son, Adam that reminds me so much of Seth haha I love it. I always tell him that. I was super happy. God is so great.

Speaking of Anna, she is doing well. We gave her a calendar this week of when we will meet/what we will teach so that she will be able to make her goal of the 16th of August. It can be hard to teach her though because all the kids can be distracting. It worries me a little because she needs to develop a personal testimony of all the things that we are teaching. She also has a lot of responsibilities with all of her children, so please keep her in your prayers.

And another huge miracle we had this week! On Friday night it was 8:50 pm and we were out contacting former investigators for the last hour of the day. We knocked on this door and this man came out named Fabio and he introduced himself to us right away. After talking to him briefly I had the strongest impression that he needed to be baptized. He started talking about how he went to the Visitor's Center a lot a few years ago. I mentioned that there was such a good spirit there, and obviously the spirit was telling Hna Hurd the same thing because she started talking about how after you are baptized you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and always feel like that. So literally after talking to the man for about 5 minutes outside his house, we invited him to be baptized!

After agreeing right away, Hna Hurd extended the date of Aug 23 and he accepted that right away as well! I guess he was being taught 3 years ago and was almost baptized but moved suddenly and lost contact with the missionaries. It was the most amazing experience. The spirit was so strong. We just walked away asking ourselves if that really just happened. Lately we have really been able to feel ourselves being guided by the spirit. Some times I will feel I need to say something, and then the next thing I know the words I am thinking of are coming out of Hna Hurds mouth. God is SO great!

So on Saturday night we had a lesson with Fabio, and honestly it went perfectly. The members that came shared beautiful testimonies, and he really understood that he needs to know if the message of the restoration is true. He said a beautiful closing prayer that was so sincere. Unfortunately on his walk to church on Sunday something happened and he wasn't able to make it, but I am sure he will be there next Sunday! Such a huge miracle!

Well, that's just a little taste of my week for you! There are so many good things going on here and I feel so blessed and humbled to be a part of it. I know without a doubt that God knows each and every one of us and is preparing us for the beautiful futures He has prepared for us. I see that everyday in the people we find, the people we teach, in myself, and in you! No matter what, we can trust in Him. Even when it makes absolutely no sense to us! I love Him so much!

And I love you so much! Have a great week!

Con amor,

Hermana Haynes