This week has been a really awesome
week for me! I've learned a ton and almost everything I've been learning
is being brought back to my forefront and I'm trying to apply it all and make a
difference in the lives of those around me! It's great!
I'll explain the pictures. One
is of one of the most tasty pizzas I've ever eaten. The other is of half
of the zone. The ones in my district are the two sisters on the right
side, the three that are all in a line next to the big guy (not a missionary)
on the right, the blonde one in the back left with his arm behind his neck, and
then my companion and I! My district is awesome!
Investigator update: Nobody has
a baptismal date anymore, but we have tons of people that, due to some
complications, will be baptized in the coming months for sure.
Mimmo is still trying to get a
spiritual confirmation of the truth and finish quitting smoking completely.
We've had some ideas that last couple days... we'll see if they work!
Luisa is doing pretty well but now
her mom is being really resistant against her baptism. Fortunately, we
had a very good and productive lesson with them yesterday and we were able to
work a lot of things out. The mom wants Luisa to be more mature and act a
lot better as far as listening to the mom is concerned. Yesterday, we
worked out with them that once the mom sees the changes that Luisa makes to be
not only obedient to God but also to the her, that she will let her get
baptized. And, the other good news, the father has had his heart softened a
little bit and now he shares the same opinion. So, now we're going to be
working with Luisa to help her act more grown up and be a "good
girl." However, she is still reading the Book of Mormon every day
and loving the gospel!
For our other investigators, there
isn't really any new news.
But, we have some new ones! Let
me explain! On Thursday we had one of the roughest days ever. We
were doing finding work almost all day long - on metros and on trains - without
any fruit. We were getting tired. And, at about 9:25, 5 minutes
before we needed to go home, we had a miracle. We were in the area where
we had planned to go and we saw a man working - cleaning the windows of a
store. We almost didn't stop him (usually nobody that's working wants to
talk even in the slightest), but we decided to talk with him anyway! He's
awesome! His name is Andrea. He's searching for the truth. He
sees the things that are missing or wrong in his church and has begun a
search to find the truth. Right now he is studying the Koran and is
finding a lot of truths that he believed were missing. We showed him the
book of mormon and he was super interested! We set up a return
appointment for a couple days later! He loved the whole joseph smith
story! He loved our own stories of our conversions. He took the
Book of Mormon and promised to read and pray about it. He couldn't come
to church because he was leaving town. But, he gets back the end of this
week so he'll come to church this next week. On Sunday, he texted us and
thanked us again for having given him the book and he said that he's super
excited to learn more and to see what our church is like next sunday!
We also had another cool miracle.
We were walking towards the area where we were going to knock some doors, and
we stopped a lady who was passing. Her name is Gloria! She's
awesome! She knew the missionaries more than 20 years ago. She's
went around to every church to try to find the truth. She still hasn't
found it. She's been studying with one religion now for about 2 years but
she told us that they'll never convince her! When she was meeting with
the missionaries before, she thought that we were the closest to the truth.
However, there was some confusion with one missionary because she said that a
missionary told her that we believe that Joseph Smith was the true Jesus Christ
and that we worship Joseph Smith. We were able to clear up that confusion
very quickly and help her realize that we too believe that salvation comes
through Jesus Christ and that we don't worship the prophet Joseph Smith.
She's super interested in meeting with us again, so we're going to see her
tomorrow!
I've been doing several exchanges
with the members of my district the past few days and they've been going well.
One lesson was really cool because we went to teach some members to try to get
some referrals by doing a "role play" with them about what they could
say to their friends to invite them to a family home evening. Unfortunately,
they didn't have anybody at all in mind. But, my companion for the scambio had
a genius idea - get on our knees and pray that the Spirit could bring someone
to mind. And, it worked! It was really interesting and cool because
during the prayer, he stopped for almost a minute it seemed without saying a
word (so that someone could come to mind). Anyway, the mom thought of a
family she knows! They called the family after we left and set up a
family home evening with them. So, we'll be going in a couple days to
teach another family referred to us by members! That'll make three weeks
in a row finding families through members! It's awesome!
Amazing things are happening!
Not only in the work, but in me! I was rebuked and humbled by the spirit
several days ago and I realized that I needed to improve a lot of things -
above all focusing 100% on others and helping them come unto Christ. My
focus, piano piano, was turning back on me. So, between my prayers
saturday night, sunday morning, and then an awesome revelatory experience in
church, I had a really cool turn around in desires and focuses! And, I
feel great! I feel even more love for people and I have an even stronger
desire to try to find ways to help them become more converted to the gospel of
Jesus Christ! Another cool thing has been happening - my desires are
getting lined up a lot more with God's and my prayers, therefore, are getting
answered! It was especially cool to see this in the past training that we
had that the things that I was wanting to do for my district as a whole and
also for the missionaries individually, were all adressed! It was
perfect! I had asked that they could be prepared to be taught these
various principles, and then it happened perfectly! It was way better
than I even could have expected!
I love being a missionary and giving
my all all the time to the Lord and to others!
Vi voglio bene!
-Anziano Barnes
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