Monday, November 17, 2014

When Faith Endures

We have HOT water!!  For the past two weeks, my companion and I have been suffering freezing cold showers and yesterday one of our members in the church came to our rescue!  FINALLY warm showers again!  So first of all, Monday we found out that the family that is from the United States is exactly one street away from our area....so that was kind of a bummer, which means we no longer are able to teach them.  But we had a wonderful baptism for our investigator Angie on Sunday!  Just about all of the members from the ward came to support, as well as wonderful talks and testimonies were given.  The spirit was definitely present and the room was filled with lots of tears of joy and smiles.  It was also wonderful to watch Angie's mom feel the spirit as she watched her daughter get baptized.

So this week we had a HUGE miracle.  My companion and I got permission to leave our area with our investigator, Cynthia (The mother of the family of 5 we have been teaching), to go to an area called, "White" to get a marriage date set.  When we got to White, Cynthia asked for the closest date possible and after getting everything settled, the date was set for December 17, almost 5 weeks from how.  Well my companion and I decided to call everyday for a cancellation if someone dropped out so she could take their spot.  Well on Friday morning, we called and they told us the earliest they could do was in 20 days.  Once we got off the phone, my companion and I only had 1 1/2 hours to get to White with Cynthia before it closed, or we would have had to wait all weekend and then the date would be delayed.  So my companion and I immediately left the apartment and ran to Cynthia's house to tell them the news and that they had about 2 minutes to be ready to leave....H  Anyways, we called a taxi and when the car pulled up he told us he couldn't take kids. So then, we had to go to plan B.  The bus which drives super fast and is always packed with a million people and with two kids and a baby....Good Luck!  Also, we needed to see how much money we had left in our collectivo card.  The closest store that had a collectivo machine (ATMO was broken and the nearest store that had one was about a 25 minute walk, so we decided to pray and have faith that we had enough.  Once the bus pulled up, we swiped the card and there was EXACTLY enough money on the card for all of us!!  We made it just in time before it closed and right when Cynthia went in and my companion and I started saying a lot of prayers and hoped that all would go well.  Once Cynthia came out, she immediately had a sad face and shook her head, "No"....I was about to cry and I was seconds away from pouncing in the office myself until Cynthia made a little smirk and said, "Yes", they changed the date to November 28!  She said the look on my face was sooo funny!  Once we found out the truth I couldn't hold in the joy and I started jumping and screaming for joy and running around like a three year old!!  I was so happy and so was my companion and Cynthia as well as the two little boys. :)  Through this experience, I definitely learned a lot of diligence and faith that when we have faith in the ord, ANYthing is possible.  I know that we could have not done it without the Lord's help, because we definitely had many obstacles that we had to go through and the devil is trying to do anything he can to stop us.  But as we are diligent in all things, we are successful with the Lord's help.

This family has had so much diligence and patience.  They have so much faith and humility.  Not only has it been such a great opportunity to teach them, but I have learned so much from them!  They are heros in MY eyes.  Every night we've gotten the chance to call them at 10:00pm to say bedtime prayers together.  They on the other side kneel and my companion and I do the same on the other and pray over the phone together.  It's been such a wonderful experience to hear not only the kids learn to pray but also the parents.

I have noticed that especially here in Argentina, it has been a struggle to find families who's parents are married civilly.  I was reading the talk, "Decisions for Eternity", November 2013 (General Conference) and I wanted to share with you a part that I loved.....

We are “free to choose liberty and eternal life … or to choose captivity and death.” When we choose the loftier path toward liberty and eternal life, that path includes marriage. Latter-day Saints proclaim that “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.” We also know that “gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”
Marriage between a man and a woman is fundamental to the Lord’s doctrine and crucial to God’s eternal plan. Marriage between a man and a woman is God’s pattern for a fulness of life on earth and in heaven. God’s marriage pattern cannot be abused, misunderstood, or misconstrued. Not if you want true joy. God’s marriage pattern protects the sacred power of procreation and the joy of true marital intimacy. We know that Adam and Eve were married by God before they ever experienced the joy of uniting as husband and wife.
While we are to emulate our Savior’s kindness and compassion, while we are to value the rights and feelings of all of God’s children, we cannot change His doctrine. It is not ours to change. His doctrine is ours to study, understand, and uphold.
The Savior’s way of life is good. His way includes chastity before marriage and total fidelity within marriage. The Lord’s way is the only way for us to experience enduring happiness. His way brings sustained comfort to our souls and perennial peace to our homes. And best of all, His way leads us home to Him and our Heavenly Father, to eternal life and exaltation. This is the very essence of God’s work and glory.
My dear brothers and sisters, each day is a day of decision, and our decisions determine our destiny. One day each of us will stand before the Lord in judgment. We will each have a personal interview with Jesus Christ. We will account for decisions that we made about our bodies, our spiritual attributes, and how we honored God’s pattern for marriage and family. That we may choose wisely each day’s decisions for eternity
There are always going to be obstacles we are going to run into.  We have lots of decisions we have to make in life and we have to think "which path do I take?  or "What path does God have in store for me?"  As we strive to live worthy everyday, and keep God's commandments, we will receive so many blessings in our lives and in our families.  I know these things to be true with all my heart because I have seen it in my own family and also the people that I teach.  I have seen them grow and God has blessed them with unimaginable things.
Homework:  Read, "The Family a Proclamation to the World"
https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation




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