Anyways, it was a great week here with Hna Rafaelle! I´m learning lots from her, she´s my second companion who has been a convert to the church and I love it! Her testimony is powerful, she can relate well to investigators, and she has the desire to learn all she can! (you never knew that you took Primary for granted until your companion doesn´t know about stories in the Book of Mormon like the 2000 stripling warriors and Ammon cutting off the arms) I feel like I´m training again, in a way. We´ve been working really hard so that she´ll be ready to lead the area in 2 weeks.
Quote of the week goes to Hno Francisco: ¨paciencia, hermanitas, ya? paciencia.¨
That was right after he took us to his friend, Calletano´s house. Unfortunately, it was clear that Calletano and his wife weren´t going to accept a return visit after we listened to them go off for 45 minutes about why babies have to be baptized and why the Catholic Church is the only true church, etc. I was mostly just worried about Francisco getting discouraged since this was one of his first times accompanying us, but he had such a good attitude! Paciencia, hermanitas, paciencia.
Miracles of the week:
- Lucia was baptized!!! that was so cool. They were all confirmed Sunday morning as a family!
- We have been gifted SO many mangos this week, I think we´re gonna start our own fruit stand outside, haha. (Also we have decided that mango is definitely the fruit of the tree of life)
- We had a cool service opportunity helping Lorena and Liz teaching their math class to a group of 13 year old girls. Afterwards we presented ourselves and a little of our message and asked the girls if we could visit their families. We ended up getting 14 references that day! We sent away the ones that aren´t in our area, and we have a nice list of families to visit this week!
- We met Francisco´s brother, Juan Pedro, one morning this week when we passed by his house. Of course at that moment they were working on Francisco´s family history and writing down dates! We sent the hermanas in Enace Juan Pedro´s address and Hna Tiñini told me that they´re visiting him and he´s awesome! Woo hoo! The Spirit of Elijah is taking over Piura :)
Something I´ve been studying lately is the difference between sin and weakness. It´s actually a commonly misunderstood subject. But an article from the April 2015 Liahona provided some AWESOME insight, I´ve seriously been studying the same article for a week.
¨Sin calls for immediate and pervasive change of mind, heart, and behavior, but weakness calls for humble, sustained effort, learning, and improvement.¨
We can never listen to Satan´s lies to our weaknesses make us unworthy of the Spirit. Weakness is a GIFT from God, not something to repent of. I´m grateful for the bundle of weaknesses God has given me. (which, as President said, may always be with me). But I´m also grateful for ALL I´ve learned from those weaknesses during my mission. At the beginning, it was like a slap in the face and wore me down a bit. Now, I´ve learned to be more humble and focused on sustained effort, learning, and improvement. I´ve learned that if I stop trying to reject/erase my weaknesses and instead accept them and rely on the Lord, that he´ll make them strong.
Hermana Parks
LUCIA´S BAPTISM!
Cute Hna Rafaelle!
Don´t mind me, just taking pics of every single detail before I leave!
blinded by the burning sun, walking through the field to the church (which is also basically the community dump)
LAS CATARATAS DE CARACUCHO. (Morropón area)
the members with us were in heaven swimming in the cool water after a scorching hike... obedience brings blessings, obedience brings blessings, that´s what we missionaries told ourselves :)
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