A Labor of Love: Zealous for Keeping the Commandments

Hola Amigos :)

What a week!

This week I learned to appreciate the sun... The sun only really came out one day this week. I really love the Sun haha :) Sometimes you need the dark days to recognize the sunny ones eh?

This week we saw lots of miracles with less actives... and usually with less actives there are baptizing opportunities.. YES. Win win.

The first... is Ana Maria (She goes by nene... which means little boy... cool haha Argentine nicknames make no sense) Anyways... she was a reference of a street contact. We visited a family once and they told her that "los mormones" had passed by and she told them "Tell them that I want them to come to my house as soon as they can." We went and she`s so adorable. A little old lady that was baptized a couple years ago... but the best part is that we are teaching her husband. He accepted a date.. baptismal date. Yay!

Second miracle is the Reta Family. They are converts of an Elder that was hit by a car on the way to go get them for church. He passed away and the family was heartbroken. They haven`t been able to understand how something like that could happen and have been pretty much inactive since. But they miraculously showed up to church yesterday! And we went to visit them last night and wow. They have warmed up so much. They want to come back :) We had passed many times but they didn`t want anything to do with us. It`s so incredible to see that everything truly has its time!

Also... the Rivera family. They are adorable. Everytime I walk in their house I just get so excited to help them! Also Zoe is adorable. She wants to be baptized so bad. In her prayer this week with us she prayed that Heavenly Father would help her family be able to go to church. And.... THEY DID. It was SUPER cold. Like one of the coldest days of my mission... and they still came, and made it to the sacrament meeting! :) Hermano Rivera told me that he was shocked he got himself there. That when he woke up it was almost like a voice... saying ... Stay in bed, its cold... but he came! Such progress. He said he was so glad he did. And that he knew the week would go better because of it. Also the testimonies were so strong and so perfect for them to hear. Everything is so inspired in the Lords work :)

Something I loved to see with all the less actives this week... is that in spite of why ever they had become inactive... or for how long... every single one of them said that they KNEW the church was true. That they would never change it for anything... They still have their testimonies... just a little dusty that`s all. But we`re gonna shine it up reaaaaal nice. Better to just not let the dust collect eh? :)

Also... sad thing this week.. is we had to drop Elena and Nahuel... It`s so hard to just accept that we`ve done our part and have to let the Lord work with them for a little while. But I found a bit of relief in the scriptures this week.... in the story of Aaron.... as he was teaching people he realized that they weren`t going to progress... and left them..

" (Alma 21:13) they saw that the people would harden their hearts, therefore they departed and came into the land of Middoni..."

And it was absolutely necessary...because.... due to his leaving the people in that city later we read....

"and Ammon did preach unto the people of King Lamoni and it came to pass that he did teach them all things concerning things pertaining to righteousness. And he did exhort them daily, with all diligence, and they gave heed to his work, and they were zealous for keeping the commandments of God." and later King Lamoni and all his people were converted. Sometimes our timing is not the Lord`s. There are prepared people and people who need a little more work from Lord first:) So excited to get out there and find those people who are zealous for keeping the commandments of God.

Con Amor, Hermana Matheson