A Labor of Love: Small and Simple Things

Hola Amigos :)

Happy Week :)

I LOVE December. I LOVE Christmas! I LOVE the Christmas spirit! We are having so much fun sharing the new video with everyone! Also Hermana Tuia is teaching me Christmas Hymns in Samoan! We sing one verse in Spanish, one in English, and one in Samoan. The people love it :) It also helps that my comp has one of those classic poly voices, adorable :)

This week we taught the Rivera family about tithing, and they LOVED it. We were a little bit concerned at first because they are going through a rough time economically, but Nestor looked us in the eyes and told us how grateful he was for all his blessings and that he knew that everything he had in life was a blessing and that he was going to start paying his tithing again. Also Zoe was so excited to pay her tithing. She asked us how to fill out the slip and we had already explained it last week, but then this week she said... I was a little confused.... if I put 3 pesos here... do I actually need to put 9? She thought that because there were carbon copies you had to put that amount for every copy haha :) So Funny.

Also... speaking of tithing... this Sunday I looked over at Mario and he was filling out a tithing slip with one hand. It was a struggle, but he had the biggest smile on his face. That is an attitude of gratitude. So excited to thank Heavenly Father for all the blessings we have. He truly loves this gospel. Side note... Last week he received the Melchizedek Priesthood YAY :)

Norma and Enrique are progressing SO much! This week we talked about the Word of Wisdom. Touchy Subject. They are big time smokers and they know it. Enrique had a hard time understanding why it was bad to just smoke ONE cigarette... or ONE glass of wine.. so we explained a little about how it´s all in our committment to be obedient. That just that little bit, makes ALL the difference between obedience and disobedience, he still had a hard time. We asked him if he understood and he said..."I still don´t completely understand... but Help me... I want to quit anyways..." What an attitude. Sometimes we don´t completely understand the commandments, but when we have faith to act sometimes without perfect knowledge, eventually we gain that testimony :) They have dropped from 22 a day to 5 a day... in just a week. Wow. Also.. Enrique stayed all three meetings by himself, Norma had to leave but he wanted to stay! That is big progress. :)

This week in our lesson with the Stampononi family I just felt so much pure JOY as I could see the change their family has made. We walked in and Daniela started telling us a ton of positive things that are happening in their family, that Esteban found a job, that she was going to Cordoba to perform, and lots of other things. Then later as we were setting up the next appointment she said that she broke her phone... and her Moto broke... but she didn´t even care. She had the biggest smile. She told us how she doesn´t know what´s happening because before, she would have been so mad and such, but now she just sees the blessings. She said that she knew it was because every night her family kneels down to pray together and that is making ALL the difference. She sees it in every aspect of their life. What a testimony of family prayer. Sometimes we forget how important the small and simple things are :)

"....Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.... and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."

Con Amor, Hermana Matheson