23 December 2013

Yay! Christmas is here! I am so excited to be able to see you guys in just a couple days! I'm way WAY nervous but I'm excited.

This week has been crazy. We had a few really, really awesome experiences and some not so good ones. It's funny how Satan knows our weaknesses, he knows how much to push our buttons to make us break.

On Tuesday we went to the library to work on finishing translating the Christmas program we had on Sunday (which went really well by the way!) and the lady at the library said she had a referral for us. So she "hacked" into the data base of the library (which may or may not be illegal, haha) and got us the information from this guy named Manuel that is at the library all the time. She had shared her testimony and he was interested in knowing more. So right after we were done we went over to his house and guess what?!?!?! He's SOOOOO prepared. Turns out that he is the son of one of our previous investigators that were super anti, they are catholic "through and through". Well to make a super long story short, we taught him the message of the restoration. He accepted all of it all the way up until the Book of Mormon... he didn't shoot it down but he said he wants to read from it himself and ask God if it's true. He's looking for a better life, he wants to know what it is he needs to do to follow God... Well, let me tell you.. THIS IS THE PLACE! It was so cool! he even texted us in the middle of the week because we left him with a "Jesus card" with our number and on the back it offered a free "finding faith in Christ" dvd. he wanted to know if he could have one. So funny. this guy is amazing. We are so excited to keep teaching him. He got sick so he couldn't come to church yesterday but we are going to go and see him tonight.

Also, we had a KILLER lesson with Daisy. she is our other "super prepared" investigator. We went to her house and were finally able to teach her about the Restoration. She just understood everything. Everything made sense to her! When we asked her to pray at the end of the lesson and to ask if this is what she has been looking for she started to cry--we told her that she had felt the spirit, she agreed and is excited to learn more. It's so cool the way the spirit works. I have a growing testimony each day that it's definitely not us that teaches. There is no way that we as kids could come into a home and help others feel the love our Heavenly Father has for them. NO WAY.

So you ready for the funny story of the week? Well, here goes! We have an investigator named Jorge (who we call George) who is so awesome. He is seriously like THE nicest guy I have ever met. He is having struggles committing to a baptismal date because he wants his wife to agree and there is NO WAY she will. His wife has seen us at the door, opened it, said "oh it looks like no one is here", shut the door, and walks away. This lady is MEAN! Well, this week we went to see if Jorge was home, and he wasn't. So here come his wife Dianna.... she opens the door and tells us Jorge isn't home. We ask her if we can share a message with her and she's like "uh... NO." but she didn't say it that nice. So then ME AND MY BIG FAT MOUTH asks her how much she charges for haircuts... yes... HAIRCUTS.... I knew she ran a little salon in her house so I decided to use the excuse that we were going to Skype our families this week and we needed a trim.... LOOOOONG story short. We got a hair cut on Saturday. It was CRAZY fast cause this lady was N.E.R.V.O.U.S.! of a couple kids?? goes to show how strong the spirit works. But she did a good job. On the wall she had a "certificate of ministry", apparently she's a certified minister. No wonder she doesn't want to hear from us. The moment I saw that I thought of the Scripture Mastery scripture "Oh they that are learned that think they are wise...". She went to school to be a minister, she is versed in the bible but "harkens not to the councils of God". Its so amazing what the spirit will do to a person that knows she is turning down the true church. She was so nervous but she did a really good job on our hair. Just last night we stopped by to see her. She had asked if we knew any places where she could go cut hair and help people out... we told her we would come back with the address for the homeless shelter and the Sr. Center. and we did. AND GUESS WHAT?!?! SHE WAS NICE! She even told us to stay warm and to have a good Christmas.

You know, all it takes is to be friends with people. Have sincere interest in their lives. Yes we want to change their lives but we have to be careful how we do it. First we need to get to know them. As we get to know their needs and their hopes and dreams we can know how the gospel will help them. We learned that Dianna was looking for ways to help others, now we can talk to her about how the church is so service oriented. So cool. Conversion is a process and we have learned that maybe we weren't sent there to visit Jorge, but to soften his wife's heart. something that OBVIOUSLY no one has ever been able to do before. This, however, is a result of several things. First, OUR OBEDIENCE. As we strive to be better each day, as we plan better for our investigators, as we are obedient in the little things it makes the spirit so much more willing to help us out in lessons. There is NO WAY that we could have done any of these lessons on our own. There is no way we could be worthy to teach these super prepared people without showing our HF that we are worthy of it.

It honestly doesn't feel like it's Christmas--the snow melted! But we had a wonderful mission conference full of talent and... not so talented talent shows. haha. It was hilarious, and such a good time. I don't have pictures but I will just have to tell you about it some other time--I did get a couple videos though. We had an awesome testimony meeting at the end. The spirit was so strong in that room, I cried like a child. I love this work, I hope you all know that. There is nowhere that I would rather be right now than serving my Savior, spreading His gospel. I love this Christmas season and the chance we get to take time to think of Him. Please PLEASE don't forget what Christmas is all about. One of the apostles once said something like: yes, presents are important, even the wise men brought gifts to celebrate the birth of Christ, but that came MUCH later. the first people to adore him were shepherds and Mary and Joseph. Gifts are fun but they are not the center of this holiday. I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you all for the letters and gifts I have received, I cant' thank you enough for your love and support.

Love,

Hermana Calero