Hello everyone y Pura Vida!
I hope everyone had a great week this week and are adjusting smoothly back to school and work after summer break!
Well we had another really great week this week and I'm excited to tell you about it! First things first, Sara got baptized!!! It didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped that it would, but at the end of the day, she still got baptized so that's what matters. She got baptized on Friday, and then I had the opportunity to confirm her a member of the church and give her the gift of the holy ghost on Sunday! I still can't believe it. We haven't even known her for 2 weeks yet, but she already got baptized. It truly was a miracle and a testimony builder to me that this truly is the Lord's work. I know that the only reason that Sara got baptized is because she had the desire and that it was His will. My companion and I were just simply instruments in His hands. The Lord is preparing people and He promises us that the field is white, already to harvest, we just have to go out and find them.
The other great experience that we had this week was another inactive family that we found here in Naranjo, the Esquivel family. I had previously called them on like 10 different occasions, but they never stayed on the line long enough for me to be able to put an appointment with them and confirm their address. BUT, this last week in the semana de milagros, we found the dad in a park in the area of the hermanas in our district!! We were having a park activity and were inviting everyone we saw to come participate. Near the end, one of the other elders contacted the dad, not knowing who he was, and we were able to get to know him and establish an appointment with him and his family! We visited them twice this week and the WHOLE family came to church on Sunday after not going for the last 5 years or so! There's 8 of them in total and it was so cool to be able to see them walk in the chapel and see the reaction of the other members. They're all super great and I'm super excited to continue working with them. There's also 2 of them that we're going to be working with to help them her baptized as well!
This week I was studying a lot about faith and repentance and it really deepend my appreciation and love that I have for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that He loves each and every one us. Because of this love that He has for us, He was willing to die for us. Without this great and eternal sacrifice, there would be no hope for any of us. He is the light and the way that we should follow. BUT, something importnant that we sometimes forget or confuse, is that we can only participate of this great and eternal sacrifice when we follow Him and keep His commandments. He wants to cleanse us of our sins, but He doesn{t obligate anyone to follow Him. We make the choice to follow Him, and He is OBLIGATED to bless us and cleanse us of our sins. If we don{t want to follow Him or keep His commandments, we have no promise. He can only bless us and cleanse us of our sins when we follow Him and keep His commandments. Wickedness never was happiness. I´ve never known that to be more true than now. Follow the Savior and I promise you will be glad you did.
Hope everyone has a great week this week!
Elder Smith
Pics: we went to go play soccer with the Esquivel family today!, the dog of the family that cooks for us had 5 puppies this last week, Sara and I at her baptism, other baptism pic
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