Greetings from San Lorenzo!
Because my email from last week wasn´t sent, heres last week´s news!!
This week was my first week training mi hija Hermana Posso. She is from Peru and has such a fun and energetic spirit to her. It is so much fun being with a new missionary because she is incredibly motivated to work. Our area is called San Lorenzo which is a lot more developed than Marcovia- to give you a little picture in your head of what it´s like we are now on paved roads, we live near a hospital and hotel. One challenge that we encountered this week was that many of our appointments began to fall through because they weren´t home! We started to feel like we were spending a little too much time just walking from house to house, and needed direction as to where we should go. We knew that God knew exactly who was in need of our help, and so instead of guessing and we decided to go straight to the source, through prayer! We prayed together first to know whether we should continue contacting or if we should go to our next appointment.. no surprise we both felt the same impression to continue contacting. Next we asked which street to follow, received the same impression, and on we went! It was really exciting to see how literally every time, we would say at the same time where we felt we should go we had the same answer. And we have started to do it every day so that we can be sure we are exactly where God needs us to be.
This week we were invited into the home of a woman named Gabriella who we had meet in the street before and had a lot of questions for us like what was the Book of Mormon, who was Joseph Smith and what was so different that Mormons believe? We were ecstatic to hear questions like that and quickly set an appointment to meet with her. The day of our visit we sat down to explain to her about how God as a loving Heavenly Father had sent his son Jesus to come to the Earth to show us the way, and to establish his church. In the Bible we have the records of the prophets of old and Jesus´s coming in Jerusalem, but that there was also another set of records which contained Christ´s visit here! to the Americas! When we explained that this record was called the Book of Mormon, and that a prophet named Joseph Smith had been instrument in the Lord to translate it, she nearly leaped out of her seat to be able to read the chapter of Christ´s visit in which we spoke of. The funny thing was that this is something that we teach and explain all the time, but this time I felt different teaching it- I felt a tingling sensation start from my head to my toes, if it were possible it was as if someone poured light into my body, and in that moment I knew that it was the Spirit was testifying to me, and to her, that it was the truth. Because that is what the Spirit does- it offers undestanding, and for that reason it was no surprise that she was hungry to hear more because the Spirit had let her know, maybe not in the same way as it had let me know, that what she was hearing was true.
I would also just like to say that San Lorenzo is the cutest little town and the members here are so fantastic. This Sunday was my first Sacrament meeting (because of General Conference which btw WOWW) and it was testimony meeting (when the meeting is dedicated to whoever wishes to share thir personal conviction of the truthfullness of the gospel may share) and as a branch of about 30 members, practically every member got a chance to bear their testimony. Though the number are small, it reminds me of the blessing that no matter where we are in the world, no matter how big or how small the numbers are, the organization of the church is the same, doctrine of Christ is taught the same, so that we may ¨may come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God¨. God is not a God of confusion, He is the same yesterday today and forever and has revealed all possible to his children so that they may have a clear picture of how they can return to His presence. I know it not only because I chose to believe, but because I too have had questions, I too have had doubts, but one who has questions and doubts has two options: investigate the wisdom of man by checking out what Google has to say or by investigating the wisdom of God through his Holy Scriptures. The spirit that gave light and understanding to Gabriella and I this week is the same spirit that will give understanding to those who seek it.
My companion is a complete goon and has already peed her pants (well, skirt) like three times in the street from laughing so hard and I love her like crazy.
I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and I´m praying for you all too!
Hermana Bernal
