Week 9 - August 15

Hola!!!! Como estan?? I am doing really well. :) this week was pretty
good but also pretty hard. We dropped most of our investigators
because they have been acting uninterested and we haven't been able to
contact them. But our main 2 investigators are still solid. First, we
have Jennifer, the 10 year old. She went to church with her family
again. For the third week in a row!! And that's the number of times
she has to go before baptism :) but we want to teach her more and make
sure her family is solid and back into the church before she is
baptized. But today we are going to try to talk to her parents and set
a baptism date with her :) She has been listening to the simplified
scriptures, and hopefully praying about them. So we will see what
happens this week. We love her and really want her to be baptized. But
since she is so young, she needs lots of support from her family, and
we don't want to move too fast.

Eder is our other solid investigator. He is from Haiti. We met with
him twice this week. His hold up right now is Joseph Smith being a
prophet. He is very familiar with the Bible and knows to beware of
false prophets. We read the scripture in the Bible that says: "By
their fruits shall ye know them" or something like that. And we told
him that the "fruits" of Joseph Smith would be the Book of Mormon
because he translated it. So we explained that if he finds out that
the Book of Mormon is good and from God, then he will know that Joseph
Smith was really a prophet. He seemed to understand and agreed to pray
with faith, and we promised him that God would answer. He hasn't been
able to come to church for the past two weeks, which has been sad, but
hopefully next week he will. He is just so close to understanding
everything.

So remember last week when I talked about Brandon? He is the one we
found while TWEing, and he asked SO many great questions, and seemed
intent on learning more. We weren't able to meet with him during the
week because of his crazy work schedule, but Sundays he is off. We
texted and called him and planned a time to come by his house
yesterday. We got there and texted him and found out he wasn't done
playing futbol with his friends... So we were super disappointed and
worried he was blowing us off. We had been so excited about him. But
then last night we had a Spanish fireside or Charla at 7. We invited a
bunch of people including Brandon and rode with a cute member and her
son to a church about 30 min away. We texted Brandon as we were
leaving and said "we stopped by your house and missed you. We are
headed to the Charla now. We will see you there at 7. Text us when you
get there". We had pretty much said he was going before but we were
unsure of whether he actually would. We hoped our text would help him
get there. On the way over in the car, he texted and said " I just got
home, I'll be on my way soon." We may or may not have screamed out of
excitement. :) So we knew he was going to be late, so we went in and
the fireside started. About 30 minutes into it we got a text that said
"I am here!" So Hermana Starling and I walked out and got him. We had
to walk all the way across the room with him while the fireside was
going. It was in the chapel but we didn't tell him to dress up so he
was just wearing jeans and T-shirt. As we walked in, our mission
president (who was sitting on the stand wearing headphones to be able
to understand the fireside) looked at us as we walked in and just
grinned super big. It was so awesome :) Brandon seemed to listen well
and liked what he heard. We made it clear to him that we invited him
here to learn and to talk about the gospel and not to just hang out
with him. We friended him on FB and so now we can get ahold of him
more and talk about our church. If we can find times to meet with him
and talk to him, he will be a great investigator, we think. That was
just about the highlight of our week :) it was also nice because one
of the people that Hermana Starling baptized (well someone else did it
but you get the idea) was there. And he bore his testimony. It was so
sweet to see someone who was so blessed by having the gospel in his
life. I want to be able to see someone change like that as I teach
them and help them grow. I know the gospel blesses lives. The glow and
light on his face were unmistakeable. :) and that light came from
Christ and His relationship with this man.

Along the same lines as that... This week I have realized that my
mission isn't about me. Well I already knew it, but knowing something
and understanding it are two different things. There are certain times
when you knock on doors of 8 people who said they would be home, and
nobody answers, or when you see all the bad things that are going on
around you and you just think "This isn't worth it. There is no way I
am making a difference. Nobody cares to listen to me, why should I
even be here?" At those times this week, I decided to pray and to ask
God to help us find someone we could bless, who needed some happiness,
or who needed a purpose in their life. Even though we didn't
necessarily have people running to us asking for the truth, I was able
to see that I am doing this for a reason. Even if The results of what
I do aren't grand, they are worth it if a seed is planted for even one
person. Even if only one person on my mission remembers how they felt
when we talked about Jesus Christ, that's why I am here. God loves all
of his children and wants them to return to Him. He won't force any of
them to come back and find Him, but they at least need the opportunity
to do so. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God :) So I am
here to give them that opportunity. I also learned this week that when
you look at other people's needs, everything seems to go better for
you. You don't seem as tired or as wet (it rains a lot here) or as
sweaty (you walk in the sun for ten minutes and you feel like you just
worked out for an hour) because you aren't worried about that. Jesus
gave everything for us. So we should give all we have to help other
people understand that. It's not even a small price to pay compared to
what he did.  Can't remember who said this, but it was someone wise
and important: "The price we pay to know Christ is a privilege to
pay".

Another thing I learned this week.... The world is a very very
confused place. Things that people valued 10 or 20 years ago are being
lost as it becomes more and more acceptable to do things that are
wrong. Satan wants to win, and he is giving it everything he has to
take as many souls down with him as he can. He can't be happy, so he
doesn't want anyone else to be happy either. Luckily, he isn't going
to win. God's power is so so so much greater than Satan's and one day
we will be free from his influence. But now we can't be completely
free of him. That's why our families and individuals need to be so
much stronger today. We need to raise children that will know what is
wrong and what is right and will live according to what they know. Of
course they will have agency, but we need to make sure that we know in
our hearts where we stand. Whose side are we on? I think one reason
that The age for missionaries to serve has been lowered is so that so
many more people, girls especially, will have that opportunity to
serve God. Once in a while, Missionaries do fall away after their
missions, but if someone is truly converted to the gospel, they will
never fall away. I think that going on a mission requires you to
really believe what you teach, it requires you to stand up for your
beliefs and it gives you the opportunity to put your beliefs into
actions. It also teaches you to put others first and it shows you what
things are the most important in life. I think people who have learned
those things will be so much stronger. They will be influential for
good in the world and will be able to teach their children what is
right. God knows what's coming and he wants us so much stronger in
order for us to fight against Satan and win. Now I'm not saying every
girl should go on a mission or that if you didn't have the opportunity
to serve a mission or had to return early that you aren't as good. Or
if you aren't a member of the church. That's not what I am saying. I
just know that we need to figure out where we stand in the eyes of God
and the eyes of the world and stick with what we know. We can't be
willing to back down for anything. I know that this gospel is truly
the way we can live with our families forever. It is such a blessing
to have this knowledge and to be able to withstand the influences of
the adversary. I know this gospel is true.

Have a great week :) I love you all.

Con amor,
Hermana Gittins
Also the conference talk that a lot of my thoughts came from is How to
live well among increasing evil. It's from the April 2004 General
Conference and is by Richard G. Scott. It is so amazing, so go and
read it!