Hermana Jones week 39

So I spent a long time writing the president of the mission so I will just send you part of the letter I wrote to him so you can know about the baptism story of Yudy :) Her baptism was super sweet because she bore her testimony, the young women sang a special number, but the best part was that Yudy and her three sisters sang a special number and it was I am a Child of God.  It was so sweet and you could feel the spirit so stong and their dad was crying so much and so was Yudy when they were singing (you pronouce yudy, Judy in spanish :) ) 

This week I learned a very important thing about the work of salvation. it is the key to happiness in this life! I think the beginning of this week was the lowest I have ever been in my whole mission and talking to my family just made it so much worse. I was feeling like I didn't know what my purpose was here in the mission, all of our investigators had left on vacation, and I felt like I was wasting my time. The members could see that I was struggling a little and offered words of comfort that really stuck with me.  As a representative of Jesus Christ you have to feel at least a little of the pain that he felt while he was here on the earth. I decided after that moment that I needed to change and I needed to find purpose so what better place to look than in preach my gospel in our purpose! I love Preach my Gospel because every time you read it you learn something new that you have to do better. 

We had no one who could be baptized for this Sunday, but we decided for the rest of the week we were going to give it our all. Then on Saturday night we went to a former investigator's house who the missionaries had dropped because her dad wouldn't give her permission to be baptized and it was the most I have ever felt the spirit in my whole life. This investigator has her two parents and 5 siblings and they were all sitting there listening to us. We taught the dad about prophets and he said he could feel the spirit and told us that some parents want their kids to be stars in basketball, others want their kids to be stars in ballet, and others in music but what he wanted for all his little girls was that they could be stars for Jesus. He didn't want them to be little girls he wanted them to be princesses that when people saw them people could see something different.  He said that he didn't know how he could help his children but he told us that he could see that we could help them reach their full potential.  I almost cried to see a dad that at first we thought was trying to keep his daughters back because of his rough exterior of tattoos and signs of a rough life, to a dad who had so much love for his daughters that he wanted them to have a life so much better than the life he had lived. This Sunday his oldest daughter was baptized and the whole family went to church together. 

I know that God lives and he loves his children.  I know that when we are sad or discouraged the antidote is our faith.  It is service.  It is helping others come unto Christ.  At the beginning of the week all I wanted to do was go home and missed my family so much but my the end of the week I never wanted to go home. I know that the plan of our Heavenly Father isn't to bring missionaries here on missions to separate them from their families, it is to help more families become eternal families. I know that this church is true with all my heart and I know that we are here in the mission to forget ourselves and go to work. I have never experienced a greater miracle in my life than seeing the way that the gospel of Jesus Christ can change a family. I thankful for the low times that we have in our life because like it says in the Joseph Smith movie. The Lord brings you low so that he can life you higher.I am thankful to be in a mission that teaches us it is possible to baptize every week that pushes us past our normal capacities.  Before my mission it was my goal to have 10 baptisms on my mission but I am so grateful to be somewhere that teaches you to work hard, to be obedient to every rule with exactness (even though only talking to your family for 40 min was hard), a mission that tells you that everything you have to give still isn't enough, that it is through Christ that we can achieve what isn't possible. 

I am grateful to be in the best mission!  I am grateful that I am pushed every day to realize who I really am, to realize what I was sent here to earth to do.  Something that really stuck with me from the Zone conference was that if you have an easy mission your life will be difficult but if you have a difficult mission it is teaching you the things you need to learn early on, not so that you will have an easier life but also that the challenges that are sure to come in life will be easier to handle and conquer.  The mission is the MTC for life!    

I love you guys tons and hope you have a great week. Remember we have trials because God loves us. 

Love,

Hermana Jones