Hey Guys! I had a great week! First of all everything is going well with the Ravello Family. Their 12 year old daughter Sofía gets baptized this Saturday! She`s really excited, and I can really tell that she knows that this church is true. She`s reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, she`s almost halfway done, and we started teaching her less than a month ago. Her parents are both excited for her baptism, and it turns out that the documents that they need to get married are going to cause a delay a little bit, because Doris first needs to legally get divorced from her ex-husband first, and he`s living in Panama right now. So it`s going to be a while before her parents can get married and baptized, but it`ll be some time this year so I`m happy about that. We had a family home evening with them and the Pezo family in our ward and we taught about temples and family history. They still have it as their goal to get sealed in the temple, and even though I wont be here on my mission when that happens.
I`m so happy that this family is going to be together after this life. So we had 3 lessons with them this week, and one them only Sofía and Eugenio came, because Eugenio and Doris had been fighting earlier that day, and he just came to us with all of his marriage problems and frustrations and had a lot of faith that we knew exactly what to say to help him and his family. While he was telling me everything, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by everything. I don`t have experience in marriage counseling, and everything was riding on us being able to help this family, because if we can`t help them they won`t become an eternal family. So I was trying my best to listen really closely to what he was telling me and I remembered something that I had learned that day during the extra hour of companion study that trainers and new missionaries have. I remembered a quote from Elder Holland from the Preach my Gospel videos, where he says "If you listen, you won´t have to wonder what to say. If you listen, what they are saying will highlight a gospel truth that you need to teach". So I was listening to Eugenio with the intent to find out what gospel truth the Spirit was telling me to teach, and it turns out that it was repentance. And I felt impressed to share Alma 36 with him, all of it, the entire chapter. And I could feel the spirit testifying to me that that was what he needed.
So this week we received a bit of sad news from our investigators Jessica and Olga that were going to get baptized the 28th of this month. We went to an appointment we had scheduled with them and they weren`t home, so I called and they said that they feel like they don`t want to participate any more and that they don`t want us to visit them. So it is very sad, and I know that it`s the enemy placing doubt in their hearts, but it`s okay. Right now isn`t their time. God needs some time without missionaries to prepare them more.
Samuel is progressing really quickly. He will be reactivated this Sunday. I`ve never met a teenager on my mission so interested in learning the Gospel. He wasn`t able to learn these things growing up because his family was inactive, and now that he has the opportunity to learn he`s taking advantage of it. He`s also going to seminary every day, and we`re working with him in his family history also.
Also this week I went to the temple! I got a lot of really good answers for my investigators and I learned a few new things.
So yesterday something really funny happened. My companion and I were both feeling a little bit discouraged, and when we said a prayer to leave our apartment, my companion said a prayer to ask for encouragement. So we left to go teach, and right when we left, a stray dog started following us. It followed us the entire day. And when we entered a house he would wait for us until we came out. At the end of the day we entered our apartment and he waited outside for us the entire night. This morning he went running with us and right now he`s waiting outside the internet store for us. It`s insane. We named him "This is my work and my Glory. To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man". I`ll send some pictures because maybe you don`t believe me... seriously this dog is crazy!
I hope you guys have a great week, and I continue to pray for you!
Elder Jones
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