Missionary Chronicles: A Missionary's Prayer

Hola a todos! 

I hope y'all had a great week full of miracles and tender mercies! Before I get into the email I want to wish a quick happy birthday to my cousins Andrea, Greta, and Harrison. Happy birthday guys!!

As y'all can tell from the title, I'm going to talk a little about prayer in this email. As y'all know I've been kind of frustrated lately because we've really been struggling to find more people to teach. Every night I've been praying and pleading with the Lord to guide us to those who are prepared to make covenants with God. I've been praying for opportunities to teach the gospel in Spanish and grow in my language abilities as I help others grow their faith. Each night I have a tender conversation with Heavenly Father asking for more opportunities to help more people. I've been working on applying the principles that President Harris has taught about praying with knowledge and praying for things that I know my will and the Lord's are already aligned on. This week, the blessings came!

We found 8 new people to teach this week and within those are 3 families! We really gave full effort to this week and gave the Lord everything we had and the blessings flowed! I want to tell y'all about some of these incredible people we found this week!

First, I want to tell y'all about the Aparicio Family. We found them through a member and it was kind of on accident actually. This member was talking about a family named the Aparicio's who were members. We looked them up in our area book and they we're definitely not members lol. They were actually Grey dots who hadn't been contacted in about a year and a half. In fact, their records were about to be deleted because they hadn't been contacted in so long. We reached out to them and never got an answer back so we decided to just drop by their trailer. The mom (Ana) opened the door and invited us in. We taught the whole Restoration to Ana and her two daughters Leslie and Ashley. There is also a father in the home, but we haven't been able to get in with him yet. Hopefully we can meet him this week!

Another family I'd like to tell y'all about also came from a member. This really was a miracle that we meant them and it was definitely a testament of the Lord's perfect plan. On Thanksgiving we had dinner with one member family in the middle of the afternoon, we weren't planning on visiting any other members that day until we got a text from the Castaneda Family inviting us over to dinner later that evening. Thankfully we took up that invitation because we met Tatiana, Diego, and their daughter Antonella and that dinner. We got to know them pretty well and their little 7 year old daughter Antonella is now our best friend lol. We invited them to church today and Tatiana and Antonella came! Afterwards, Hermana Castaneda invited all of us to her house again for dinner and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. I'm super thankful that we found this sweet family over an impromptu Thanksgiving Dinner lol.

The last family I'd like to tell y'all about actually came from the Elders that we serve with here in Riverside. They originally met them street contacting and helped them move a couch into their new apartment. The Elders decided to pass them off to us because the dad (Melvin) isn't there very often which makes it hard for them to teach the mom (Mirta). However, when we went over for our first lesson with them, Melvin was there and we taught them the Plan of Salvation as well. 

All of these amazing people we found came through specific events perfectly placed by our Heavenly Father. He knew who was ready and prepared to accept the gospel and he led us to them. As we gave him our full effort this week he blessed us with opportunities to work with his children! I'm so very thankful!

This email ended up being super long, I'm sorry for that. I guess the main message that I'm trying to get across is to trust in the Lord's perfect timing. You can pray for something all you want but until the Lord sees it fit, he won't bless you with it. The biggest challenge we face here on Earth is aligning our will with God's. As we work to submit to his will and humble ourselves we'll learn patience and we'll see the blessings that come from waiting on the Lord.

Alright y'all, that's all I've got for this week! I'm super thankful for all our your prayers and support! I feel them! As we head into December and especially with "Light the World" I invite y'all to look for opportunities to bless the lives of those around you! If you have any cool experiences, I'd love to hear them! I hope y'all have a great week! I love y'all!

Hermana Adams 

Pictures:

1. New Crumbl by our house

2. Our Apartment Christmas Tree (with President Harris on top lol)

3. The Lawrenceville City Christmas Tree