We weren't sure we would be able to email today since it's a holiday and almost everything is closed, but our apartment office is open for a little bit. So- yeah! Again this week has been busy, with a zone conference packed in there and lots of appointments ( that actually happened and that canceled, but that's missionary life). We had a miracle with church yesterday. Like I mentioned last week, we have been struggling to get investigators to church so they can take that step and progress. For one thing or another, they wouldn't show up. So this entire week, Hna Rife and I prayed about helping them get to church, taught several lessons on the Sabbath day and the importance of attending church to help gain a testimony, and then we fasted Sunday to help bring our investigators to church. FIVE investigators showed up! We were so excited! It was truly an answer to prayer. Once an investigator comes to church they really start to progress towards baptism, so I hope that this week we can set a couple baptismal dates for these individuals : ) One was a new investigator we just starting teaching this past week, Veronica. She's incredible. When we first knocked on the door and started to introduce ourselves, she just invited us in. She and her husband are from Honduras and they have a little girl, Ashley, who is the happiest little one year old. When we came back to teach, we found out that her husband, Carlos, had talked to missionaries in Honduras before and was familiar with the Book of Mormon. In fact, he said he wasn't able to be baptized because they lived far away from the chapel. They love to listen and then ask questions! They are a very special family.
My thumb is feeling a lot better. I saw the mission doctor at zone conference and he looked at it for me. He said I might lose the nail, but so far it looks like the oils might save it : ) Plus it helped this week that I replaced pain in my thumb with pain in my feet. On Thursday, it was such a nice day so we decided to park our car and walk to a couple appointments all along the same street. We had appointments scheduled every hour and we were excited for a full day of teaching. However, as sometimes happens, one appointment after the next canceled or just wasn't home. So we would walk a little farther to the next house or our back-up plan. And since we were trying to conserve the miles we have for the week, we had a couple rides set up to help us get to and from appointments. Unfortunately they also cancelled. So we ended up walking the whole day. I love to walk and it was nice weather, but I had unwisely worn my least walking-compatible shoes. We calculated that we walked between 7-8 miles in heels that day. My feet were swollen and blistered , as were Hna Rife's, and one of my toes was just one big blister. Oh the adventures. But my thumb didn't hurt as much by the end of the day : )
As I was studying this week I found an interesting parallel in the New Testament. There are times when Christ calls out devils from individuals ( Mark 1:23-28, Luke 4:33-37) and the devils calls out, "Thou art the Christ", the exact same words that Peter used when asked who he thought Jesus was. Elder Talmage says that it is a good example of how knowledge isn't enough. The devils knew exactly who Christ was, but that knowledge condemned them. While for Peter, it was his means of salvation. It isn't enough for us to know something is true- we have to act. It isn't enough to have a testimony is we aren't becoming converted. But as Mosiah 7:33 says, "But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, andserve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage." I know that as we turn to the Lord and put our trust in Him, whether to help investigators come to church or to make the decisions in our lives, that he will answer us and we will feel and see his love and protection for us his children.
Please pray for the Becerra family, Veronica, the Melgar family, Mayra, and Jessica.
Love you all!
- Hermana Koerner
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