Hola todos!
Como estan? I love you all and pray that all is going well back at home and where ever you are all located. Where to start? Okay lets start off with Keith. I think I may have told you all about him already? Not sure, but he is the one that is on house arrest(this is nice for us because he always makes it to our appointments ha ha!) and he is seriously and AWESOME guy. We had a seriously incredible lesson with him this last week, we were finally really able to talk about the first lesson and to get through it all the way. We are seeing progress in him and it is one of the coolest things! He has started praying and reading and there is a light starting to come forth that we did not see in him initially. I also know with my whole heart that we are the ones who are supposed to be teaching him, there are things that Hna Méndez and I have really needed to share with him that have helped him to come closer to Jesus Christ, and after all this is our purpose! I cannot even tell you how great it feels to be fulfilling my purpose as a missionary! I feel the happiest that I have EVER felt in my ENTIRE life! I know that we are born with a divinity within us that longs to live up to our spiritual potential and I feel as if I am starting to understand the concept that we can come closer to this potential by serving and loving others. As one of my favorite sisters here, Sister Moore from Oregon, says "Let's dream big, and love even bigger", (she got this from an EFY song, cheesy I know, but hey! I am a missionary, it is totally allowed!).
Okay so secretly I wanted to save the MOST exciting news for the second paragraph so that I wouldn't only put the exciting stuff right at the front. Ok. So last Saturday we went to the far side of our area to visit a referral that we had gotten from the mission office. When we got there and found the lady that we were looking for, Tara, she let us right in. She has a one year old daughter named Malia, she is a single mother who loves her child with her whole heart and her actions, and she is incredibly loving although a bit shy. Well she told us that her friend/coworker who had sent us over to her house, Maria, is a member of the church and had told her a bit about what we believe. She also told us that she really looks up to Maria for the way that she lives. She had many questions for us and we were able to answer a few and then set up an appointment to come back. The day of our return appointment was this last Monday. We got there and started the lesson with a prayer and right after we were done she just went right into asking questions again. Well we ended up being able to teach her the first lesson(if you don't know what this is crack open your Preach My Gospel :D) and then I invited her to be baptized...and she said YES! She said that she went to this church awhile back where they spoke in tongues and it just did not feel right, but that when we came and started teaching her and when she is around Maria she feels "nourished". We set the day for March 18! She already started reading the Book of Mormon and we taught her how to pray for an answer of the truth of it. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW AWESOME THIS FEELS!!! I can testify now with all of my heart that there really are people out there that God has prepared to hear this message. This is the first time since coming out here that someone has REALLY treated this message for what it is as we are teaching, it's the first time that I have seen someone allow it to touch their heart and mind and to be willing to change. She said that she does not have a problem with the word of wisdom except for coffee and even then she just said "Well I better start cutting back on that", so she is totally willing to change her life for the Lord. I wish I had time to tell you all of the details of what happened and how we have seen her life be so prepared before we met her but just know that the Lord answers prayers!!!
So just on a cute little side note, we are teaching these awesome kids in this family. We are only teaching the kids and not the parents, the oldest girl is a member and has been for a year and a half now(her name is Destiny). She is such a good example to her younger siblings, there are five of them and all of them are the cutest little black kids that I have ever seen! They all have this awesome curly hair that is all crazy and they love us so much! The funny thing was that the youngest girl who is three, Amari, calls us "Mrs." instead of "Sister". She goes "HI Mrs. Thorne!" when we get there and then as we are leaving she yells "I LOVE YOU!!!". Oh my heart just melted. We love them so much and are praying that the ones who are old enough will feel the desire to be baptized and to stay active in the church, we have seen how much it has helped their older sister.
Oh I also spoke in sacrament meeting on Sunday! My talk was based off of the talk "The Light of Christ" by President Packer. I feel like it went well. I opened with telling the congregation how excited I was to talk(this is true) because as a missionary we are teaching all day long and people tend to interrupt us VERY often, but there was no one to interrupt me, but that they all just got to listen this time. I was glad that they laughed instead of giving me an awkward silence that could have been interpreted as "we may not interrupt but that doesn't mean we are listening". Ha ha. They laughed and I felt that I said what the Spirit would have me say. Hna Méndez's talk was also awesome! She used the talk called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. If you have not read this talk, please take the time to read it! It has changed my life(well the fact that I have decided to take action to let it change my life is actually what has changed my life).
Here is what I would like to end this week's email with:
"We don't want God to remember our sins so there is something fundamentally wrong with relentlessly trying to remember those of others"
As we learn to forgive ourselves and to use the grace that is given to us all we will not seek to remember the faults and sins of others because we will understand the waste of time that really is. I love my Savior and how He teaches me humility, compassion and how to love like Himself.
I love you all!
P.S. I almost forgot! Transfers are tomorrow and we found out last night that I will be staying here in the Kansas City Riverview ward con Hna Méndez! Woo WOO!!!
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