Hermana Hilary Harper: Brisas

HOLA!

This week was a pretty exciting week! Tuesday was the 3 kings holiday, which I love! Besides the whole presents in the shoe thing (which I'm not even really sure how many people do that), the holiday mostly consists of getting a bunch of people together and eating a "rosca." A rosca is bread in the shape of a long doughnut and inside are little plastic babies! Haha, They are supposed to represent baby Jesus. Supposedly there should just be one, and whoever gets it has to buy tamales for the Virgin Mary's birthday in February.

Tuesday night, we took a less active (less active in our ward, but has been going to another ward sundays because she's with her mom weekends) named Maria Jose with us to a big YSA activity for our ward, at a member's house. We went with Maria Jose and another active member and the turn out was really good. I think there was like 15 people there, and we were only missing 5. For our ward, it was a miracle. That night, we spent about 40 min going around sharing our testimonies and I think it must have been inspired! Maria Jose said in hers that for a really long time she's been inactive, but has been going to church the last year or so, and had decided she wouldn't bear her testimony until she really felt the desire to. Well, when it got to her she said that, and then teared up because she said she realized she really does have a testimony and she shared why she knew she always did. It was really neat watching her have a moment like that.

After testimonies, we parted the rosca! They let me go first, and what do you know, I got the little baby Jesus doll! I was SO excited because I was hoping I'd get it, but I thought I wouldn't because I assumed there would just be one. Haha, it turns out though that there were like 8, so most of us got one. That was really fun though. At that activity, we had our recent convert, investigator Ricardo, and another less active (Moroni) all there, so it was definitely a success!

Wednesday we had a little miracle because we taught a new investigator, and during the middle of the lesson (we were outside on the porch), a kid named Daniel came and asked us where the chapel was. I guess he moved here 6 months ago and is a member of 3 years and wanted to start going to church again. We invited him in on the lesson and without us really even needing to ask, just bore his testimony to Juan Enrique right at the perfect moment. I was so happy with that lesson because they both committed to go to church and the the YSA activity on Friday. Turns out that neither of them were able to keep their promise of going, but hopefully next week we can get them both there. The more YSA we can get, the better!

On Friday we has a lesson with a less active named Moroni. Everyone in his family is a member, but he's kinda been the black sheep because he says he's always just questioned everything about the church. He's reached a point though that he really wants to know for himself if this is all true, so we've been meeting with him and it's been inspiring to watch his testimony grow. When we started with him, he didn't even have a testimony that God existed or that Jesus is the Christ, but by just feeling the spirit really strong and putting in the effort he has a genuine testimony of that now. Right now he's trying to study about the church to know if it's true. It's interesting because he's had a lot of things thrown at him that would weaken any member's testimony, one of which was an excommunicated Bishop's comments towards the temple. We had left him 3 chapters in D&C about Joseph Smith and he said he read them and felt a really strong desire to live the gospel, marry in the temple, and be a faithful member after reading. It's cool because his personal revelation didn't have to do a ton with the topic of the chapter, but the spirt gave him what HE needed and also the boost in his testimony that the friend's comments didn't really affect him. Power of the scriptures!!!

This Sunday, Henry's WHOLE family came and we were able to put their baptismal date as THIS THURSAY!!! We picked the day in ward council after church ended and everyone is super excited about it! I'm way excited because this coming Monday is transfers, so I'll be able to be in their baptism before I leave! It has definitely been a long wait though, because we started teaching them back in October! Oh, and also on Sunday, Jesus Orlando (my convert from Garcia Gineres) found me! He came to the Sunday services with a friend and told me all about the happenings in Garcia. It was definitely a boost seeing him!

To end, I just want to let you all know that I really know Christ lives, and I know it by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know the Holy Ghost will always inspire us to be better and more loving towards everyone around us. I love that the two great commandments have to do with love because that's what makes life happy and worth living. When we chose to love others and love God more than ourselves, that's when we're really following Christ. I know sometimes it's crazy hard to get over ourselves, and it might take a life time to really learn it, but that's what life is for! That's why Christ gave his life for us- so that everyday we can truly be different and more like Him.

Love,
Hermana Harper