March 2-9

Monday we taught the Espinosa family that had seen a horrible car accident on the side of the road. The Espinosa family was there at the site to comfort the family of the man that had passed away. The disturbing images of the aftermath ran over and over in their heads, and they felt so sorry for the family. Of course this was a good time to talk about Jesus and His love and His Plan of Happiness, so that is exactly what my companion and I did. I was able to share my testimony of faith in Jesus in all things but I was able to share my experience of my cousins’ death because the story was similar to their story.

I focused on the blessings of the aftermath because so many people stepped in and served my family in this difficult time. The neighbors painted pictures of Steven with Jesus, his school sent off balloons in honor of a great kid, and I raised money at my school to pay for the airplane. The list goes on and on of blessings that came from this event. Everyone that knew our family was affected by this and cherished life a little bit more and realized that it is short….so endure it well! My uncle Kevin and his family have a greater will to obey the Lords commandments and stay active in the church because they know that Steven is in Heaven with Jesus. This is our goal to return to live with Him and our families!

We have an awesome new family in our ward! The Venegus are recent converts and already solid in the gospel and working with us contacting, teaching, and giving us a mountain of references! This is how it is suppose to be with all members! They invited a friend to their house and we are giving him the lessons. He is golden and super smart! I can’t believe it, they are converts of 8 months, and they only have lived here for 2 weeks and they found a new friend, Damien Roberto, and want to share the gospel!! Amazing! It was sad to see the wife crying because she realizes how much work we have to do here in this ward and out of the ward, but after talking to her and making her feel better all we can do is work. After she went contacting and saw how hard we were working she was very pleased and now she knows she is not alone. It was really special because I was able to contact a deaf boy in the street!! It was so SUPER cool! I know I’m sent here to teach him because I got his name and number but for some reason not his address, but then a few hours later I contacted his mom and dad in front of their house! It was special to find that out and I don’t believe anything happens by coincidence.

Alan and Sebastian are now baptized!! WAHOOO!!! Their family was less active but they all attended the baptism and I have great hopes that they will return into full activation. These boys are wonderful and they know the commandments very well and I have enjoyed watching them bloom and grow into wonderful young men. It’s so cool they already want to serve missions! What a HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!!!

Castro family is less active and they don’t want to return to the church because of what happened in their stake in Santiago. They know the church is true and the members aren’t perfect, so we are trying to strengthen their faith in Jesus and His church. I taught them specifically about forgiveness because everyday God forgives us and we need to forgive everyone too. Alejandra the mom is also praying to the Virgin Mary idol in her house because she has been attending the Catholic church for 8 years. Before the mission I had no idea that people would actually pray to her. Isn’t that breaking the 10 commandments given to Moses? Thou shalt have no other Gods before me? I think yes. But in a very loving way I shared this with her and asked her to ask her Heavenly Father if this was right. Man it is crazy how they have the same bible but they don’t preach all the words of God. Her argument is that members preach but don’t practice. Both of these situations are bad. It was cool to see Fernando open up to us and poor out his sin because he has that desire to repent and be forgiven. Karina and her son Javier are golden because they pray and have a great desire to attend church with us. I was blessed this week to teach a lot of new people this week.

With a lot of love

Hermana Wade <3