HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I just sat down to e-mail to find my inbox full of love. Thank you so much to everyone who sent me an e-mail this week, and i´m sorry if I didn´t have a chance to respond personally to your e-mail.
This past week was probably the most intense week of my mission so far. I have been so spiritually drained at the end of everyday. The Lord is blessing us with miracles and with challenges that are alsmot too much for one little heart like mine to handle.
Let me tell you about just ONE of the families that we were focused on this week.
Familia de Pico.
Now that is not their name. The family consists of Zuleika, Antonia, Leididiana, Devenaida, Zenaida... And no there are no typos. Yes those are their names. These 5 woman were the center of every thought, moment, and prayer of this week. They do not live on this island, they live on another island in the azores called Pico. (The Island of Pico does not have missionaries, the church does not exist there, there are no other recorded members of the Church there). But they were visiting their family here on São Miguel. So we started teaching them. The dad´s name is José. He came too. But he is already a member. He was baptized about a year ago. He was here for about a week, heard the missionaries, and was baptized and left back for Pico with a box of Books of Mormon.
We felt really strongly that we needed to teach teh rest of the family this week and after our Christmas conference this past week (A whole other story), we knew that the will of the Lord was for this family to be baptized before returning to Pico. This was a grand idea. Completely unimaginable to the natural man. But we knew that when it is the will of the Lord it is possible.
During Christmas conference we talked with our mission president and asked for council and advice as to how we could help this family understand, and really be prepared to make this covenant with God. How could we help them so that they could stay strong in Pico, without the church there yet. The conversation we had with our mission president affirmed in our hearts that this really was the will of the Lord, and that this family´s baptism was bigger than jsut their oppurtunity at happiness and salvation, but the fate of the Island of Pico. President Torgan plainly told us, that when this family is baptized, he will go htere personally, and he will send missionaries, and Pico will open to hear the Gospel......
Heavy, heavy stuff.
Not only was the fate of this family resting in our hands, but the future of the Island of Pico.
We worked, we prayed, we fasted, we taught, we read with them, we spent every moment. But by the end of those 4 days (which felt like 6 years) They still had not accepted the baptismal invite.
AHHHHHHHH Time is up.....
I will have to write more a different day...
But just know that they are back in Pico, each with a Book of Mormon, with an understanding that they are daughters of God and with a fire and a desire to learn the truths. Their time soon will come. I´m sure of it. Because they are in the Lord´s hands.
Wow. What a way to end an email, in the middle of a story.
I love you all. Thank you for your love and support.
Clinton and Elisabeth thank you for the package!!!!!!!!
Love,
Irmã
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