This week has been AWESOME. I have finally experienced
Florida! We had a ginormous rainstorm that soaked
us within minutes. We were walking to the car, opened the door, and
just froze! It was pouring, so we grabbed our umbrellas and booked it to the
car. We hoped that it would stop raining before we arrived to our area to Harvest, but
no. I had been reading in the Book of Mormon that day about Samuel the
Lamanite. He was perfectly obedient to the Lord when asked to return back to the
city to proselyte even though he had to get creative in order to teach; he climbed up a wall!! We
needed to do an hour of Harvesting; so we got creative. No one would open their
door to us, so we offered our umbrellas to people, and stopped them in the street or just
walked in the rain proudly showing our nametags and smiling - that shouts the gospel
message right there. When people see us walking around in crazy rain and SMILING (the streets were so flooded that cars were dying in the puddles and
you couldn't see the street), then people will KNOW that we have a good reason. So worth it :) I've never had so
much fun on my mission than I did in that single one hour - even though it was
miserable!
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| My feet are getting thrashed! |
We have been teaching a lot of less-actives who require
some extra effort. During one of our most recent teaching
appointments, we were talking about the Word of Wisdom with Pascual. Behind us
was a carful who were VERY drunk. Ironic!! Anyway, all of a sudden
one stumbles out of his car and walks around towards us. We were a little wary....he just pulled down his pants and started peeing. In
public. Yep!! I had earlier turned away and was missing the whole thing, so when our
investigator got a little wide-eyed I turned to see what was the deal. Hna
McAfee pounced on me to cover my eyes and yelled, "Don't look mi
hija (my daughter)!" Don't worry Mom, I've got a real good mother here in Florida, too :)
I've been learning a lot in the Book of Mormon about names and the
significance they hold. If this gospel isn't true, someone has just pulled off
the greatest sham known to MAN! EVERYTHING connects to everything and the symbolism is through
the roof!! Now instead of just reading a scripture, I scavenge through
verses trying to more fully understand exactly how things connect. I am so sad
that I have spent 19 years of my life merely skimming the surface of the scriptures. I see
all of the things that I've been missing and just want to beat my old self because it
is all so RICH! The Lord promises us that if we put in our effort, He will give us
blessings like crazy. That's how I feel right now. I was also reading in 3 Nephi 3:2-10 and couldn't help but
notice the similiarities between the evil guy in this passage and Satan. Satan was literally
using him as a mouth piece because he is still all upset about not being the
chosen Messiah. Read it!! You will understand what I mean.
It'll blow your mind! Everything that Satan does is because he is still stuck
in the PAST. He can't move past his failures or not getting things his
way - which makes me realize that if we are doing that, we are following Satan.
Move on. Don't dwell in the past. Allow the Atonement to change you!
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Miracle
this week: Andrea is our 15 yr old and has been prepared by our Heavenly Father
for 2 YEARS! Her cousin has been asking her for 2 years if she will get
baptized but she just hasn't felt ready. We met her when we were harvesting and
immediately she felt differently. She took us as a sign that she was supposed to get
baptized. We had planned to teach the lesson about the 10
commandments, but instead talked only about Moroni 10:3-5 for an hour. We talked
about her fears about baptism, why she didn't feel ready, and how she could know
if she was ready. We asked her to kneel and to ask her Father in Heaven if she was
ready right then. When she finished praying we asked her how she felt. She
said her chest felt all warm and full. We testified this was the Spirit and
asked her if she would be baptized. SHE SAID YES! When we continued talking
with her about her baptism, she started saying "I think I'm ready",
but then stopped herself and said, "I KNOW I'm ready". They are so
loved by the Lord and we ADORE our investigators. We have 4 people set up to be
baptized within the next 3 weeks :)
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| Carving pumpkins at a Zone Activity |
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| Our pumpkin was the Tree of Life! |
I
love you all, see you next week!
Hna
Lake
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