Faith is Real

Mon, January 17, 2011 7:30:34 PM

We baptized a family. Wow. It was amazing. This last week was a rollercoaster of ups and downs - there were so many instances when we were just like ¨oh my gosh.. REALLY? Is this necessary?!¨ But of course it was necessary, we just didn’t know why. Just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong and sometimes we didn’t know the how in the overcoming of a challenge but in the end the Lord got us all through. The enemy was attacking at every front, spiritual and temporal etc etc and the situation seemed out of our hands and abilities many times but we just worked hard and put our whole everything in the hands of the Lord. This family, Karla and Aldo, are amazing. The gospel has affected their lives in a very real way and they have now taken the first steps towards being sealed in the temple for eternity. They are excited about one day entering and even as we speak Karla is putting forward her every effort to plan an FHE for her family. She does not have the support of anyone who lives with her (in fact, she has open opposition) but her mother finally gave her permission to host an FHE in their home (with more than just her, Aldo, and the kids).

The wedding was beautiful, and after seeing the ups and downs of this couple and seeing them work through it and overcome it together, I was so happy to see them finally be able to make marriage a reality. Aldo in particular was just sooo overwhelmed - he almost couldn’t stop smiling.

Then the baptism brought it full circle and wow it was gorgeous, even though the baptismal font it turned out had a leak and they had to sit down to be able to be baptized because it was soooo freaking low (just another one of those lovely challenges). Karla cried multiple times. She just kept on saying how happy was that she could have a second chance, that she could become clean again.

In the end the daughter Itzayana was also baptized, and check out the pinata that she had at her birthday!

After this week of working with all our hearts and minds and everything that we have and giving it all I feel a peaceful exhaustion if that makes sense. We feel the need to recover but we have another boda/baptism to work on before this change ends Feb 2nd and so we are steppin’ on it!! The Lord has trusted us with a lot of trials this last week and we have been able to prove that we are in it to the end - we are willing to do all He requires because we know the importance of this work and the blessings that can come for these people. We only have a little bit of time to be able to do this. I already have 7 months in my mission, and every day more is a day less here participating in the work/opportunity/miracle of a lifetime. I really feel blessed that the Lord can trust me with these experiences and has confidence in me that I will fulfill what He has asked, no matter how hard or bleak the situation

Also.. I bet you all have noticed it has increasingly become more difficult for me to express myself in English. I have been having a hard time going between languages and now speak pretty much only Spanish. It is hard for me to remember to speak English in the house, which is a rule as part of the English-learning system in this mission. My comp is progressing in her English which makes me happy. I bet you all will get a good laugh when I come home and ´can’t talk good´ hahahaha.

love you all! cheers!

Mom's p.s. Based on her letter, I'm pretty sure Courtney meant to attach pictures. However, probably in her rush to get all her letter-writing done, they weren't there. If I get them next week, I'll insert them then. : )

NOTE: Pictures came : )