Email 42 - "It was a really crazy, really great week."

With Hna Hone and Hna Cançado

"Accidently making paper-doll swords while prepping for a lesson about the Ammonites"

 "Finally succumbing to drinking some of Hna P´s Herbalife (witchcraft that she drinks every morning, haha) because I´ve been a little sick again this week."

"Our growing Forget-me-nots!"

"Fun in the mission home :) I LOVE this picture of the Jacksons :)"

Holy awesome emails from everybody, Batman!!!  I LOVE this! Haha. You guys are the best. I love hearing about all the awesome stuff you´re doing.

I´m excited to tell Hermana Pavéz that Adam´s headed to Argentina. I´ll have to ask her what part she´s from...

And yeah! I get to see you guys next week!!! Woohoo!

So this week just flew by. Holy moly. ´Lots of really awesome stuff. I was only in my area for about half of the week!

Lame news first: Remember our golden investigator, S----a? And our less active buddy, E-----o? The same "prophet" from the same church that attacks our religion and led those two away from the truth has been working on F------o!! He had him promise to not read the Book of Mormon for a month and attend with his congregations instead of coming to the chapel.  So. Frustrating!

We finally met with F------o yesterday and ensured that there´s no doubt in his mind about the things we know to be true. We made sure it was clear to him that he may feel just fine in another religion, but he´ll never find the church organization that Christ established, the pure doctrine He taught, or the authority to act in His name anywhere outside of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If he wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true, not reading it isn´t going to get him anywhere, and the only way he´s going to find the peace of being in the right path is through following an answer from God Himself.

Haha, okay, rant´s over. Kinda crazy, huh?

On a much brighter note, I got to go participate in one of the coolest meetings I´ve ever been to on Tuesday :) I had my first leadership council in the mission home! President Jackson made it very clear that it was intended to be, very literally, a council, and as each comment was considered and decisions were made, I felt how the Spirit was guiding the discussions and the meeting in general. 

President Jackson said that President Packer once said that, when speaking in councils, "there is revelation scattered among us," so everyone´s input matters. ´Loved that.

(And now I understand a little more why returned missionaries feel so weird being alone when they finish their missions, haha. We had special permission to leave our comps with members and travel alone to the mission home, and during that time w/out a phone or a companion, I felt more awkward and vulnerable than I ever have in my life! And I used to love being alone back home! Haha)

Anyway, there are a lot of changes happening in our mission, and it was really cool and humbling being given a chance to teach with our zone leaders on Wednesday in our zone training.

One of the changes (just made by the Twelve) is that we now need to teach the "after baptism lessons" (lesson 5 in PMG) before an investigator can be baptized!

I wasn´t sure about how I felt about that (I knew right away that it was revelation, but as I thought about our investigators, I wondered about how prepared they´d be), but right when I met up on Tuesday evening with my companion, I understood the change so much better! 

She´d just had a lesson with R-----d, and he was asking a lot about temples (he has a pastor- yep, same church- telling him that he shouldn´t be baptized because of what we do in the temples.) and she was thinking the whole time, "whyyyy can´t we teach him lesson 5?! Maybe we can get permission from President..." Haha. So cool.

And I got to go to the temple again!!! The session in Spanish is beautiful, and I got some very specific, much-needed answers while there. President pointed out on Tuesday that, in almost every instance where the Savior has appeared to man, one of the first things He does is forgive that person of their sins. In doing so, He allows that person to have a perfect peace of conscious to be able to enjoy His presence. I think being worthy to sit in the temple gives us a glimpse of what that peace of conscious in His presence is like :)

We also had another exchange this week, and we´ll start another one tonight. The one I had was with Hermana Fowers, a really sweet missionary from a big family in Utah, who was trained by Hna Zitting. It was fun seeing how much she loves everyone she teaches, and I got to help out with a couple English-tutoring sessions :)

Overall, it was a really crazy, really great week. Sunny´s doing better than ever and he´s been really helpful with our investigator, S----o, who came to a baptismal service and church this week! (yes!!)

Not a whole lot of progress with anyone else, but Hna P and I have been loving teaching together more than ever... which probably means one of us is getting transferred next week, haha.

But hey, you guys´ll get to meet her on Sunday! :D

I can´t wait.

Thanks for being so awesome! Keep it up and keep me posted!

I love you so much!!!

-Hermana Chrissy-liss