I've never experienced a week in my whole mission with so much sadness, grief, and anxiety than this one. With the coming home of my Big Bro Austin from his mission, I was filled with sadness and pain. But I saw so many tender mercies from the Lord picking me up and telling me that he loves me. This week, despite all the fun and games, we experienced a ton of sadness for our investigators. The baptismal date of Estela fell because we found out that she's not married, we dropped Lucy and about every other investigator that we found. We had a poor girl in my district that went home early because her father passed away early due to an accident in his work.
But the love of our Savior kept me going. The family we found last week, Lincoln and Norma, are so excited to be investigating our church they love it. They fed us lunch on Saturday, tilapia to be exact and we shared a powerful message about Christ and his restored church. Their 17-year-old daughter Sabrina went to a stake dance that we had this week without saying anything and she signed up for seminary and will start that in the fall. Their parents and Sabrina came to church on Sunday and loved it again. They are the most prepared family I've yet to find on my mission.
We had a stake meeting with our ward leaders and stake leaders and they said never ever in La Paz history ( which is the name of my ward) have they seen so many different people come to church. This week we had 8 people, and it was a straight-up miracle from the lord.
Also this week we had a baptism of a 9-year-old girl named Valeria who is from Venezuela. It turned out to be a very powerful meeting full of love.
Despite all the hard times this week, I know that God loves me. I know that he gives us hard times to bless and strengthen us. I know that he cares for us, and wants us to be happy. I know that his arms are stretched out for each and every one of us. He loves us, and I am a witness that it's true. I hope we can all find hope and joy through his grace and mercy.
Love Ian
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| Austin completing his missionary service |
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| My family at the airport! |
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| Exchanges with Elder Binda from Brazil |
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| Tilapia |
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| Baptism of Valeria |
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