The Gospel Is Jesus Christ

Hola seres queridos mios! [Hello, loved ones!]

Espero que han tenido una semana llena de felicidad y que se disfrutaran. [I hope you have had a week full of happiness and enjoyment.]

"I found my street."

Bueno. This week. So, I liked how I did it last week and so I think I´m going to continue to do it like that. :)

Firstly, Juan. On Tuesday we had splits with the hermana leaders and Hermana Criddle was extremely sick. So Hermana Humacata (hermana leader) and I went out to work. We visited Juan first. We talked to him about what he was searching for from God—why he was investigating the church. He told us that he was searching for peace. We asked him why it was that he needed peace and he opened up and told us about his life. His parents had died and his sister as well and he was really depressed. He also fought with his pareja (spouse, but not married) so bad that he had an attack and now half of his face is paralyzed. There was much more, but he has had a hard life. After hearing about all of it, we talked about the Atonement and how it applies to him. We talked about God´s love and about how he could have more fully the peace he was looking for after being baptized. We then invited him to be baptized again. There was a long pause and finally he asked, "When can we do it? Can we do it on Sunday?" Of course! We were ecstatic! The Spirit was really strong in that lesson. We were really excited for him. We went to visit him again on Thursday and asked about how he felt about his decision. He said not so good. We asked him why and he said he doesn´t want to be baptized anymore. We asked him why, what made him change his mind, but he wouldn´t tell us. He said that he has his religion and he´s going to stick with that. We were crushed. But we´re not giving up on him yet. I´m hoping that he´s just a little scared, tentative. Anyway, that was a little hard. 

Guadalupe. We weren´t able to really see her this week. Every time we passed by, she wasn´t there. We´re going to see her this week, though.

Romina. On Monday, Romina had her baptismal interview and passed! She is amazing! Then on Friday we went to talk to her and we had to change her baptismal date. She was going to be baptized this last Saturday, but the M----- family (the only other Mormons that live in San Marcos) couldn´t come. Seeing as they are her only connection with the Mormon world, we decided to postpone. Her date is now set for the 29 of August. We had a lesson with her about the ten commandments. It was really good. She told us that she felt guilty about not following some of the commandments earlier on in her life. We told her that after her baptism, it doesn´t matter what she did beforehand. That´s all gone. Erased. She felt good about that. She also told us that she wants her daughters to be able to grow up with better moral standards than she had. Romina is amazing!

We have two new investigators! Elva and Estafani. Elva is an elderly woman whose husband was investigating the church when he died 17 years ago. Estafani is her granddaughter. We have taught them about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. They really liked the Plan of Salvation and want to do the right thing. We invited them to be baptized. Twice, but as of yet they haven´t accepted. They want to be sure before they accept. But we´re excited for them! 

Anyway, one thing I learned is the importance of finding people´s real needs. With Juan, we didn´t find his real need until Tuesday. Yeah, he doesn´t want to be baptized yet, but we were able to teach him what he really needed to hear. With Guadalupe last week, we found out that she really just wants to feel her dad´s love. That was really strong for me. I realized that we don´t really teach anything until we find what they really need. Once we find that need, the words that we speak have meaning. But, if we never find that, we never really reach them.

This week we also had a zone conference. It was amazing! I love zone conferences! We had a lot of talks and I learned a lot. I would say that more than anything, I´ve learned more about the Atonement. I realized that there is only one topic in the Gospel, really. The Atonement. We talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What does Gospel mean? Good news. The good news of what? The good news that we have a Savior, we have a way back, we´re not stuck on this earth alone. The good news that Christ suffered for us. That we can return to our Father in Heaven. The good news is the Atonement. So it´s not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is Jesus Christ.

"I found my favorite kind of chocolate here, in Argentina!!!!!!"

Anyway, I hope that you all have a fantastic week! I love you all!

Love from,

Hermana Micaela Wilson