June 11, 2018 ~ For when I am Weak, then am I Strong (Week 48)

Hiiii friends and fam and maybe even strangers!

This week was such a treat.

I love my companion so much.❤

We just GET each other and we are going to be friends for life!

I think Heavenly Father knew I needed more friends, so he sent me on a mission 😂.

He's always looking out for me 🤗😊.

We serve with the coolest missionaries! There are 6 missionaries that serve just in our Spanish ward (Sister Thomas & I and 4 elders) and it is a party every single day! I laugh so much. They're such great missionaries and people!

The work here is super awesome. Somehow, we keep running into the investigators of our elders and unintentionally stealing them 😂.

Haha, so that has caused some tension but don't worry, all is well. 👍😀

Cool story: we have decided to focus all of our finding efforts in referrals from members. We share an area with like 5 other sets of missionaries and knocking doors there is just so monotonous. So instead, we have drilled the ward council and relief society on "How to share the gospel with your friends" and "How to refer your friends to the missionaries". You guys. It has been so effective! We have members from the ward who are so excited to do missionary work! It works great because our investigators already have a fellow-shipper (friend) and we teach them in the members' homes, and 75% of member referrals get baptized. HOLLA.

In fact, a member in our ward brought one of her friends to church. We talked to her after sacrament meeting and set up an appointment for Sunday night in the home of our member. They taught strictly about baptism in Sunday school, so we were pretty excited.

When we got to our appointment Sunday night at the home of our member, Angelica (the name of the woman who came to church) was so excited to be baptized that we couldn't even teach her the Restoration. She just wanted to talk about how quickly she could be baptized and how she could do it and she wanted to see videos 😂. Haha so we set a baptism date with her for June 24. (We had to explain to her that she has to come to church 3 times before she can get baptized, and the soonest day would be the 24th. Exasperatedly, she said, "Okay, then I'll get baptized right after church that day."😀😀🤙❤)

HOLLA PART 2!

We have been praying so hard to be led to the people who are prepared, and have felt strongly that the members would help us to do so. In fact, I received a priesthood blessing before I came to this area and was told that the members would be the way to many converts. This ward is GREAT and we are already seeing that come to be!! 😁🤗💕

(This is Hermana Cañar. She goes home on Wednesday 😣)

Thank you for the love and support you have shown to me after my last post.

I am so grateful for all of you!

I heard a quote yesterday in church that I really liked.

It was, "Yes, you may have the faith to be healed. But do you have the faith to NOT be?"

Elder David A. Bednar said, “Do you have the faith NOT to be healed? If it is the will of our Heavenly Father…, do you have the faith to submit to His will and not be healed?... Strong faith in the Savior is submissively accepting His will and timing in our lives—even if the outcome is not what we hoped for or wanted...

Many of the lessons we are to learn in mortality can only be received through the things we experience and sometimes suffer.” (CES Devotional, January 2013)

https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/that-we-might-not-shrink-d-c-19-18

Paul had a thorn in his flesh, though no one really knows what it was. He begged God to take it away, not just once, but 3 times...

And God, in his loving kindness, didn't.

“…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh… For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities… for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Cor 12:7-10)

Paul had the faith to trust that God knew what was best for him, even though it was painful and difficult. He had the faith NOT to be healed.