Week 14: Tender Mercies of the Lord

Hello family and friends!!

How is everything going at home?  How is the weather?  I am sooo cold here.  I don't know what i was thinking when i thought that california was always warm.  At night it gets to about 65 degrees and I am absolutely freezing.  I guess not bringing a coat was not the smartest thing that I have done.  Good thing my companion was prepared and has 2 haha :)

Tender mercies of the Lord are real and they do not occur randomlyor merely by coincidence.
David A. Bednar

This week has been filled with so many miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. I know that as I am obedient and follow the promptings of the holy ghost that the Lord is guiding us to those who are ready for the gospel.  We have one investigator whose name is Maria Cendejas.  We actually found her in the area book.  She had been taught by missionaries a few years ago and was not quite ready but now she is so ready!  She knows that this is the church that she wants her sons to grow up in and to learn more about Christ.  She is so awesome but the best part is we are meeting with her husband this time around and the missionaries last time couldn't even talk to him.  He was so against the church then but now he has so many questions and it is so awesome and the spirit is always so strong! Maria has a baptismal date and we are working with Brian, her husband, to have one as well. 

Another miracle or tender mercy that come from meeting with maria is her mom Luz.  We went over to Maria's house for a visit and her mom was there so we invited her to be a part of the lesson and she accepted right away. It kind of caught us off guard because it rarely happens like that.  She is a non-practicing catholic which is very big here.  She has amazing faith in Christ and His love for her.  We had a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ; faith, repentence, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Luz loved talking about baptism and receiving forgiveness of all that we have done.  We showed her a video of when Jesus Christ was baptized and she thought that is was so beautiful.  we invited her to be baptized in that lesson and she accepted!! :)  We are so excited for her.  The hardest thing for her is going to be her husband.  He does not like when we come at all and he does not like when Luz leaves the house.  We have really been praying hard for her and her husband to have an open heart and for her to be able to come to church this next week!  

One more tender mercy from this last week was our lesson with Ramon. I met him last transfer and we had a really good beginning lesson with him and ended up giving him a book of mormon to read.  We set up a return appointment but when we went he ended up being in mexico and he also lives in an area that we don't spend a lot of time in.  We ended up going to that area last night and i had the prompting to go and see ramon.  we went to his house and he told us that he had been waiting for us to come and see him!  He had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon and had some questions that we answered for him and then we taught him the restoration.  He absolutely loved it!  He understood everything so well and he knows that what we share is true.  He told us that every time that we come by he gets the goosebumps when we talk and he just wants to learn more :)  We invited him to be baptized but he wants to know for sure that this is true before he does that and he doesn't understand the importance of being baptized if he hasn't done bad things like drink, smoke, or kill anyone so we are working on that with him.  Another cool thing with him is that we are teaching him english as well!  So we spend 30 minutes teaching english and 30 minutes teaching the gospel.  It is so fun to see him learn and improve :)

There is a huge focus in our mission about focusing on the tender mercies of the Lord and all of the blessings that He has given us.  Throughout our day we stop and think about all of the things that God and Christ have done for us and it is such a blessing to do this.  Even though we get rejected so many times when we talk about our tender mercies it is so hard to be frustrated with our day.  We see the Lord's hand in the work so much more when we focus on the tender mercies.  It also has helped me to be more grateful for all of the little things that the Lord has done for me.  So this week i invite you all to take some time throughout your day and stop to think about the tender mercies that you have seen throughout your day.  I know that as you do this you will feel the love of Christ more in your life and you will be so grateful for everything that he has done for you!

When we put our problems in God's hands, He puts peace in our hearts. (John 14:27)
In the most difficult circumstances of life, there is often only one source of peace...
The Prince of Peace.

I hope you all have a great week and thank you so much for all the letters, emails and support!

Love,

Hermana Kali McMinn