faith to see miracles

This is the backyard of our church building nbd

Hola a todos!

Do you have the faith to see miracles? Elder Ringwood asked us this simple question at Mission conference almost two weeks ago and I have been asking myself this same question day after day for the past two weeks. And wow we've seen tantos milagros.

When reading Ether 12 with one of our investigators this week I loved verse twelve, which says, "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."

Faith is VITAL. Not only in missionary work, but in life. I know that when we have sufficient faith, God not only can, but He will bring miracles. We can't choose our miracles because hello, this is God's plan not ours. And because it's God's plan the miracles that come are not always the miracle we are hoping for, but nonetheless miracles. I made a list of some of the miracles we've seen this week:

- "Randomly" messaged Jorge and he video called us and said, "Have you been praying for me? Because look! Your prayers got me a job!"... MIRACLE
- Decided to stop by a potential in our area book which was a potential pre-digital area book (so like 4 years ago and a miracle it was even in there), which led us to an incredible girl who was genuinely interested in our message and asked amazing questions... MIRACLE
- "Ran into" a woman we met at service when we were tracting, then saw her again at service. She recognized us and was actually very happy to see us... MIRACLE
- Went to visit a less active, couldn't get into the building, then they pulled up right as we were walking away... MIRACLE
- Went to teach some kids of a less active who hadn't answered our calls or texts in two weeks, she was there and let us right in... MIRACLE
- Our branch has started a family history class and our members found 8 names to bring to the temple... MIRACLE
- President Barney gave us permission to go to the temple to witness these people being saved... MIRACLE
- We were able to use the new referral app to send missionaries to one of our member's friends in Mexico... MIRACLE
- Another one of our investigators told us he knows the Book of Mormon is true... MIRACLE
- We prayed we wouldn't run out of food this week because only one family signed up to feed us. A couple took us to lunch and a member brought us dinner to church... MIRACLE
- When we shared a scripture with a less active we're teaching she didn't quite get the message we were going for, but said it was exactly what she needed to hear... MIRACLE
- an inactive family that will never let us in decided to show up to church... MIRACLE

I apologize if any of those miracles didn't make sense to you, but I've found that it's the small miracles that keep me going every day. Why? Because they remind me that the Lord's hand is guiding me. He is in every detail of our lives and nothing is a coincidence.

Okay now for some funny stories this week because wow I laughed a lot:

1. An Hermana that served here about five years ago told us of an investigator she had but eventually she wasn't progressing so they stopped visiting her. We told her we would stop by and see how she was doing. She lives in one of the trailer parks we're in all the time so we knocked what was her trailer park (well, at least 5 years ago it was). This what appeared to be Hispanic man opened the door and we said hola and asked for the woman we were looking for. He looked extremely confused and said something we couldn't quite understand, so we asked again. Then he just pointed to himself and said, "Brazil." We were like ooohhh you speak Portuguese? He was like SI! He couldn't speak Spanish or English so after 30 seconds of a huge struggle, we left. So then we were like okay, we have a number, let's call her. Then the same person answered and all he said was "Um no language, no language" so we're like okay this isn't working out..

2. One of our most favorite couples in the branch, Peter and Fernanda, got married at the beginning of July and Hna Meredith and I became companions at the end of July, so we've almost been companions as long as they've been married.. #eternal

3. We ran to the chapel to grab Spanish Hymn books to sing a song in our family history class on Wednesday. On the way out I quite literally ran into President Barney who was here for a stake meeting. Whoops.

4. We asked Leo if he thought the movie "Nacho Libre" was funny or offensive and he started crying because he thinks it's that funny.

This place is slowly freezing over but we are still trying to spread the good word! I am still finding so much joy in this work despite the suddenly scary temperatures. Also, the temple is still as incredible as it was three months ago, so please GO!

Quote of the week: "This is our life now!" -Hna Meredith as we are running from door to door to keep ourselves warm.

I love you all! Tenga una buena semana!

Hermana Hanson