Hey Family!
So it has been an awesome birthday. Thank you so so much for all of the wonderful birthday wishes and notes. I wish I had time to respond to all of them, but just know they truly mean a lot. I also got some birthday cards from the Vivonas and Mamason this week that meant a lot,
So this morning, President invited all of us over for french toast to celebrate my birthday. That was SO nice of them. They have so much to do, but they made the time to do that. They are amazing.
President told us about a cool boat tour we should take, so we went over to Tigre, and we took a boat tour there that was really cool. I loved it. Now I am about to eat Peruvian food while I write this. So it has been great. I am so blessed. The best part will surely be tonight, when we go out to work, there is no greater gift than that, I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for the opportunity to serve and to share His love.
This week we have been focusing a lot on the "He is the gift" initiative that the church has started. We have been super focused on reaching the mission's goal of 2000 conversions in 2014, so there was a worry that it could distract us from that goal, but we felt strongly that if we follow the counsel of the inspired leaders, the Lord will bless us with the miracles we need to reach our goal. And we saw many miracles from it this week.
So the vision we have for it is that we can help the members to remember Christ, and have the spirit touch their hearts so they can share the gospel more and do something more for Christ this month.
This week, we asked the active members whom we can visit, and they gave us some names of other less active members. One sister said, "oh, but do not go by Alejandra's house. She hasn't gone in years and she doesn't want anything to do with the church." We had never heard of Alejandra before, so naturally, we went to her house first. First, her 18 year old daughter opened the door, "What do you want?" She asked. We told her who we are, and asked if Alejandra was there. She nodded, then closed the door... so we waited... no one came out... At this point, in other times of my mission, I would have just brushed it off and kept on going to a different house. However, at this point, maybe because of pride, or just a love and desire to help them, I don't know why, but I knocked again at the door that she had just slammed. After a few seconds more of waiting, a different girl answered the door. We then met Alejandra. She told us of how she was baptized, and we shared with her a Christmas pass along card, she remembered the Savior. We then asked her, "why do you thing God guided us to meet you here today?" She thought about the question for a second, " I think it is a sign from Him that He wants me to come back." She had moved to another city, and was just visiting her daughters that day, but we passed the address on to the Elders in her city. After she felt the spirit, we asked her, "who else can we share this message about remembering Christ with?" She then gave us the referral of a neighbor, who`s name is Vivìana. Long story short, Vivìana and her 2 daughters are super prepared and want to be baptized, they are committed to go to church tomorrow. (I wish I had time to share more details.)
But lesson of the story, do not let what others say about people interfere with what the Savior says about them and how HE sees them.
We are finding miracles through the MEMBERS. The future of missionary work lies in the hands of the members. There are so many people waiting, whom Christ wants to reach out to in this time to bring them unto Him. What more can we do for HIM?
I am so blessed. Have an awesome week, I love you all!
Love,
Elder Tenney
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