Thursday, April 6, 2017

A Conference Miracle!!

Hola todos!

        Wow! What a crazy, wonderful week it's been!  We got transfer news
this morning and I'm staying in Carrizo Springs with Hermana Landon!
We are super excited to continue working together and finding the
Lord's lost sheep.  We saw so many miracles this week!  Last Monday we
had the opportunity to go with Sister Russo, and one of our
investigators, Kris Poff, to San Antonio for p-day and it was so much
fun!  We went to the Mercado Downtown, we got to go to the Cathedral,
and on the River Walk (which we found out is approved for
missionaries to go there now!).  It was so beautiful!  Fun fact....American
Ninja Warrior was being filmed in Downtown San Antonio so we got to go
see the set up!  Kris Poff bought us ropes (she's so sweet for doing
that!) She's also the one who taught us how to rope a couple weeks ago.
We had so much fun being able to go to San Antonio with them!
        Anna and Pearl are doing really well. They have been coming to church
and enjoyed attending conference and learned a lot from it!  Wasn't
General Conference amazing!  We had a miracle happen!  We had
investigators come to every session!  One of our investigators, Betty
Garcia, was watching it with us on Saturday at the church along with
another family from the branch.  After the second session the member
that was with us stood up and bore his testimony to Betty about how the
gospel has changed his life.  Betty then turned to us and said,
"Sisters I'm ready to be baptized!"  She felt the spirit so strong while
listening to conference and felt like she had received an answer to
her prayers!  She will be baptized next week on April 15th and we are
so excited for her!  For those of you that don't know Betty's story.....
Betty lives here in Carrizo Springs but a couple months ago she went
to visit her daughter who lives in Virginia. Her daughter is a member
and had the missionaries over a couple times.  When Betty got back to
Carrizo Springs she wanted to keep learning.  We started teaching her more and
invited her to keep reading the Book of Mormon and to continue praying.
She struggled with objection from her family and friends for wanting
to join the church, amongst some other things, but as Betty continued to
pray and come to church she found new friends and now she has decided to
continue moving forward with faith starting with the decision to be
baptized!  The Holy Ghost is truly the testifier!
        Kris Poff is working so hard to keep her commitments. She's reading
the Book of Mormon, she's praying, and coming to church every week.
Today is her 6th day without smoking a cigarette!  She loves the gospel
and is working towards baptism in June when she can go back to Utah
and get baptized there with all the rest of her family there!
        We've been working with a lot of new investigators and are excited to
see them progress and keep commitments!  We also get to start showing
the new Easter video for this year!  YAY!  I can't believe it's April!
Time is flying by so fast!
        I have learned a lot this week.  Every day that goes by on my mission
I can't help but think of how much it's changed me!  There are 3 things I
would like to share with y'all that I learned.  One, there are 2 ways
of evolving: deliberately and accidentally.  You can either decide
who you want to become and deliberately work toward that end, or you
can just go with the flow and become whatever life makes of you.  In
that event, you will become whatever the fickle circumstances and
forces of life and society will make of you; whatever is currently
considered the "popular" or in; whatever is easiest.  But, whatever
you become accidentally it will not be nearly the full measure of our
potential.  Two, in 1st Corinthians 13 I learned a lot.  These verses
in Corinthians speak of "charity". Say that even if you give all of
your goods to feed the poor, even if you give your body to be burned,
lay down your life for the truth, if your heart is not right, you will
not profit by it.  Good will be done, the poor will be fed, and the
truth defended, but the good that you do, will do you no good, unless
your heart is right.  Unless you have Charity.  Three, the purpose and
central blessing of life is change.  It is to be changed to become
more like Jesus Christ.  It is to incorporate into our character, the
qualities of His character.  It is to move from one degree of
intelligence and capacity to the next, and from there to the next,
until you see God face to face and know him as He knows you!  This
process of change, this process of evolving, becoming, is the object
of the gospel. Change is the design of faith in Christ, repentance and
baptism.  Redemptive change happens by  the power of  the Holy Ghost.
But it happens only if and  when your heart is right. It happens only
if you do not fight against God. It happens only if you unconditionally
surrender your will to the Lord.

        Every challenge you face, every hard thing you confront, every bad
thing that happens to you, every unfairness, every conflict, every
sadness, tragedy, every disappointment and heartache, every temptation
and every opposition happens for one purpose only: to give you
opportunity to respond by applying in your life the teachings of
Jesus.  As you do so you are changed to become more like Him.  I
promise as you apply the gospel teaching of Jesus Christ you will
become a changed person!  I have!  I loved Elder Rasband's talk in
General Conference on the Holy Ghost.  We can all be the first
responders to the promptings we receive and act right away on them!  If
you didn't have the opportunity to watch Conference please do so!  I
love y'all and hope you have a wonderful week!  I can't wait to see mas
milagros!

Con Amor,
Hermana Mann


















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