A Voice From the Vineyard: 10 February 2014

So this week was an amazing week, for a lot of the missionaries in the Santa Rosa mission. There was nothing huge, but we felt it. As some may know we fasted for rain this last Fast Sunday and boy, did it come this week. It has been raining almost non-stop since Wednesday. Luckily it isn't that bad of rain but it has been exciting. We have all felt the power of prayer! Then also Hermana Underwood and I had our prayers answered again with our work with Less-actives this week! So let me tell you about it!

Monday we taught a lesson to Hermano Flores, a member in our ward. For some unknown reason he has decided to attend an English ward. We, not knowing that, and having not seen him at church for a few weeks stopped by to say hello. He was so happy to receive a visit from us and he informed us that he was going to church and so we just left them with a spiritual thought and it was just nice to give people some of that TLC that we all need.

On Tuesday we had our meetings and things. It was my first time teaching. I wasn't really nervous but I think I was a little apprehensive that I was really helping other missionaries understand how to become better missionaries. I talked about the Book of Mormon being a cornerstone of what we teach others. I loved just interacting with them and combining it all together to make sense. It was a little weird to feel so apprehensive after so many years of theatre but I am sure I will get used to all a soon. In the evening we actually had a successful English class. People are actually showing up! It was great! 2 of them even came to our ward party this week! They are like members already! The purpose of our class is to find investigators so we have been trying and we found a few.

Wednesday we tried to visit a less active and she didn't answer, so we left her a talk, an idea of Hermana Underwood's. Then we had a crazy almost 2 hour dinner. We are so grateful for the people that feed us, but sometimes it can get a little crazy. So here is a my little speal for all of you. Missionaries technically only have an hour for dinner. If dinner takes longer then an hour it takes up time so our plans and lessons get all messed up. My plea from a humble missionary is that no matter what it is please be conscientious of time! I know all of you don't have any problems with that, but that is my little speech that I can never make to the members I eat with! Also this was our first rainy day! Which is fun! Both Hermana Underwood and I love the rain so it was good.

Thursday was our miracle day! The night before, after we planned for our day, Hermana Underwood prayed that all of the lessons we had planned would happen. As missionaries we plan to visit people a lot of the time, but a lot of them don't happen. We prayed for it and hoped for it. We had 6 lessons planned. The first was with Santa O. She is a recent convert and going strong. She has been to the temple once to do baptisms for the dead and so we wanted to help her start to find her own names and take them to the temple. We talked to her about temples and family history. Then we had a lesson with Graciela a kind of inactive. She is the only member of the church in her family. We have never met her husband. It has all just been really hard on her. SO to our surprise who should answer the door, but her Husband! We talked for a minute as we waited for her to come out and he said it was raining so he didn't have work. She didn't have much time, and neither did we, but we shared a video about the Book of Mormon, by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and her husband pretended to watch the soccer game, without sound. He really watched our video and he was honestly curious about it all. We definitely planted a seed that I hope will help him on his path! We went to our appointment with Jose Cospin. He works most Sundays, but we had a powerful lesson on what really matters most in life. He tries, but I hope we also started the path of him being more dedicated to come to church every Sunday! Then we taught a less-active from the English ward that we had found accidentally. They were offended, but we hope that their heart can also be softened and they can receive the comfort and peace they need from the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then after dinner we went a visited our investigators Deisy and Manuel with their new baby boy! We watched the Patterns of Light videos by Elder Bednar that talks about the Spirit and how we feel it. I think they were touched by how simple it is and how powerful prayer is also. Then we had our last and 6th lesson of the day with Ricardo and his girlfriend who is a non-member. We finally were able to have a more spiritual lesson with him, really talking about how Heavenly Father loves him so much! We committed him to start praying again. We hope that he does it so that eventually he can feel the importance and power of prayer! Anyway, it was a great day! We couldn't believe that our humble prayer was answered! It was a powerful confirmation of the fact that when we have faith, it will happen! Sometimes it isn't always how we imagine it or when we imagine it, but it will happen!
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Then on Friday we had a ward party for Valentines day! It was fun. They had a little dance after and that was fun also. It was a great time for the branch to really just bond together! Also one of our former investigators texted us and said that she wanted to start meeting with us again after she talked to her dentist, who just happens to be the stake president! We are excited to see her again!

On Saturday we also had a wonderful day with some great miracles. First in the pouring rain we visited some less-actives I had never met before. They live in a small home clumped with many other small homes off of a vineyard. They were home and we were able to share a short message and set up an appointment for next week! We are very excited to be able to help them come back, paso por paso! Then later in the evening we Heart Attacked some people, those that had helped with the party, the stake president and some Elders that need some cheering up! Then we went to see another Less-active I had never met before. Her name is Janeth. At first she was a little apprehensive and her husband said that she had been crying because a few days earlier she had found out that her sister in Nicaragua has cancer. She was really down. We shared a video about hope and what it meant to her and she seemed very interested in talking to us more by the end. Her husband doesn't speak much Spanish so i think she also liked the opportunity to speak in her native tongue. Then we also taught Martha, recent convert, about not being judgmental which was just perfect timing to help her become better! It was a wonderful day, and we were so happy to have helped so many!

Sunday after dinner we taught a lesson on family history to another Less-active family. It was good to just help them. They have a long road to go but it was wonderful to bring the spirit into their home. All in all we had 10 lessons with less-actives or recent converts! It was such a great week! We felt the love of all of those we can help in this work of salvation and just so you all know, miracles have not ceased. There are still in effect today. All we need is faith to act on whatever the Lord tells us and a humble prayer and those things that help us to take one step closer to our Heavenly Father will happen and will one day help us to reach exaltation!

Well I have high hopes for this week as well! I hope all of you strive to do the work of salvation, whether it be family history work, inviting a non-member friend to learn more of even working with less-actives, lets do it and see the miracles!

Tengan una buena semana!

Les quiero!

-Hermana Cornwall