As you can see from the subject of the email, Horacio believes the Book of Mormon is true! We finished our night last night by teaching him on his doorstep. We shared a scripture about how the Book of Mormon is the record of the ancient inhabitants of the people in the Americas, his ancestors..I felt prompted to bluntly ask, "Horacio, do you believe the Book of Mormon is true?" He smiled and said, "Do you believe it is?" Without any doubt or hesitation I said, "Yes!" He looked down and said quietly, "I believe the Book of Mormon is true." Relief and peace swept over me at that moment..Horacio has been to church 5 times in the 6 weeks that we've been teaching him. Some people just take longer than other to get baptized so I know that the day will eventually come.
I don't know if I ever mentioned this before but...we organized a all-spanish fireside! And it happened last night! We invited two other wards/branches from Conroe (30 minutes) and Bryan/College Station (one hour away)..It was a huge success! We invited all of our spanish speaking members, less actives, and investigators..We fasted all day yesterday for it....and the Ruiz's and Araceli Pimentel (return missionary who is now LA) came! That's a big deal people! Brother Vasquez from the mission presidency and Bishop Rivera from the Brazos Ward spoke on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This was my first time attending an all-spanish meeting and wow, it was amazing! It was so fun to sing the hymns, pray, and hear the talks all in spanish! And I actually understood all of it! We had members from our ward give musical numbers..Brother and Sister Manning (young couple) sang "El Cristo Es" or "This is the Christ"....woooowwww SO BEAUTIFUL. The Spirit just flooded the room and I firmly believe everyone there was touched by it.
Aside from the amazing fireside, we had more miracles!
Last Monday, we went to Jose Sanchez's (super prepared family that we taught two lessons to) to set up a return appointment..He came out of the house and explained that he's just going to stick to the bible for now..But if God tells him to come to this church, he'll do it...My heart broke into a million pieces..I felt so sad for him and his beautiful family..They chose to reject the pure and true Gospel of Jesus Christ..I can't even begin to imagine the pain that Heavenly Father has to go through as He watches His children reject such plain and simple truths..Even those who come to know it's true can still choose to reject it..We all have our agency to choose.. So after that heart-breaking moment.. we went tracting in a trailer park (surprise surprise)..The first house we knocked and placed a Book of Mormon with him. The second, we placed two BoMs with these two brothers from Mexico. We talked with them for a long time about the need for the BoM and they loved it! Once of the brothers, Juan, wanted to begin reading 3 Nephi 11 (when Christ comes to the Americas after His resurrection) right on the spot! He was so excited! When we went back for a return appointment, he talked on and on about how much he has read and we could see there was an amazing light in his eyes that wasn't there the first time we met him. I love finding- There's so much hope and excitement when you find new people to teach. I love seeing their potential...picturing them dressed in white, standing in the waters of baptism...I love being a servant of the Lord!
For "power hour" (6-7 pm every day that's devoted to finding), we went to a random trailer park off of the highway in hopes of finding some new people to teach...It was filled with white people..Don't get me wrong, we're all children of God! But we ONLY talk to hispanics because that's what we've been called to do..Preach the gospel in spanish. Seeing that we had driven all the way out to the trailer park, we decided to knock on a door before we needed to return for an appointment...We walked up to one trailer and the front door was open and a long-haired, shirtless man sat on the couch. AWK. It was too late to sneak away without him knowing because he saw us at the last moment and said, "What do you loonies want?!?" Hosking turned away and whispered, "Walk fast, now!" We did what she commanded and the guy ran out of his trailer...We awkwardly turned around and apologized lol...
The next house we saw, there was a woman sitting outside, smoking..We introduced ourselves and she said that she has family who are LDS...She had never heard of the Book of Mormon before so when we told her it answers the questions of our souls (Where did we come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? etc..), she was so excited! She said, "Really? I've always had those questions and the churches I've gone to always tell me not to ask questions." I held up the Book of Mormon that was in my hand and said, "Well today is your lucky day because you get to receive a copy of the Book of Mormon!" Her face lit up with pure joy and surprise :) We got her contact info and hopefully, the elders can begin teaching her!
Wanna hear some more exciting news?!? Krystin Ulassin (18 year old who was baptized Dec. 1) IS GOING TO SERVE A MISSION! How freaking awesome is that?!? Ah!!! I love her so so much!
We've begun to teach a new family this week...Victor Lopez's brother...He's married and has two beautiful children :)
On Saturday, we were Victor's trailer park and the kids always see us...This time, when we got out of the car, they all came running and screaming towards us...We opened the back of the Jeep and they (10 kids) began crawling in it haha...We gave them pass along cards and pictures of Jesus :) We then said, "Do you want to hear a cool story?" They screamed with joy and ran around finding chairs to to sit on..they all sat in front of me as I told them the story of Ammon how he cut off the arms of the wicked men who tried to take the king's sheep..To act it out, I grabbed the two tennis rackets from the back of the car and gave one to Hermana Fletcher while we "attacked" Hermana Hosking...The kids LOVED it...I gave one of them a Book of Mormon and they all sat in a circle and began to read to each other! six year olds! Holy smokes, these kids are amazing! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!
After the fireside, Hermana Ruiz pulled me aside and said, "He (Hno Ruiz) came because of you! They better not take you away! I know we're not supposed to get attached to missionaries but we love you so much!" As she said this, tears welled into her eyes and I was filled with inexpressible love for her and her family. I teared up as well and threw my arms around her and said in return, "Le quiero mucho!" (I love you so much) It took me aback to see the love she had for me and to see that I had really made a difference in someone's life...Hermano Ruiz is the one holding the family back but Hermana Ruiz could still come..I know that I don't understand how hard that must be but hopefully, this fireside lit a fire under them and they'll come back to full activity.
I love helping bring people to the Savior. We're all at different levels..whether we're baptized or in active or a fully active member, we all need to be brought to the Savior. Every person matters and is of great worth in the sight of the Lord. You are special!
I know that this is the Lord's work and He's is not going to let anything stop it.
I love you all!
Hermana Seymour
This is the definition of Texas!
yayyy for tejas! (how it's pronounced in spanish)
this is the son of the breeder's cup champion....one of the Harris' many horses..We went on a safari today!
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