Called To Serve...in Houston, Texas: April 28, 2014: The Heat Is Back

Well...it's officially hot again..it has almost hit 100! NOOO..But it's okay because I'm in a car this time around and not on a bike!

This week was fantastic and I can't believe I'm already on the last week of the transfer..Hermana Bruneel is leaving me next week..NO!

Anyways...I'll start off with a miracle. We've been working with a less active member, Ana Hernandez..Her sister, Mireya, is super active so we've been confused as to why these two sisters could live completely different lives..So we've seen her the past few weeks and every time we commit her to come to church she says, "Oh of course I'll be there!"...no. show..it's okay though, there's always next week, right? On Saturday, we visited her and taught her a very simple lesson on faith in Jesus Christ..Faith in Christ is something much more than just saying, "I know that Christ lives." True faith in Christ leads to change. It is to change to become the person that Heavenly Father created you to be. That is faith. She understood it and tried to dodge the church question but guess what? She came to church for all three hours!

Also, on Friday night we did an exchange with Huntsville! So..Hermana Hosking came to Bryan with me. Oh my goodness, we had so much fun...it was as if we were never separated! Being in charge of the area though was a wee bit scary..It gave me a glimpse of what the next six weeks are going to be like: HARD! I'm not completely familiar with all of the streets (our area is huge and we have no gps) and taking the lead on lessons certainly gets me out of my comfort zone..But I'm really looking forward to the opportunity that I'll have to step outside of my comfy zone and grow. I know that I'm going to have to rely on the Lord like I never have before and something that brings me comfort is that the Lord trusts me to do this so I know that I can.

We taught a lesson this week with an investigator, Anai..We also taught her about faith and prayer..And how through the power of prayer, we can truly know if the Book of Mormon is true. She understood it completely and we invited her to say the closing prayer and ask if what we've taught is true. She accepted and said an awesome prayer. We paused for a moment afterwards to let her feel the peace of the Spirit that had poured into the room. We pulled out Galatians 5:22-23 (the fruits of the spirit) and testified to her that the peace she was feeling was the Spirit bearing witness to her that it was true. She nervously giggled and then got up from the kitchen table and immediately started to cook. I know for a fact that she felt the Spirit and it broke my heart to see her sweep it under the rug. I love the hard lessons I learn every day..This was one of them..We can teach the Gospel to people who will know that it's true, but they have their agency and choose to reject it..

We set up a return appointment with her for yesterday but as soon as we pulled around the corner, they were getting in their car..Avoiding us? We drove by quickly and looped back around. The car was gone. We knocked on the house and no one answered. We left and note and began to walk back to the car. Their car swung around the corner, saw us, slammed the brakes and reversed out of sight. AWK. Okay, we get it, you don't want to see us! In a moment like this where we just faced rejection, we could have easily been saddened and discouraged. But we turned it around and just laughed it off..Laughter is the key! It is always our choice to be happy. No matter the circumstance is, we can still choose to be happy. Exercise that good ol' agency :)

We had a wonderful day of church yesterday..We had our less actives come and then after church, we had a break the fast (pot luck)..Some of the members from the English ward poked their heads in the gym just to breathe in the delicious food..yum! At 6, Alexa Guillen got baptized! She's 8 and her family has been going through a really hard time for the last 6 months..One of their sons was diagnosed with leukemia..Keep Jonathan in your prayers! So it was great to see the family in high spirits..They're the life of the ward..They invite every less active and nonmember to any event that they have so there was a great turnout at the baptism..When Alexa came out of the water, she had the biggest smile and she couldn't stop giggling..Ahh, I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It truly does bring eternal happiness into our lives...

Isn't it amazing to think that we've prepared for a millennia for this short time that we have on the earth? This is our time to perform and do you know what the whole purpose of this life is? To make it back to God with our families. Any action that deviates us from this path should be avoided! I love y'all! Adios y vaya con Dios!

I love this work because it's true!