Big Changes Headed My Way!

Bueno!

 

Hello there everyone! It was so so great getting to see all of your faces and hear all of your voices this past week! It already feels like it was sooo long ago. A lot of stuff happens everyday over here in the life of a missionary, which is always so good. But it really just made my whole week to get to spend a little family time with you all. Now only 4 more months or something, right? :) haha but who's counting? How has the break been treating you all? It sounds like you are staying busy and getting lots done. Please please send my love to Grace and the other girls who are getting ready to head out and let them know that they are in for the greatest experience of their lives where they will learn and grow more than they ever thought was possible! Speaking of learning and growing, we have transfers tomorrow and Hermana Driesel is leaving me. :( But I know that what ever will happen is in the Lord's plans and that He is helping me become the person that only He knows I am capable of becoming. And there is no way that I can do that without His help. So yes, I will be taking over here in the Woodlands, and I am excited to see what will happen with my new companion and what not. Every companionship in our district is losing one missionary and gaining a new one, and every district leader in our zone is getting changed out! So there are definitely big big changes headed to our zone. But if we didn't have change we couldn't progress, right? So that's what has been happening the past little while. Yesterday all of the missionaries in our ward had the opportunity to speak in church, and it was really awesome! We actually spoke as a companionship and shared a brief version of the lessons we teach with the congregation. Hermana Driesel and I taught the Plan of Salvation and it was so incredible to look out into the congregation and see how the message touched them. I think it was a great opportunity for them to see how much we really care about what we are doing and what we get to share with people. We have a new ward mission plan too, so we are hoping that will help us work more with our members. Anyways, here are some miracles for the week. 

 

We had an incredible miracle with one of our less active members. She is just getting back into learning about the church again and we have asked her if we could bring members with us before, but she has been really hesistant to let anyone else into her house. We had an appointment scheduled to meet with her and about an hour before we were supposed to go over she sent us a text message. She asked us if we could bring someone to give her sons a blessing of health!! We were able to bring the President of our Elder's Quorum and he was able to give both of her boys a blessing. I know that this was an incredible experience for her. During the blessings she had tears streaming down her cheeks and I know that she was able to feel the Spirit testify to her of the Priesthood power and I know she wants that to be a part of her life again. Her little boy is just adorable too because after the blessing he would go give him a hug and say "You saved my life! Thank you, you saved my life!" haha he is soooo adorable!

One of the less active families that we have been meeting with has an 8 year old daughter who hasn't been baptized yet, and....we set a baptismal date with her!! Whooo!! This is Fatima, the daughter of Carlos and she is such a special little girl. She wants her dad to be the one to baptize her, so what greater motivation could there be for Carlos to get back active in the church? We're super excited and are so happy for Fatima! This family really is so remarkable! So right now we set a date for January 11, but we will work according to Carlos as well. So exciting!

 

Now for one thing that I learned this week from one of our members. We started talking about the gospel (go figure haha) and how it blesses us and how we are able to become so much more with it in our lives. I shared with them a saying that goes something like "Our church isn't a museum for Saints, but a hospital for sinners." Then Hermano added a really cool insight and analogy to this. He said that in our church we are in "wards" like a "hospital ward." This is where we go to get healed. It is so true!! Here in the church we are constantly being healed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is the one and only way that we can be completely healed and relieved of our burdens. I thought that was such an incredible analogy, so I just thought that I would share that with you. As far as New Years goals go, I haven't really thought too much about it until now...I honestly barely remembered that New Years was even happening! haha but I'm going to think a lot about that this week and I will get back to you on that. Well, I'm off, but know that I love you all more than you will ever ever know. Best of luck with the beginning of the New Year! LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

 

Hermana Hoj
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