A Sister on the Yellow Brick Road: Week 14: El Espiritu Santo: "Mi amigo fiel!"

Well HELLLOOOO there!!

I hope you all had such a wonderful week just full of blessings from our loving Heavenly Father!

Thank you so much to Samuel Alger and Mackenzie Berry for the letters! Really loved and appreciated them! Sam has been called to Michigan Detroit and Mackenzie is going to Brazil!!!! :D WOOT! Just adding to God's Army!!

Most exciting thing this week was *drum roll* THE BAPTISMS OF SONIA AND JOSE!!!!!! :D this quote in my subject was said by the dear Sonia on Sunday after she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was so cute :)

But first. Lemme tell ya a cool miracle! Besides the cool baptism miracle!

So. Sister Hymas were going to visit a less active, but when we got there we decided that we shouldn't visit them right then so we were like "okay. who should we go see?" and both of us thought of the same investigator at the same time - always a sign that it's inspired sooooo we went!

Outside of the apartments was a lady changing her tire, so we of course asked if we could help her which was very amusing to her because we were in skirts (haha). So we just started chattin with her, the usual missionary small talk about believing in God and Jesus Christ and she told us lots of stuff about the Baptist church that she goes to and just loves for lots of good reasons. We were agreein with her and jokin and having a good time and then she found out what church we were from..... :) haha it was great. She was like "OH! you're the Mormons?! See, I don't agree!" and we were like "wait, what?! What don't you agree with?" and she went on to tell us about John Smith and about how we worship him and stuff like that...we of course explained to her that that's a misconception, we worship Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God just like the prophets in the Bible. We went on to talk about the Book of Mormon and she was just blown away. She couldn't believe that everything she had known wasn't true! She accepted the Book of Mormon, said she'd read it and pray about it - she has such great faith in Jesus Christ. It was one of those moments when you just know Heavenly Father is guiding you :)

Okay. Now for the baptism! Please forgive me for maybe not being able to express everything very well. I don't even know where to start! It was just such a beautiful baptism. There were so many people there to support them - people from the branch of course, but also people from the English ward who have really fellowshipped them. The room was full - which has never been the case for any baptism I have been to yet. It was so awesome. Jose was nervous, and Sonia was excited :) We stood on the steps waiting for her as she got baptized, when she came back to us, the only thing she could say was: "WOW." Then Jose was baptized; he is just so sweet :) We went into the bathroom with Sonia again and she got emotional, started crying, and kept saying how incredible and beautiful it was, we all hugged and were crying together. How powerful it was. Sonia and Jose bore their testimonies when they got all changed. This was the most powerful, Spirit-packed anything I have ever experienced on my mission - maybe even ever except for in the temple or something. Jose shared his feelings first. He started by saying how beautiful and marvelous the day was. Then he said "Gracias a Dios" that he could be there. And then, you could just see the Spirit overwhelm him and he started to cry. Everyone in that room could feel the power of his small but firm testimony. It was incredible. Sonia shared her feelings too, thanked everyone for being there on this special day for her and her brother, the first step in entering the kingdom of God.

The feelings I had while they were sharing their testimonies were on Jesus Christ. How all of this truly is possible because of Him. I was humbled in my feelings: did I even do anything? The answer is yes, but I played a very small role. Sonia and Jose got baptized and made that crucial promise with God because they were converted by the Spirit. I have seen the change in these two young children of God - a change that is only possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. This change in others is my purpose. How grateful I am that I could be just a small little instrument in the hands of the Lord to bring 2 of His beloved children back to His fold.

I love this gospel. I love Jesus Christ. I strive every day to get to know Him more by emulating Him and thinking of Him.

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! Thank you for all of your love and prayers :)

I hope you all have an amazing week!

Con todo mi corazon y mi amor,

Hermana Shumway