Letter #48: Una semana de milagros!

It truly was a week of miracles! From finding an amazing Spanish family to teaching a whole lesson in espanol BY MYSELF to Mario's baptism, we had a lot of opportunities to exercise faith and trust in the Lord this week and see huge milagros because of it.

I had a cool opportunity with one of the sisters who to my area on exchange this week. She was struggling because she felt like she didn't know how to listen to and be guided by the Spirit, yet during our day we saw huge miracles as I allowed her to pick the spots we would harvest and the people we would talk to. We were walking down the street and there was a lady back from the road a bit by her house. For some reason, almost everyone we had met together spoke Spanish! It was cool because it gave me a chance to practice, but unfortunately it didn't give this sister much opportunity to talk at all. Anyways, she looked at the woman and asked me, "Hey, want to practice your Spanish again? You should go talk to her!" In all reality, I felt a little worn-out from speaking so much Spanish already that day, but I decided she's right, we should go talk to her. Thank goodness for that prompting! Carlotta let us in her home to pray and accepted baptism immediately after! Her family is awesome, and we've been able to see them every day since then. In fact, her family of 4 came to church yesterday and LOVED it! Another huge miracle came on Friday, when we went to teach them. I've never taught a lesson in Spanish completely by myself...I've always had someone else there who speaks more Spanish to help me. However, we could not find a single Spanish-speaking member to come to our lesson on Friday! So, I prayed a LOT (Sis Johnson doesn't speak much Spanish) and we went in to teach them. It ended up being an AMAZING lesson! The beginning was a little shaky, but with the help of the Lord I was able to teach the Restoration in a way that they understood. The Spirit was so strong during the lesson and I came away so excited about the miracle that had just taken place! I am so glad that I have put forth the effort to learn Spanish on my mission, even if I wasn't called Spanish-speaking. As I've been working with this family this week I've had the very distinct impression that one of the reasons I felt so inspired to learn Spanish on my mission was so that I could help this particular family come to the gospel!

This weekend Luigi was finally baptized as well! We moved forward in faith this week, trusting that the Lord would watch over him while he was in New York. He came home on Saturday and we showed up just as he was pulling into his driveway. We called up our district leader, he came and did an interview, and Luigi got baptized less than 4 hours later! Yay! It was a huge miracle and it was SUCH a beautiful baptismal service. It's one of the most spiritual ones I can remember witnessing on my mission! He was confirmed the next day and shared an amazing testimony in gospel principles class about how he knew that it was God's will that he ended up in Florida and that we met him. He talked about how it wasn't His will to come here and how he truly knew that God was leading him on a path to the gospel. So cool! Then, at the elders' baptism after church, he said the opening prayer and it was SO beautiful! He prayed that Charlie (the one getting baptized) would be able to feel the same amazing feelings that he (Luigi) had felt the day before. Oh my, we love Luigi so much! He is incredible and is going to be such a strong member of the church and wonderful addition to the ward.

It truly was a miracle-filled week! I am so grateful for the Lord's tender mercies in my life. We had an incredible comp study with our district leader this week about drawing upon the blessings of heaven. It's given me a new perspective on faith in my missionary work and I know that as I implement the things we talked about, I will be able to see even MORE miracles in the work!

Also, I am STOKED about Nathan's mission call to the PHILIPPINES!! I still can't believe it. 

In other, less-spiritual news, I was finally able to put my floral design skills to use this week. The elders had a wedding and asked Sis J and I to make bouquets at the last minute. They actually turned out looking pretty good! I was impressed.

Also, one of the elders taught me how to wookie call. Yup. We may or may not have been standing outside Luigi's house making wookie calls while Luigi got interviewed for baptism.
 #thisisreallife #welcometoflorida

Oh...and I can't forget to write about my Spanish blunder. I went on exchange to a Spanish area this week and for some reason, I told a lady that I have a daughter named Rebecca. Obviously I meant to say sister. And obviously I know the word for sister. But eh, guess the wrong word came out. I couldn't figure out why the sister I was with was giving me such a weird look, haha. I guess every missionary who speaks another language has to say they've had at least one of those experiences ;)

love,

sis d