Week 23

Buenos Dias Mis Seres Amados

This week was pretty solid. We taught 23 lessons this week, which is pretty good when the mission goal is 20 a week, but I want to shoot for 30 :) I feel like we have been so blessed with great investigators! We are teaching so many people, consistently, and am so excited to witness some more miracles like the ones we witnessed with the Patino family. We have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday for Breanna, who is the younger sister of Alysa, the girl we baptized in February. I am really excited to see Breanna be baptized, and am praying that some of our current investigators will commit to baptism this week. On Saturday we took the Patino's to the temple and we taught them a lesson in the waiting room just off to the side of the reception desk. It was such a good lesson, and they all said they could feel something different inside the temple :) I can't wait to come back to the area in a year to witness their sealing as a family inside the temple. Speaking of temple, tomorrow is my zone's temple day and it couldn't have come at a better time. I am really in need of the peace and rejuvenation that comes from temple attendance.

On Friday we had exchanges and Hermana Wardle came to my area! It was really great to work with her again, although we have been in the same zone the last two transfers we haven't had an opportunity to really talk or teach together. It was a really good experience for me, we taught a lot of lessons on friday and I was very grateful that I was able to understand and teach in spanish without any problems. I also felt very humbled because I was able to clearly see the things I need to work on, many in my teaching skills. I feel like I have focused so much on spanish that I have almost forgotten how to teach effectively! I have been studying the teaching skills section in Preach My Gospel for over a week now, and am really excited to start implementing the things that I am learning and become a better teacher and tool in the Lord's hands.

This whole transfer all of our zone and district meetings have been conducting with the focus being on repentance, and I have learned SO much more about the repentance process and how to repent on a daily basis. In Zone meeting on Friday, one of the zone leaders had us listen to a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland about repentance that really really spoke to me personally and helped me to realize some things I need to work on. There was one part where he was talking about leaving repented sins buried, and how some people will go over with their plastic pail and shovel, dig up there sins, wave them around and then throw them at someone. It was really funny the way he described it, but it's so true. He also said that we should stop try to re-open wounds that the Savior died to heal, and that was a pretty powerful statement for me. Since my baptism I have struggled to let certain wounds heal and I guess I just thought that would all vanish once I put my missionary name tag on, but I was wrong, and have been working with Heavenly Father to allow myself to heal and to grow from my past experiences. I would encourage everyone reading to study the topic of repentance more deeply. I have learned so much this transfer and feel like I have gained such a greater appreciation for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His willingness to help us battle our weaknesses. I know without the shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ lives, that He knows each and everyone of us personally and that He suffered each of our pains, sicknesses, temptations, and sins, that He would know how to help us to be successful and happy in this life. Words cannot describe the love and gratitude I have for the Savior and for my Heavenly Father. I have felt their love and guidance more than ever as I have strived to serve them with all of my heart, might, mind and strength.

Con Amor
Hermana Taets