YES!!!

email dated 9/30/08

Woot woot! We baptized 3 people last Friday. Julieta and Maria Rosa, two women who I was skeptical were going to make it because they were both quitting smoking, but they both did it and they are SOO cool. And the 14 year old Federico. They were good baptisms. Federico’s mom came to church for the first time in 30 years and she felt so good that she talked to me and wanted to get a Principles of the Gospel book and wants to come to church every week. And Federico was so excited to be baptized and everything just seemed to work out with him. A LOT of prayer went into that. His mom, when we first started going by, accused us of adding to the bible, the sacred and only bible and that there cant be any more bible, etc... and now she wants to go to church every week and told me she is praying that eventually her whole family will unite with the "Mormon" church.

Julieta was baptized at just the right time. Her 20 year old son overdosed on drugs and almost killed himself the day after her baptism. And rather than viewing at as a evil curse or a bad sign from her baptism like many would have, she said that the gift of the Holy Ghost helped to her overcome the biggest challenge she has ever faced in her life and that reading the Book of Mormon has helped her feel peace in a challenging moment. The gospel can do amazing things when it is applied properly!

Maria Rosa, who smoked 3 packs a day, and always had health problems, pronounced herself cured yesterday when we went by to visit and see how she has been doing. She said "I feel perfect! I don’t hurt at all. My pains are gone." And it may sound crazy, but I believe her. I believe God cured her of her physical pains. Her countenance is SOO different. She looks so different, she was glowing! She had a big huge smile and hugged us as we left. I NEVER break that rule, this being the first time I can remember, but it is a 60 year old woman that is just SOO happy to have changed her life and she thanks us for it and we tell her to thank God. She said she tried quitting smoking so many times, and for some reason when we encouraged her to do it and reminded her to pray to God for help, she found a strength she didn’t know she ever had. She is reading the Book of Mormon every day and SHARING THE GOSPEL WITH HER NEIGHBORS!!! She invited her neighbor to investigate the church because of how happy she is. Very cool!

My favorite thing about the mission is definitely the following: Seeing the changes in people as they allow a faith in Jesus Christ to enter their hearts. I love seeing people happier on account of the gospel, and I love seeing them face their challenges and trials that before were unmanageable, and I love seeing them conquer!

I learned a very valuable lesson from this last month. I am still learning about prayer. I have never prayed so hard. I prayed all month for each of them by name almost all the time. I was always thinking about them as I went to bed and praying for them. I have never been so focused in my whole mission. I have seen as we pray we see results. Like anything, we have to give it our time and attention. If we pray sincerely we can and do and will see the hand of God in our lives. A recent convert family in our ward has a little 5 year old girl that got bit up by a dog last week, to be more specific, by a pit-bull!! And it clasped her face! She was hospitalized. It made me sick to see her. Her face was completely disfigured and the skin ripped off. The ward fasted and prayed for her. She healed faster than I have ever seen anyone heal from anything. That was a few weeks ago, and now she is almost without any marks on her, and it appears that she wont be left with even a scar. The family, with the help of the church members, felt loved and supported through the challenging time and the prayers of the ward healed that little girl. She looked dead, and there was talk of plastic surgery by the doctors, and she healed perfectly!!

What I learned is that God is still a God of miracles. The faith truly does precede the miracles. We all know that it is His will that must be done, but I am starting to see that these challenges that He places before us are all solvable if we remember to seek His will and His way of solving them. God knows what He is doing. He loves us. And His tender mercies are infinite! If we look with the eye of faith rather than the eye of skepticism, we can see and feel the influence of God in our daily lives. It is all a question of point of view. And recognizing that Gods first commandments were reminding us to think of Him and worship only Him, we have to always remember Him. He gives us billions of reminders if we pay attention.

I know there is a God and that He loves us and that He is always listening to the prayer of His children. Let us have faith that he will answer our prayers. If we believe that God doesn’t care about the little things or that he is done with His miracles, then that is what we will see. If we search for His hand with faith and believe He is working miracles, then He will show us the miracles. I have seen them. And I am eternally grateful for this opportunity Heavenly Father gave me to learn this valuable lesson.

Oh yeah, I am staying here in Cerro with Elder Stevenson. I am happy about that. We have some good families we are teaching. I am optimistic that we will see some miracles this transfer.

I love you all so much!! Take care!!

Andy