Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Hna. Daines

Dear family,

it´s been an interesting week with a new companion and a pretty bad cold. Nothing to worry about. Every person we´ve visited the last two days has tried to cure me with home remedies. Lots of lemon, honey, questionable medicine, herbal tea that I think only passed my gag reflex because I could taste next to nothing. Not better just yet, but one of these things has got to work, right? 

Hna. Daines is a drastic change from Hna. Brown. Hna. Brown was pretty shy about talking to people, and Hna. Daines has no fears, and greets everyone with a booming "Hola!" and speaks up in lessons as well, even if her verb conjugations haven´t gone quite past infinitive yet. She´s got plenty of energy, so I´m sure we´ll get lots of work done. The heavy snoring has been remedied with the purchase of earplugs. 

Things are going well. Gustavo is still preparing for his baptism on the 8th. He still has problems reading the scriptures, since he hates reading, but one night we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with the whole family (in Alma about the army of Helaman), and I asked him what he thought about it. He said he actually found it interesting and would like to read more. There was a stunned silence and then Sandra said, "BIEN." we got a good laugh out of that little miracle. It was so nice that night- it reminded me of reading the scriptures as a family at home, and I really felt just as if I was at home for a moment. 

We had a lesson on temples one evening, and Juan Carlos (the father) unexpectedly had the day off, so he was there for the entire lesson. Since he´s only been to church once, and hasn´t been able to come to most lessons (but knows the doctrine from his family), I asked him what he sincerely thinks about the church. He said after a few moments thinking about it, "I believe that the church has to be the true church. I believe all of its teachings." I was so shocked to get such a strong answer from him, and so happy- he said we just have to be patient with him because he comes from a strong catholic tradition (in his family), and that even though he believes our teachings, it will take time for him to be baptized. In that lesson, the whole family agreed to have a goal of going to the temple once they´re all baptized and being sealed.

I cannot explain just how transcendently happy this makes me- there isn´t anything to describe it. This is the reason I left home and the people I love- to help others be forever with the people they love. This work is beautiful, and I´m grateful to be a part of it.

Christmas is coming- have you accepted the apostle´s challenge to bring someone to Christ for Christmas? Do it!

All my love, 
Hna. Johnson



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