Good Things

Dear family,

thank you so much for all of the birthday emails- I could definitley feel your love and am grateful for you all. Last night my comp and I had to come into Málaga to do residency, and President Deere invited us to join us in family scriptures and prayer- I may have teared up just a little bit remembering all the family home evenings and family prayers as a family. I´m so grateful for you all and am excited to see you again.

Here are a few good things that happened this past week. We were able to meet with Marcos´s wife- for the time being, she´s still very catholic, but as she expressed a difficult situation she´s found herself in this past week, the scripture Ether 12:37 came to mind, and I shared it with her- it was one that helped me through a really difficult time, and she said it comforted her a lot, that it was just what she needed to hear. I realized that one reason we pass through trials is to be able to succor others in the same place. I´m glad that I have had difficult moments that help me understand others better.

There´s also good news with Tania- she´s just blossomed this last week. Things we thought would impede her progress haven´t, and we couldn´t be happier with the change within her. I was remembering the first time we taught her- she was a bit distracted, and didn´t seem very interested or committed... and now she shares the scriptures with her family, and reads past the assignments we leave her and she says she wants her family to feel the same way she does. It broke my heart in one lesson- she´d just read the pamphlet for one of the lessons, and mentioned a picture she´d seen in the back of a family kneeling to pray. She said she wished she could have that. (Her family doesn´t want to participate for now).

Another important aspect of the work that was highlighted this week was follow up. We´d just had a prayer with Tania, followed up on her reading assignment, and the conversation was leading us perfectly into the lesson we´d planned, but even after my companion had started the first point of the lesson, I felt we had to follow up on whether she´d prayed about the chapter we´d left her (3 Nephi 11) and about whether she should be baptized or not. I changed the subject and asked her. She went quiet and began to smile. She said she´d pondered the chapter, read about the necessity of authority and immersion, and felt at peace when she´d prayed about it. She said she told her family that she´s ready to take this first step. It was one of the most spiritually enriching lessons I´ve had- I felt the spirit so strongly in the room and within myself.

I know that this church is true, and that the Spirit changes people- those who come to know the gospel for the first time, and those of us who´ve had it all our lives. I only hope to be changed enough to please my God.

I love you all, and know that I will enjoy my 21st birthday here in the mission field.

Love, Hna. Johnson