Blessed Beyond Measure

Hello people I love!

Wow, I feel fantastically blessed to be a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that this is His work, and it is advancing at a breathtaking pace. These past couple weeks we have seen a ton of miracles, especially with baptism-ready people just dropping into our laps! The Lord does His work on His timeline, and in a chapter where we feel like we´ve been doing the least in our area, He´s seen fit to send a flood of 9- to 11-year old children whose parents and grandparents are in various stages of reactivation who want to be baptized.

Wanted to tell the story of this beautiful family. Jacobo and Michel are two of the people that I have come to love most in my whole mission, and we´ve only visited them twice so far. They´re brothers, two little angels with sweet, pure hearts, and the most wonderful of desires. Their mom is returning to activity in the Church, and it feels like an army couldn´t keep them from the waters of baptism. They´re determined. We need prayers for their dad as well, who is a wonderful, wonderful man and an excellent father who loves God and works like a dog to provide for his family. He´s still uncertain about how he feels about the restored Church, but I´m confident that he will see more of the changes happening in his wife and kids and want to be part of it.

In all honestly, these have been a really difficult pair of weeks on personal front. I´m quite behind on a lot of the mission financial tasks, and I´m getting audited this week (regular, scheduled audit). I´ve been struggling with personal diligence, staying on task, and efficiency as it seems like the water is coming into the boat faster than I can bail it out. I know that the promise in 1 Nephi 3:7 is accurate though, and I have faith that the Lord will pull me through. I really do love my life, and I´m so happy.

I want to testify about the power of scripture study!! It is without fail that the days that are the hardest in the office and with regards to being consecrated in the evenings are the days I don´t make the time to study the scriptures. There is power in reading the Book of Mormon every day. To quote our beloved President Monson, "If you are not reading the Book of Mormon every day, please do so." I know that as we read we are given strength from on high to overcome the challenges of our day. Interesting thought: God isn´t yet teaching us to be independent. That will come in the next life. Right now, God is teaching us to become as dependent on Him and Christ as we possibly can be. As we become more spiritually mature, we´re invited to lean more on Them, not less. A la 7 Habits for Highly Effective People, we spend all of this life in Stage 1: Dependence, with regards to our relationship with God.

That´s all for me this week! Love you dearly, love receiving emails, love my Savior, love the people in my two wards and the missionaries in my financial stewardship, love the scriptures, and hope you have an absolutely fantastic week.

Blessed beyond measure,

Elder Child