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| Elder Miles and Elder Spackman with investigators at church on Easter Sunday |
This
week was super full of miracles and it was absolutely amazing!! We'd been
trying so hard to find people lately and the blessings are starting to show. Its
crazy how sometimes you just find people that are willing to listen, or others
that have been prepared so well that you can't believe they aren't
baptized.
Haha I've had a few
other awkward moments this week. We were tracting and I went up to the door and
I think I asked her how her day was like four times. There are so many ways to
say that in Spanish and I probably said them all. I just couldn't think about
what to say. Haha. It was pretty funny.
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| Elder Miles with other missionaries at Zone Conference |
On Tuesday I had my
first Zone Conference of the mission. It was super awesome and it reminded me
just how awesome President and Sister Lewis are. They are both just so amazing,
so filled with the spirit, and so smart. We always joke that they are about as
close to perfect as you can get. The message on Tuesday was about Easter. It
was mostly centered on the Atonement and how through the Atonement we receive
three amazing gifts. The first is Resurrection, the second Redemption, and the
third is Relief. Resurrection being the chance to live forever in a perfect
body, Redemption is the power to receive forgiveness, and Relief comes through
the enabling power of the Atonement, which allows us to be healed of any pain, whether
it's spiritual, physical, mental, or emotional. It was a super awesome Zone
Conference and I can't wait until the next
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| Zone Conference Lunch |
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| Elder Miles attending sealing at Columbia River Temple in Richland, WA |
One of my favorite
moments from this week is that Elder Spackman and I had the chance to go to a
sealing for one of his converts fromthe beginning of his mission. It was super
cool to watch the two of them get sealed, and as I was there I decided that
this was going to be my goal for all those I teach. Getting them to the temple
is the most important thing. I want to do everything I can to prepare them for
that. I decided whenever I'm teaching someone to imagine them in the temple. As
I've done that this week I have felt such an increased amount of love for those
I teach, and I so desperately want them to receive those blessings.
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| Columbia River |
We also had the chance
to teach Refugio and Marisol again this week! It was a super awesome lesson! We
went over the Restoration again to see what their understanding was and they
understood it so well and asked some amazing questions. They are so prepared
and just need to get their answer. Teaching them has honestly been such a
miracle. They were being taught before we came to Moses Lake, but when we got
here they didn't really want anything to do with us, but one day Marisol let us
in kinda out of nowhere, and they've been awesome ever since. I think the
biggest thing is having a friend for Marisol. It makes her excited to listen
and learn. Refugio is coming along a lot better as well. When we first them he
seemed so bored and uninterested, but now he's making comments and asking
questions.
We taught a guy a few
times this week about the Melchizedek Priesthood. He's getting ready to return
to Mexico and wanted to get that priesthood before he left. He is so awesome
and just soaks everything in.
We also taught a young
couple named Fabian and Marta. The week before Fabian was outside smoking and I
felt prompted to go and talk with him. I didn't expect a whole ton I just
thought it would be more of a Spanish practice, but he seemed pretty interested
and was excited to speak with us. So we taught them and they seemed to be
really interested in what we were talking about and when we invited them to
baptism they said they needed to learn more, and that they wanted to learn
more. My favorite part of this was that when I talked to Fabian it was my first
OYM (Open Your Mouth) that I did completely by myself in Spanish. Elder
Spackman would always help me a little bit or when I got lost he'd jump in, but
this time was special, because I did it myself.
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| Elder Miles with the Zone Leaders - Elders Jensen and Wilkey |
Another really amazing
miracle was we were tracting a street and found absolutely zero Hispanics and
nobody interested at all. So we decided to go stop by an LA instead of
finishing this street, but as we were walking to our car I saw a little
Hispanic family eating dinner through their window, and I felt prompted that we
should go talk with them. They let us in and offered us some carne asada, which
is another miracle because I was starving (haha), but we sat down and started
talking to Jesus, who is the father, and we quickly found that he was prepared
forever ago. He was going through a really hard time, and was trying to figure
out what to do with his life like 10 or so years ago, and as he was struggling
with this he met a member who helped him with everything. If it wasn't for this
member his family would have had nothing, and when Jesus finally got back on
his feet, he told us that he wanted to find out why that member was so willing
to help him. He said that he was willing to do absolutely anything for that
member. I was shocked. I couldn't believe he hadn't been baptized before.
Everything we taught him just made sense to him, and he is really excited to
learn more.
The biggest and coolest
miracle was that we had 4 investigators at church!!! And 2 Less Active
families! It was super cool to see them all there. The 4 investigators were
Yesena, Hinocencio, and Refugio and Marisol. It was so cool to see them all
there. The miracle part is that it was the first time for all of them but
Yesena. Refugio and Marisol were so unsure on whether or not they wanted to
come to church, but they came and loved it. And Hinocencio has flaked on us
before but this week he was all dressed up and was groomed really nicely. The
best part was that he wasn't hung over. He is a big drinker and he tried so
hard the night before to not drink so he could make it to church, he even came
though he was sick. It was so awesome to see so many people there, the
"fruit of labor" I guess. It makes me want to work even harder.
We should have had 5
investigators but Jesus didn't wake up on time. We stopped by later that day
and he apologized a lot, but we taught him the Restoration and invited him to
be baptized and he said yes!! Also Hinocencio agreed to be baptized as well! He
has a date for May that we are going to try really hard to work with him
towards. He's really receptive to everything he just needs to stop drinking and
he's set.
It was honestly such an
amazing week! Love you all!!
--
Elder Miles
Washington Yakima Mission |
| Moses Lake Zone Conference Elder Miles is on the 3rd row from the front, 8th from the right |
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