Hermana Mary DeWitt: New P-Day

I forgot to mention this in last week's email, but our mission has changed our P-days to Mondays instead of Tuesdays! The Church wants Mondays to be the standardized P-day across the world, so our Mission President made the announcement to us a few weeks ago - I just forgot to mention it until now! This week had its ups and downs, but it was a good week overall!

We started teaching Manuel, who we had found while trying to contact a referral (named Job) about a month ago - we weren't able to ever get in contact with Job (we're starting to think he doesn't even exist??) but Manuel, one of the guys who lives in that house, was interested in our message! We met with him a few times, but he talks a LOT, so it was always very hard to keep control of the conversation - he always has a billion questions, and we were worried that he saw us as Q&A machines, rather than representative of Jesus Christ. Yesterday, we sat down with him and talked about how we could spend all day answering his questions, but that our bigger goal is to help him learn how to find answers on his own! We talked about prayer, scripture study, and church attendance as some of the main ways to receive revelation and answers to our questions, and he seemed to understand! We emphasized that the Book of Mormon has every answer to every question that he has, and he's very excited to start reading it!

We also had another lesson with Roberto and his 2 kids, Dayana and Javier! We talked with Dayana about feeling ready for her baptismal date (originally the 11th), and we all agreed that she needed more time to be prepared to make those convenants with God. We also asked Javier if he wanted to work towards baptism too, and he immediately said "Oh yes, definitely!" We're so excited for both of them, and for Roberto to prepare to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and baptize them! We've also talked a lot about temple work, and they're excited to start working towards completing the necessary ordinances for their family members who have passed on.

Personal Study excerpt for this week:

(context - The Nephites and Lamanites have just had a horrible battle, which was the worst battle that they had seen since the time that Lehi's family left Jerusalem, which sounds like a pretty intense battle to me! A lot of the Nephites lost loved ones, and this verse talks about how they were feeling)

Alma 28:6 - "And now surely this was a sorrowful day; yea, a time of solemnity, and a time of much fasting and prayer."

--solemn --> dignified and somber in manner or character and committed to keeping promises

--when the Nephites lost their loved ones in this terrible battle, they became even more committed to their covenants, so that they could be reunited with those loved ones in the Celestial Kingdom.

--much fasting and prayer - they turned towards God in their trials.

Let your trials and hardships turn you towards God - let them help you become even more committed to your covenants and promises with God.

Love you all and have a great week!

- Hermana DeWitt