Thank you everyone for all of the
birthday wishes! My birthday was seriously amazing! I had such a good day! First
off, we got to watch the General Relief Society session which was incredible!
We then found a new family to teach! It was a complete miracle! We were
knocking on doors, a woman answered and said that she was too busy for us. We
felt very strongly that we needed to stay there so we started teaching her
right there through her doorway. After a few minutes she invited us in and we
began to teach her. She was so receptive to everything we taught and had been
prepared by the Lord to receive His message. She has three kids and a husband
so she asked us to return to teach them too. We were so incredibly excited! I
couldn´t have asked for a better birthday gift!
After that we went to a few more
appointments and taught our English class. Our English class is finally starting
to fill up!!! It´s a complete miracle! One cool story. The other night my
companion and I were walking down the street talking when a kid ran
up to us and asked us what language we were speaking in. I said English and he
got super excited! He then began to rattle off the little phrases in English he
knew and before we knew it his older brother came over to talk to us too. We
told them both about our English classes and they were so excited! We were talking
with them when all of the sudden a guy rides by on his bike, hears us
teaching them a little English, and immediately stops. He comes over and starts
to talk to us in English. We were so shocked! It turns out that he studied English
for a year or two and has been looking for ways to practice his English so that
he could get a job in England but hasn´t been able to find any that he can
afford. After a super funny discussion with them they all told us that they´d
come to our English classes and bring all of their friends. Well, guess what? They
all came and even brought their friends! It was awesome! COMPLETE miracle! The Lord
literally placed them directly in our path.
After English class we traveled over
to a member´s home to have a noche de hogar (family home evening) but it turns
out that it was all a ploy and that they were throwing a surprise party for me
with the whole branch! It was the nicest thing ever!!!! Don´t worry we still
got to have a noche de hogar and teach some lessons. I love my branch sooooooo
much! They all have a special place in my heart even though there aren´t that
many of them.
Conference was AMAZING!!! We
listened to all of the sessions in Spanish which was actually really cool! I
finally feel ok with the language because I was able to understand all of the
talks without much of a problem. POR FIN (at last!!) Conference never fails to
humble me out and bring me to my knees at the feet of my Savior. WHY IS
CONFERENCE SO COOL?!?!?!
This week was by far the best week
that we´ve had here! Truly full of miracles! We found an
additional family to teach this week so if you´re counting we found two full
families to teach this week!!! WE FINALLY HAVE PEOPLE TO TEACH!!!! hahahahahah!
We couldn´t be more excited! We put forth every effort we had to find people to
teach this week and the Lord answered us ten-fold. We entered this week with a
lot of fasting and prayer in order to be able to find someone to teach. We
worked morning to night to find the elect and bring them to the Savior. We even
gave up lunch time some days to keep looking (don´t worry we still took a few
minutes to eat!). We put forth every effort and energy that we had and the Lord
answered our prayers. We saw miracle after miracle this week! I love it here! It´s
hard and there still isn´t a whole lot of work going on but we´re talking to
everyone we can and taking every opportunity to serve that we see. The best
thing that we can do here is act as the Savior´s hands and do as He would do,
say what He would say, and love as He would love. That´s all I want to do! Be
an instrument in the hands of my Lord and Savior.
So the lessons I learned this
week are: If we but move forward with faith the Lord will provide miracles,
that fear and doubt are the opposite of faith, and that through God all things
are possible. Miracles come AFTER the trial of our faith. First comes the faith
and then comes the miracles. I love this work and I love my Savior!
Fear not, only believe!
Hermana Israelsen
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