Cinco de Mayo - well there aren't many mexicans here

This week literally flew by. I am actually in shock about it! The temple dedication and cultural event were great! It was such an exciting weekend :) The spirit here in the mission is booming now that the temple has been dedicated.

Yesterday while in the home of an older senile lady we got asked if we were mother and daughter...me being the daughter of course ;) Then I handed her a card with the painting of Jesus coming out of the tomb...she asked me if it was my husband. I was struggling so hard not to laugh... 

Any ways this past week was great. Some weeks I feel like the Lord is teaching me slowly, here a little there a little, but other weeks I feel like He is molding me so fast that I can literally feel a difference in my heart and soul. It's so hard to explain, but I am so grateful for it. 

Our investigator Magela, whom I wrote about last week- she is set to get baptized this Sunday! Please pray it all works out! She is amazing. Sometimes I just listen to her stories and the things she says and I think she was sent to us to help me, to teach and change me. It's amazing the work that the Lord does through just three people. We are all changing each other. We are not the big missionary heros, shes the hero. 

We have also been working with a less active women whose husband got deported to Australia. She lives with her less-active divorced brother. He has a 9 year old daughter and he called us the other day and he wants her baptized! I cant even explain how big this is, the ward has been trying to get Mia baptized for a year! We are so excited! She is so excited too. We taught her the restoration, and then she looked at us and said, "can I ask you a funny question? Why do people have to die?" So we taught her the plan of Salvation. and then asked her "why do people have to die?" and she said "Well its like you are reading a book and you finish it, so you start a new one but this one is so much better!" Sister Mckay and I both got the biggest smile on our faces and said "yes Mia, exactly". Children get it. They are filled with the spirit. They are so pure. 

This week I started the Book of Mormon again, this time looking at the characteristics of the righteous. I admire Nephi so much because of his strong desire to always do the Lords will. One part that really stuck out to me this week is when Nephi is chastening Laman and Lemuel. He says to them that their hearts are so hardened that "I, your younger brother should speak unto you, yea and set an example for you? how is it that ye have not hearkened unto the Lord? How is that ye have forgotten that ye have seen an angel of the Lord?"

It made me think about the times when we forget the spiritual manifestations the Lord has given to us. We get so easily wrapped up in the bad, that we begin to lose faith, we wonder where He is, But if we remember we realize He has always been there before, and that means He is with us now. Remember what He has shown us, remember the great things He has done for us, remember all of the times He has delivered us. Remember He is there. 

XOXOXOX

Hermana Koutz