June 30th--Magela got Baptised

Sunday was such an amazing experience. Magela got baptized. It was so humbling to realize that the Lord allowed me to have a small part in her conversion. Really we didn't do much. She was prepared, and she allowed the spirit to work within her. She walked into the font, we just had to show her where it was. She was glowing.

After she got out of the font she was freezing... pobresita (poor thing). But after she got confirmed and we asked her how she felt she smiled and said 'warm.'

It was a long journey for Magela. We taught her for more then two months, which is very rare in this mission. She was ready to get baptized the first day we met her. We even had her set with a date for a 2 week baptism. But we ran into some issues with the Law of Chastity, she was living with her 'husband' who wasn't actually her husband. Anyways long long story short, she said she would marry him so she could get baptized but never really went through with it.(she was hesitant about marriage..because he was either going to leave the country or go to jail). About a month later I just looked at her and said 'Magela, I promise if you get married everything will work out. If you were married would you already be baptized?' she said 'yes' and asked him to marry her that night. He said yes.... but then turns out he has no form of ID. sooo a legal marriage was going to be difficult. She spent everyday trying to figure out how she could get him an ID but he had already left by the time the marriage could all come together. 

At the beginning of this week she was upset with him leaving and everything, so we gave her space. But on Wednesday I just knew we had to go over. We went over and she let us in, she had been rarely  reading and she had found it hard to pray. She was shocked by how hard she took him leaving. She said she would get baptized but she just wasn't excited like she had been before. She didn't want us to come over because she didn't want us to see her cry. We stayed for about an hour and let her talk and talk. When we were leaving she said thank you so much for coming I really needed it. She had a whole new light about her. She had her excitement back! Everything went great leading up to the baptism. She is amazing. 

I will never forget the first time I met my first YSA bishop. We talked about how I had been reading the scriptures everyday and had began to feel so much better! He said that's wonderful, but never think that that feeling will take you to the next day. You must still read everyday, you must never become complacent! 

Magela learned that early on, when she thought a feeling would carry her through hard times she stopped her reading, because it was too hard. But her previous feelings couldn't carry her. But as she has the courage to start again her countenance change. He must actively be disciples of Jesus Christ every day. We can not become complacent, even when its hard, even when we don't want to. And it is my promise to you that our lives will be so much better for it. 

ALL MY LOVE

Sister Koutz