Hey friends and family!
I'm sorry that this email is coming in a little late. Our zone went to a corn maze today! Probably one of the funniest activities I've done in a while (more fun?)! Though it wasn't the whole zone, it was still super fun. I'll send some pictures along and maybe a video.
This week was actually "quite great" in the words of Elder Stewart (He is from England). We got five new investigators and one person on date! We are so excited! November looks like it is going to be a great month.
Our first new investigator is Andres. Funny story about finding him. We had him in our area book and so we stuck him in the plans...I'm so glad we did. When he opened the door, I had a little freak out session because there was a Peruvian flag right behind his head. It literally went like this, "Hi we are miss..ARE YOU FROM PERU?!" It was really cool because we got into a really good conversation about Peru and the Andes and the culture and how much we missed it. He was super cool and he agreed to have us back over this coming Saturday. I am super stoked to teach him.
Our second new investigator is Jessie. She recently just had a new baby and is just the sweetest thing ever. Apparently she has had missionaries over before and she liked what they were teaching her but one day they just stopped coming. She told us she never understood why but she is happy that we are coming back again. We have an appointment with her this night and we are going to be teaching her the Plan of Salvation. Very very excited.
Okay last thing! We went over last night to go teach Daniel "the gospel of Jesus Christ". At first the lesson just seamed to be dragging and I was beginning to worry that Daniel wasn't getting anything out of this lesson. We came to the point of baptism and we showed him the video about Jesus Christ's baptism...still nothing. Now I was pretty desperate for him to feel something! I was about to explain to him again why it was so important to be baptized when the spirit quietly whispered "just ask him if he really wants this." So I took a deep breath and very gently asked him if this is what he really wanted, to be baptized. Daniel is a thinker and he says exactly how he feels so he just sat there and thought and thought. I could see the gears turning in his brain and then something just clicked. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "yes". I then asked him why and he gave such a sweet sincere answer "I want to live with God and Jesus my big brother in the celestial kingdom. I want to be in the celestial kingdom." He brought the spirit in with that answer and then we were able to invite him to baptism on November 19th. I also asked him how he felt when he said yes. I loved loved LOVED his answer. He said he got a tingly feeling..."right here" as he pointed to his chest. He gets it! He really gets it! I had been feeling like we were just pushing him to baptism but this lesson revealed that he himself really wanted this. It is beautiful! This is just an eleven year old boy but he just has such a deep understanding of the gospel. I think I sometimes forget that when I was his age, I began to experience the gospel and feel it in my life too. Sometime I underestimate this kids but I am always astounded when I hear their testimonies.
It is just a reminder to me that the gospel is for everyone. Young or old. The gospel is simply beautiful. So simple yet so complex. Simple enough for children to understand but complex enough to that we will never stop learning about it. Look at the wisdom of our God.
I will always always be grateful for is gospel.
Hermana Paredes
