Ch. 24: Promising Blessings

Chapter 24: Promising Blessings

I realized while I was in a lesson with Francisco this week, that one of my favorite parts of being a missionary is having the authority to promise blessings! We decided that if we are going to continue with our goal for this Saturday as our baptism with the devil working so hard on him, we were going to need a miracle. And that we did receive! Francisco´s wife has not been against him coming to church, but she hasn´t been super supportive either. So, we went to our appointments with Francisco this week when we knew she was going to be home so that we could include her more actively in our lessons. I have never seen someone change so quickly. It was truly a miracle!! She is super cute and is working from 9 in the morning until 9 at night, and only has a 2 hour break for medio dia (lunch time/siesta time), and she says that she wants to spend as much time with us that she can during the week because we bring a special spirit into the home. (She´s seriously soo cute!) Anyway, Francisco was having his usual doubts about feeling prepared about baptism (he read the entire Gospel Principles book this week--he could probably teach me about the gospel), and his wife turns to him and says, "Francisco, this is what God is telling you to do. You have felt the spirit, and now you need to follow him, and trust him so he can bless our family." Now, I just want to stand up and cheer, but he was still a little hesitant. So my companion said to him, "Francisco, I promise that if you are baptized this next Saturday (August 31) that you will be healed of your health problems, and your family will enjoy both temporal and spiritual blessings for all eternity." I have always been hesitant to promise these kind of blessings, but then I realize that if we are listening to the spirit, then we have the authority given to us to promise them to our investigators. Then, depending on their faith, they can receive these blessings. I love to see people change their lives as they follow their Savior. We are still planning on his baptism for this Saturday, but the condition he gave us is that he has to receive his own answer that it is right for him. I know that is true, but it always worries me the ability Satan has to make people confused or conflicted about their answers that they receive. The spirit truly is a very still small voice. In other news this week....it was a hard week. hahaha We got dropped by 2 of our investigators, and had 15 lessons fall through. This is kind of the norm though during the month of August. I can´t wait for everyone to come back from their Vacations!! It´s incredible, it´s like a big migration for the entire month of August--even businesses shut down until September for vacations. Oh well. One thing that truly made my week was spending a lot of time with Feily and her Dad. We are really trying to get Feily´s dad back to church. He told us this week, "Hermanas, I want to come back to church, but I´m scared. I haven´t been keeping my covenants, and I don´t feel worthy to go back." We tried telling him that church is like a hospital for the soul, and not a place for the perfected saints. His friend was there during our lesson, and that was a huge miracle. He was just like, "Yea, we need to go to church so we can have Christ in our lives. I will go this week." Well, Sunday morning we got a text from Feily that said they wouldn´t be coming to church. We had no idea why, and needless to say, we were super disappointed. Then, right when the opening hymn started to play, Feily´s little face popped around the door, and she brought her Dad´s friend to church. She is my little missionary. She said she made a way so that he could come to church, and enjoy the blessings. Although her dad wasn´t there, I was so excited. I love that girl!! Francisco also came to church for the first time in two months. It was such a tender mercy after a really hard week. Sometimes I forget that this is the Lord´s work, not mine. I have definitely been humbled here in Barcelona, but it has helped me to see the hand of the Lord more clearly in my life.   

 Les Quiero

Hermana Hopkins