I Am A Child of God

cake to the face

Hola a todos!! 

  Ahhh. the mission! Oh my I have some awesome experiences to share. 

First, so it was our Pension's daughters second birthday and we had cake, then i told the little girl, Carly, to go put whipped cream on her dads nose, she did it, then to all of us.. well then it ended up in a cake fight! we all were COVERED with chocoalte cake and whipped cream and laughing our heads off. It was such a fun experience because our pensionist's were returned missionaries who fell in love, were going to get married, got pregnant, now Tom doesnt want to marry Karen and says hes not in love. We are working sooo hard with them! They left the church for 2 years and recently are comming back. Its a tough situation, but this night we saw a little change. They had FUN together! and as a family. So I guess.. if theres problems, just throw some cake!! 

  We are teaching a less active little boy with his non member parents and we watched the Joseph Smith movie and then talked about the BoM and then I asked Giovanna <the mom> if she prayed about Joseph Smith and the church. She smiled at me and said si! I asked, ok.. how did it go! she smiled and said _ I got my answer, I know the church is true. I was amazed!! this was our second lesson with her! I was so happy to be reminded again that there truly are people prepared to recieve this message. It gives so much hope to all. The gospel is for everyone. I asked her to be baptized and she said she wants to pray because she is catholic and was baptized there and theyre all about the one baptism. one faith. thing. But for my companion that was her first lesson with Giovanna and she was amazed. I asked her why she was so shocked and she said that before, the mom was always pushing them out the door and never wanted to listen and now she's thanking us every 10 minutes in the lesson for being in her home and teaching her and accepting the church and completing her commitments to pray! That made me so happy. Everyone has their time, but the gospel is for everyone. 

  So president came this week and as always, it's the best and we leave with bien animos to work so hard! One thing he told us is that something so simple, that everyone needs to absolutely understand is that they are a child of God, and that He LOVES them. When you understand, you change. You no longer want to do your will, but the will of God. We were told that if needed, we can have a whole lesson on just that basic principle. I loved that! So it was interesting, we went to teach some of our less actives, Maria y Juan. They had a son die in a moto accident a year ago when he was only 21. They stopped going to church a little before his death, and haven't been since. We could tell that this pain was causing a hardness in their hearts towards the church. Maria even said <why did this have to happen?> So that first lesson we taught the plan of salvation, then we went back on Saturday and were going to teach the Restoration. Well we began, and it hit me that we needed to teach them how they are children of God and that He loves them. Just that. I was amazed at the spirit during that whole lesson. Maria could barely breath she was crying so hard and Juan even was choked up. That basic principle really is something so powerful. They have been mad with God for the death of their son, but once they understood that God LOVES them and they are His children, they CHANGED! they were softer, more accepting, more willing to change and even said <we are going to church tomorrow.> I was so overwhelmed with what we had just felt and what we had witnessed in that lesson. I think Maria, Juan, my companion, and I all left that lesson with a better understanding of who we are and how much God really does love us. We all were changed, and we all gained a new testimony. It was incredible. 

  We are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. He loves us more than we will ever be able to comprehend. He has a plan for us. Its not going to be easy, sometimes we will ask the question.. why? but its because He loves us. As we come to better understand that we truly are children of God, we understand more of why we are here and what we need to do. Ask God if He loves you in your prayers. He will let you know. This knowledge is the most precious thing to me. To know I am a daughter of God and that He knows me and Loves me, has helped me feel more confident. More happy. More willing to except lifes challenges, and more willing to do His will and not mine.

 I loove you all bastante!!! until next week

Hermana Kenzie Hunter

puerto has some cool art