September 18, 2010

This week was so wonderful!
It started out last Saturday with the baptism and confirmation of Fernando and Joaquin. Everything went perfectly smooth, and they were baptised by their best friend Kelo. Joaquin, the next day after his confirmation, was called as his Sunday School class president (calls on people to say prayers and such, and leads the class). Joaquin, Fernando, Kelo, and 2 other young men in the ward all had practised a special musical number for the baptism and even though none of them could sing it sounded wonderful still. They have strong testimonies and are already working hard to be missionaries one day!.
Mary is still progressing slowly but surely. We've been teaching her a couple times a week for over 3 months now. She's completely stopped working on Sundays, spends a lot of her time seaching talks on lds.org, has a temple as her computer background, etc... She just has doubts that she writes down every time something comes to her head and in each lesson we resolve one. Her list is getting short and she'll will be baptised soon. I know she will. And when she becomes a member of the church, she will be SO strong. Once she knows something, she acts, and that's what makes a person ready to hear the gospel is that they are willing to sacrifice their will to God. Next week on P-Day we're going to take her to the temple and walk to grounds. Take out some more doubts :)
Gustavo and Daniela we found last Friday, they came to church Sunday, and the Principles of the Gospel teacher gave Gustavo a part in the lesson to teach to the other people in the class for tomorrow. We visited Daniela while he was at work on Monday night and she said that that morning she had woken at 4 a.m. up because he wasn't in bed and went to go find him and she found him at the table with the light on studying the Principles of the Gospel book and the Book of Mormon, preparing for his class to teach the following Sunday. They are feasting on the words of Christ and putting a lot of effort into receiving their answers. I LOVE that! I wish I had learned to be more like that earlier in life. They will be a fantastic new family in the ward when they are baptised in the couple weeks.
Milton, and inactive man for 10 years that we found knocking on doors, is quitting smoking and he's going to bring his wife and son to church. His greatest desire is to be able to baptise them himself. Hes working on getting worthy to go to the temple. They are getting married in a few weeks and then if goes well, he'll be able to baptise them a few weeks after. I think he'll be the next Young Mens President. He always brings his son to mutual every week now. Super stud.
We found a lady named Adriana that lived in New York city when the temple in Manhattan was built, and she took a tour before its dedication. We're going to take her to the temple in Montevideo and teach a lesson on the grounds.
I can't remember if I told you about Robert last week, but I'm gonna tell you anyways, cause more has happened since. He's an architect, pretty wealthy guy, that had a moto accident and is on crutches. We felt super strong that we were supposed to knock on a door, so we did it and he opened it. I told him who we were and felt impressed to say that God had sent us to save him from losing his family, and asked if we could go in. He said "and what if I say no?" We gave him strong testimony of the Lords love for him and he slowly limped to get his keys and let us in. We sat down at his table and began to teach about how God blesses families. He began to break down and said that his wife and daughter were going to leave him that day and that he was doing the best he could to be a good father and husband and was at his last straw and was asking God for some guidance when we came. When we finished the lesson, he said the prayer, the first time he had prayed vocally, and it was serioudly like 10 minutes long. Between each thing he begged to God for, there was a stretch of silence and lots of tears. It was the most sincere prayer I had ever heard. That very same day he taught his family and they set goals together and they will all be coming to church on Sunday and pretty soon be baptised together. The gospel saves families.
Yesterday I had lunch with Elder Etchegaray of the 70. His wife makes REALLY good lamb!!!! He talked about all the marvelous things happening in the area. Its beautiful to see the Lords hand in all things.
My new companion is Elder Crandell from Mesa, AZ!!!!!!!!!!! I called it, and was right!! We are going to have a lot of fun and work extrememly hard these next two changes together. Elder Ashby is in Paysandu now working hard.
Elder Stevens turns 20 today so we're going out to a nice place to eat. YES!!!!
I love you all so much! Make an effort every day to be the angel that answered the prayer of another.
Elder Magnusson