I'm glad to hear you got your Patriarchal Blessing, Kayli! I remember how excited I felt after I got mine, I couldn't stop thinking about what it all meant.
This week was fantastic here, too. We saw a lot of incredible miracles, the most important being the reactivation of an old High Councilman and his family, and the baptism of his 10 yr old son. The Zapata family are doing well now. Also, Rocio was finally baptized! She has been through soooo much these last 3 months since we found her, and now that she's seperated from her abusive husband, she's so happy and got up to bore her testimony after her baptism on the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the restoration. She had her interview right after her confirmation and will have a calling next week. She already had a visiting teaching assignment and all. Another rock in the branch. Elsa Silva also got a calling as a counselor in the Relief Society! Everything is finally able to be organized and we'll be able to work on a whole new level in the branch. It's so exciting!!!
This week, a family we've been working with came to church for the first time. Julio and Iris Villagran have been married for 13 years, they don't drink or smoke, and they have 4 great kids. It's a perfect family that's just been waiting for the gospel to enter into their lives. They have a baptismal date for the 30th. The dad was a little harder than the others at first, but Iris and the kids just kept pushing and pushing, and inviting him to family prayer and scripture study each morning and night. He's slowly coming around and fa...he's just such a good man!!! It's amazing to analyze how perfect the Lord's plan is and to ponder on what we must have done in the pre-earth life to deserve such great blessings!
This next week, will be baptized Ebelin Pereira, the daughter a strong family that we are reactivating. They came these last 2 weeks to church, and the dad is coming home soon from Africa on a military peace mission and they are going to surprise him being temple-ready :)
Adrian and Sabrina are working on wedding plans for the 29th. It's going to be a great big party, and Adrian is ready to baptize his wife on the 30th with the Villagran family. They've been coming for almost 3 months now as well. Good people. Adrian will probably be the next Branch Pres. Also, a man named Miguel Suhr we found last week came to church this Sunday. He loved it, felt great, and told us he's been reading often the Book of Mormon. He's 29, so he's already past missionary age, but will be another Melquizedek Priesthood holder in the ward, which is what's needed most. He lives alone, and doesn't drink or smoke...another HUGE miracle. We are up to a Priesthood attendance of 14 people.
This little branch is the Lord's way of teaching me that the field is white, already to harvest. The miracles are being poured out upon us, and wow! Members are giving us a lot of good references that they have already prepared, and for the first time in my mission, I feel like JUST a missionary. Usually here the missionaries serve every position, we give the talks, organize the activities, reactivate, baptize, etc... but what we wanted to do is really focus on using the members to their full capacity, and it took a little while, but now we are seeing so many great things happen!! I'm gaining a testimony on the power of service, also, and how much better it is to love people and serve them, and show them how to do things than to tell them what they are doing wrong. I'm growing to love the people here a TON. All day Thursday we will be doing service for a single mom of 8 that moved here a few months ago from Chile when she lost everything in the earthquake. She was a teacher fairly well-off there and now she makes her living going out into the forest with her kids to cut wood and sell it. A member donated his truck for the day so we can go get a ton of wood for them and give her a little break. Sometimes good people just need a little boost :)
I have so much to say and I'm out of time, but I love you a ton and pray for you daily. Blessings will come when we work hard, serve, smile, and be obedient to our covenants.
Besos,
Elder Magnusson
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