I learned a lot about more meaningful prayers and the importance of using the scriptures to invite people to do things like go to church, pray, and be baptized, instead of having the invitations be my words.
Well this week was full of a lot of spiritual lessons! The first one was Maria. We talked with her about the importance of baptism. She said she feels like she still has the guilt and weight of things in the past. We shared with her Alma 7:11-16. It talks about baptism and how we do not need to fear and it tells of the promise we can get if we follow God's commandments.
"And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me."That really helped Maria and she is very firm in her date to be baptized. Her interview is this week and we are super excited for her.
We went on exchanges this week. I got to be with Hermana Kunes. We came in together at the same time so it was fun to see her and be with her. We went to go teach a lesson. It was the first time this lady let us in. She told us about the worries she has as a mom with young children and that she wants her children to have a foundation in God so they won't fall into temptation when they are teenagers. We shared the lesson of the restoration and it was just what she needed. We shared the first vision experience that Joseph Smith had when he saw God and Jesus Christ when he was searching for an answer to which of all the churches are true. When we asked this lady if she believed that could happen she said "Yes! I feel peace and I really think that happened." At the end we all knelt down and her two daughters joined us.
We invited her to say the prayer and she did. About halfway through her prayer she became silent. We weren't sure what was going on until she began to cry. She held her daughter close to her and as she tried to continue the prayer she cried. She looked up at us and said, "I am so sorry but sometimes words can't even describe feelings". We knelt down for a while after and it was a really humbling and amazing experience. We are very excited for her.
Sunday was church. Maria came and we were so excited. During sacrament meeting the missionaries spoke in church-which included me!
It was one of the first times I have given a talk in Spanish. I wrote my talk all out and I got up and started to just read word for word like I usually do. Then, after the first page, I just had a feeling like "Wow this is boring!" so I looked at the congregation and just spoke. I didn't use my notes, I just spoke and used scriptures that I had picked out and a quote. It was really cool. I have never done that before. The Lord really gave me strength. After my talk, the Branch President came up to me and complimented me on my Spanish. My companion said during the talk a member looked at her and pointed to me and nodded and did a thumbs up
and also another member came up to me and said "Wow, you have really learned the language". It was awesome!
After church the branch threw a birthday party for the son of someone the Elders are teaching and 3 kids of a member who is less active. It was amazing. The whole branch helped so much and the decorations were so cute. There were pinatas and food and food and more food!
It was awesome.
That was our week this week. It was an amazing week! I love Santa Barbara so much! I am excited for the next week!
A NOTE FROM HER MOM:
She loves getting emails. This is her address:
Email: lily.pita@missionary.org (Don't reply to this blog - it is a public site)
Her mailing address is:
Hermana Lily Pita
California Ventura Mission
3301 W Gonzales Road
Oxnard, CA 93036