WEEK 35 "Ymelda: acupuncturist, salsa queen, 72 year old jovenista, arepa chef, and yoga master"
Hola!
But at the end of the day, I don't have the reason to why these things are happening to them even though they are living the gospel. What I do know with a surely is that God loves them infinitely, and perfectly. HE loves each one of us perfectly. He wants us to be happy and find JOY. I am so grateful for this knowledge that we have that with Christ at the center of our lives, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. Right now we are working with a young man who has so many questions about his future. We are excited to have him listen to conference with all of these questions in prayer and find answers through the spirit. The mission has been the best experience of my entire life.
I have so much progress to work at and each day I am reminded that I have weaknesses and I need my Savior. Repentance is real, and there is no other feeling in the world that can compare to the peace and Joy that comes through giving our whole lives over to our Savior. He truly can make us into the sons and daughters of God we were created to be. I love this church and I know that we have a prophet who leads and guides us in the way that our Savior would if He was here.
This week was nothing short of a headache. It was a little rough but for sure rewarding! The biggest Highlight this week was that we pulled off a double baptism in less than 12 hours.
We found out last minute that we needed to change our Saturday baptism to Friday because of a last-minute funeral. It was a straight miracle that we were able to pull it off. That Friday I was suppose to go on splits with Sister Jensen (my old companion in Silver Lakes). We had planned it all out because Leo was going to the temple that day for the first time and I was going to surprise Him there.. But at last... our plan was foiled. Little to say I was in tears because I wouldn't be able to make it with Leo. However, my sweet friend sister Mercado reminded me that God was proud of me because two of my dearest friends here in Florida were taking two huge spiritual steps toward receiving eternal life.
Leo would enter the temple and Ymelda would enter the waters of baptism. Although it didn't go as planned, I was reassured with her kind words that everything would work out how God needed it. And Everything did. We had an incredibly spiritual experience at the baptism and everyone was happy. When Ymelda was immersed in the water I was reminded that each one of us promises to be disciples of Jesus Christ after baptism. We promise that we will walk in newness of life. Romans 6:3-4. That is exactly what Ymelda has exemplified.
Ymelda, our acupuncturist, salsa queen, jovenista, arepa chef, and yoga master, was introduced to the church by praying for angles to help her find direction in her life. The next day she received a message through Mormon.org to request a Book of Mormon. Two days later we showed up on her porch. I remember the first appointment we had with her... she couldn't get her hands on the Book of Mormon fast enough. Ymelda was passing through the hardest trials, she had no sense of stability in her life, and she was frantically searching for answers to her problems but couldn't find any. However, two months later Ymelda has had the biggest transformation, both physically and spiritually.
As she bore her testimony yesterday in church I was overcome with gratitude and the spirit. She described how we were her angels sent to her house that day to help her know what church was true. She also bore her testimony on personal revelation. She is one of the most dedicated members in our whole congregation and I am so excited to see her progress in the church.
This week I have been thinking a lot about why "Bad things happen to Good people" Sometimes we don't know why things happen to us... actually a lot of the time we don't. And that is the whole reason why faith comes into place. There is a beautiful scripture that is in 1 Nephi 11:17 and it say, " I know that he loveth his children nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." This is one of my all time favorite scriptures. I come across families without food, wives that are beaten daily, families that are torn apart and are going to be deported.
I hope you know that I love all of you and you are always in my prayers. Have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of personal revelation. Go watch conference at lds.org:)
Un Brazo,
Hermana Richards
Highlights:
-Popusas with our favorite friend Levy at our favorite El Salvadorian restaurant
-heart attacking Ruth to remind her to read in the scriptures
-Finding patty who told us that God sent us to her house and we were an answer to prayer
-Celebrating Oriana's (the granddaughter of Ymelda) Birthday by eating areapas
-A bomb zone training about how we can work more with the members
Lowlights:
-We played the musical number at a funeral... "God be with you till we meet again.