For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.
THIS WEEK HAS BEEN THE COOLEST WEEK OF MY ENTIRE LIFE BY FAR.
Okay here is a few cool highlights.
-Stiles and I got to see Juan Manuel, our "super legit" investigator that cried through our whole first lesson, was way into every time we met with him, and then moved to a different area. We were on exchanges while hermana Williams was in a meeting and the Hermana we were with was his new missionary! So we went and taught him and he was so happy to see us. He re-told us about the dream he had about us, and had us take a bunch of pictures with him haha he was so happy :) I missed him!
-TITO! So we have been seeing him as much as we possibly could this past couple weeks to help him be ready to be baptized on the 15th, and he is a little hesitant about it. So we talked a lot to him, trying to help him be more comfortable (we still don't know when he wants to set his date for- but we will see!) But this last week, his dad has been getting a lot worse with his cancer. Tito got a call one morning that we had an appointment with him scheduled, and his dad was going in to the hospital. He told us he couldn't meet with us because he was too sad. The next time we saw him, he told us this. "When I got the call about my dad getting worse, I really didnt want to be here. I wanted to go back to Mexico but then I remembered you guys and I started thinking about everything you had taught me. I read for a while from the pamphlets you have given me and then I felt calm." That made my heart melt. Tito knows he wants to be baptized, he knows everything, and he has felt the spirit, he just wants to feel more ready. So we will keep working with him!! :)
OKAY ARE YOU ALL READY FOR THE MOST INCREDIBLE STORY OF ENTIRE LIFE?!!?
So. I hope you are. This honestly made my faith SKYROCKET!
Thursday me and my companions were weekly planning, where we set goals for our numbers throughout the week. We were at the baptism goal, and we were talking, and we didn't feel like we had anyone that was set to be baptized this next week. But we couldn't have 0 as a goal, so we decided we were going to pray for a miracle. We talked about specific prayers as a companionship and we came up with this. We were going to pray to find someone this next week who has been taught all the lessons, who has come to church at least 2 times before, and who is ready to be baptized. We figured they would be someone who like maybe just moved from Mexico and hasn't gotten in touch with the missionaries yet or something. We knew it was totally possible. And for our part, we were going to knock for an hour every day at 7 and ask everyone we talked to for referrals. So we prayed about that, set our goal for 1 baptism this week, and kept going with planning.
Later that night it was Hour of Power, where we have dinner with a member family and then talk about faith and pray that we will be able to find new people to teach. The family said the most powerful prayer, and they prayed for all the specific things we had talked about, and then we were off. Stiles told us she had a feeling during the prayer that we were looking for someone named Marco. We literally RAN from house to house knocking (probably freaked some people out- maybe won't do that again) but we were SO excited to find this person. So we knocked for an hour, and every time a Hispanic man answered the door we got excited, but his name was never Marco and they weren't all too interested. After knocking all that night, we found.........nothing. But we texted the family and asked them to keep praying for us. We called this mission #FINDMARCO haha
We went to Obispo Morales' house that night and told him all about Marco and our search to find this specific person-- we got laughed at a little bit by Hermana haha it was way funny. She said, "You couldn't have come up with something a little more creative? Marco? Polo? because you are looking for him??" haha....anyways. They told us they were praying for us too.
Friday morning, 3 of our set appointments cancelled on us within 5 minutes and we were pretty disappointed, but we decided that we would go out to this street Ridlon to contact some referrals we had. Ridlon is way far away so we never go out there, but we had lots of extra time, so we went to knock trailers. We pulled into this one trailer park, and some guy waved to us out the window. I said, "hey that guy just waved at us, lets go talk to him" It kind of got brushed aside because we had a lot of trailers to contact and that one wasnt on the list... So we went across the street instead. But I couldnt shake the feeling that we needed to talk to that guy. So I said again, "hey lets go talk to that guy". We were about to just keep contacting the other trailers and then come back-- but instead we went over to talk to him. He pulled the screen out of his window and said, "Hey I feel like you are looking for me." Those people have never talked to missionaries before, but I have! So we start talking to him and turns out, HE HAS HAD ALL THE MISSIONARY DISCUSSIONS AND BEEN TO CHURCH BEFORE. He was almost baptized about a year ago, but for some reason bailed last minute- he fell again and didn't want to make the commitment because he felt really weak. So he let us in and we talked to him for a long time. His name is Manuel. Marco, Manuel....close enough. He told us about an accident he got into because he was driving drunk and crashed. It shook him up a lot and he realized he needs to change. He REALLY wants to change. He is literally EVERYTHING WE PRAYED FOR. So we were all SO stoked. His mom came in and sat through part of the lesson with us, and Manuel asked me to say the closing prayer. I was crying so much-- I felt SO much gratitude for the miracle of meeting Manuel and being able to help him make the changes he wants to make in his life. When we were done, there were tears in his mom's eyes too. Manuel said, "mom I am going to change". We talked to him a lot about baptism, and he said he feels weak, but he really has the desire. He told us that he wants us to see him every day at 7 or 8 because that is when the temptations would be the highest for him to go out with his friends and smoke and drink. He said that when we are with him, he feels strong.
The next day we went over with Paco and talked a lot about the Atonement and Repentance. Him and Paco were getting along great, and Manuel told us that he wanted to come to church. We asked if he had a ride and he said, "No but I am planning on asking--" and Paco interrupted him and said that he could give him a ride. So Paco got Manuels number and said, "What is your name?" He answered, "Marco". All 3 of us looked at each other and our jaws dropped. Williams said, "Wait.....what was that?" He said, "Oh sorry, my name is Marco Manuel... I go by both" WHAT?! I basically burst into tears... Marco was a miracle!! We told him about how we had said a specific prayer 2 days before that we would find someone that had the missionary lessons and had been to church and was ready to be baptized. We told him Stiles felt like his name would be Marco and we talked about how we came to Ridlon for the first time and decided to talk to him and he was everything we prayed for! He told us about his day yesterday. Right before we showed up, he was about to go out with friends, but last minute decided not to, and instead went and sat in his room. He said he hates the cold and never leaves his window open, but for some reason he left it open and had the blinds up. He said he saw us drive up and wanted to talk to us but got embarrassed so he waved and then sat there as we knocked trailers across the street. Then when we came over he knew we were looking for him. THEN after we left, one of the friends he always goes out drinking with sent him a message that was about God and he knew that it was another sign. He said that he feels like he needs to change and be an example for all his friends... HE IS INCREDIBLE!!! he came to church yesterday and he already knew some people in the ward, and he was SO involved in all the classes. It was the greatest thing.
God is a God of miracles. I KNOW IT. I know that everything happened exactly as it needed to, all the timing and everything and that we as a companionship were so blessed with the Spirit and with this miracle. Sometimes He works in mysterious ways, like having all our appointments fall through so that we went out to Ridlon, but I know that He is in charge of this work!!! He leads and guides His servants!! I can't even express how much my faith in Him has grown this week. I am SO grateful for this opportunity to be front row witness of these things. God is real-- Our Heavenly Father LOVES HIS CHILDREN!!!
This week blew my mind. I am so excited to keep working with Marco-- he has been reading a TON and loves the Book of Mormon. He already knows everything is true, he has a huge desire to turn his life around, and I love watching this!!! I am SO HAPPY!
Sorry this email is so long and probably hard to follow, but moral of the story, HAVE FAITH IN MIRACLES BECAUSE THEY EXIST! I will let you know how everything goes with Marco this next week. This also will probably be my last week in West Lake Houston, I will know on Saturday. but thats a sad thought so I will cut it off there- THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE. THE GOSPEL CHANGES LIVES. MIRACLES EXIST. HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES HIS CHILDREN!! THE MISSION IS THE BEST!!!
I love yall so much!!
Love, Hermana Rogers
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