The Prayers of the Faithful

What can I tell you guys, it was a pretty crazy week in the work here in Etchojoa it was truly a week of many miracles, but also challenges, Challenges that are going to require the help of our Heavenly Father, and the members here in Etchojoa but we are super excited to see the work progress here in Etchojoa!  

On Tuesday we had our district meeting, and it was really good we talked about how we can work with more faith and how we should be the people to set the example of living the gospel of Jesus Christ, after we were having our weekly planning session, and we got a surprise visit form Pres. Munive!! whoo, haha, we talked about how the work is going in Etchojoa he gave us some ideas on how we can work more with the members and the importance of planning but also planning how to get something done from the start to finish to the evaluation of the plan, Well we got my bike repaired I had to do it,  and it came out pretty good, haha its working up till now so i think we are all good :)  

On Wednesday is the day that we left the house and found our horse haha, but we also found a guy that day with a really cool name haha his name is Perfect, it’s the perfect name... ha I think I’m pretty funny but he’s a really cool guy :) He knows a little bit about Jesus Christ, and had a desire to learn more :) so we are going to keep teaching him, he like everyone has asked himself why there are so many church’s, but he like many other people explained that there isn’t a true church that God is in all parts, and that one is the church, it still amazes me at how quick and witty Satan is, he says a truth but with a lie, it’s hard to explain to the people that God is in all parts but there is only one true church, we see many examples of how Satan uses his lies to trick us to believe it is a truth in the scriptures the example of Nehor with the prophet alma when Nehor taught about God and that he loves us, but then comes the lie that makes all the difference that God will grant all mankind eternal life... that is the lie from Satan hoping that if people believe that they will not worry about sinning, I hope that we can always recognize the lies of Satan and not be lead down the dark and dreary path, but through prayer and study of the scriptures we may be led by the iron rod, to be protected from the darkness or the lies of Satan, sorry haha just a little spiritual thought, but we also ran into some sheep and lambs and I decide to do the mutton busting again... naw I’m just playing haha but I did give them some food but they just about bit my hand off haha, 

On Thursday haha what a crazy day but so spiritual day!! so we started of the day with another surprise we were studying in the morning and we heard someone knocking on the door , and turns out the zone leaders came to check on us see how we are doing to see if we need help in anything haha, but we started studying with them, and later we did exchanges for the morning and i went with Elder Chichia to check out in the city offices about marriage requirements because we may have to marry a couple so they can get baptized but after that we started for looking for people to teach, and Elder Chichia decided to contact a house and I’m just like sure lets go for it and wow, what happened next is super crazy a young lady answered the door, and when we presented ourselves with her, she left to get her older sister and we found out that the girl who answered the door is Juliet and her older sister is Veronica, and when she greeted us she was super nervous and was kind of jumpy and we asked if we could share a message with her and she let us pass by to her patio and we started sharing our message and she told us about how she lives with her boyfriend and has a little girl but wants to change her life, and so we started talking about how the importance of the family in the church and how important it is that we know which church is true and then she told us that she has been looking for a church in the Christians and the Jehovah Witness and all the other church’s and actually thought that we were Jehovah Witness haha, but we explained to her what we believe and she was really interested and wanted to know about the church and how it was restored and all that, but we asked her why and explained again that she wants to have a new life and we invited her to be baptized in that moment and she accepted so we put a date for 18 of June, in this moment she started crying and we were a little confused, but she started to explain to us that just the night before she was crying and praying to God that he would send someone to help her find a better life... We were speechless, and ahh it was so cool, I told her that God had answered her prayer and that has a much better life for her but she has to do her part and work for that life, it won’t be easy but it is worth it, she told us she would go to church and read and everything so that was super cool :)  we left her with that but she also told us that she has had problems with her boyfriend and has told her not to listen to the Mormons because they have like 7 wife’s ahhhh why do people think that, haha, but then after that we went to lunch with our Branch Pres. and he invited us to sushi, haha I was a little nervous for what happened in Aero Puerto when I got sick super bad, but i ate it and nothing happened whooom, after we took a 45 minute bike ride to a faraway town Las Guayabas we had a lot of really cool lessons there we found a sister that is accepted baptism and a date so and also we are reactivating a family there and their son and daughter isnt baptized but the parents are and the Dad told us that he wants us to teach his kids so they will be baptized! We taught his son and is super excited to get baptized we couldn’t find his daughter but we are going to try and find her in the house, but the son will be baptized the 28 of this month!

On Friday we had another powerful lesson with a sister that is named Belen, we taught her  and invited her to the church, and we finished and we told her we wanted to finish with a prayer, and we asked her if she could say it, but she said she had never really offered a prayer and we taught her how to do it :) and she said it, and she did really well, and after she said the prayer I always like to ask the people how they feel after saying a prayer i learned that from one of my companions, and i asked her immediately her eyes filled with tears and she couldn’t keep from crying, the spirit was so strong and she said kind of laughing crying what is this feeling, I can’t explain it, and I said  Belen that is the Love of our Heavenly Father he loves you and has a plan for you, and she said she felt super good, we explained that she should always do good so she can feel that and that should use these feelings to keep moving forward and progressing in the gospel :) That is one of the coolest things that i have recognized in the mission as a missionary I have realized that one of the grand gifts that our Father in Heaven gives to the missionaries is the power to detect when people are feeling the spirit I can’t really explain it but there has been so many times in the mission and my companions have all agreed with me that when we are teaching sometimes we stop teaching what we are teaching and out of nowhere we say Brother or sister what you are feeling right now is the Holy Ghost, and they don’t deny it because they know they are feeling something and they recognized that the Holy Ghost is testifying of the truth and that’s how we felt with Belen it’s so cool, I can’t really explain it but I’m just so grateful to be a missionary and, it’s so beautiful to see or feel that other people are feeling the spirit, We also helped a guy the same day move like over 300 bricks haha, it was good little exercise but we sat down with him and he offered us a cold coke but we had to deny it haha, but it whoo it looked so good haha, but it was really cool what he started asking us he was like so.. why do you guys help people or why are you here, and we explained that we try to do what Christ would do just like what we learn in the primary ;) haha and he thought it was really cool but really different and explained that you don’t really see that any more in these days, it was a cool little experience  

Saturday ahhh it was a day of patience for the missionaries us here in Etchojoa it was like the party week for the virgin aahhh all the Catholics were having there parties and when it’s a party here it’s like fiesta days in Spanish fork but there are bands playing everywhere everyone is walking around drunk and if they aren’t walking they are passed out and they do it because they say they are making a promise with the virgin Mary! ahh so they do a 10 mile walk from town to town looking for the virgin... and because they do it they say they have the promise to receive blessings from the virgin ahh it’s so frustrating but we couldn’t really have a lot of lessons this day for that because everyone was in the party. and as a result very few people went to church Sunday... :( but Jesus did go so he will be baptized 28 of may but we were super sad because Veronica didn’t go and she was so excited to go and we went with her Sunday and it was such a hard and sad lesson because she explained that she tried to go with her daughter but her boyfriend wouldn’t let her and then she explained that she is having a lot of problems with her boyfriend and that is afraid to leave him because she won’t have money for her nor her daughter, but basically her boyfriend is abusing her, ahh that ticks me off so much, the men here are so bad it’s such a common thing and ahh it ticks me off that the women here have to put up with it, we explained to her that she should try to separate from but she is afraid to do it, we are brainstorming what to do with her but we are going to need the help of our Heavenly Father please pray for her I don’t have a lot of time to write about her but it’s a long story, and it’s so sad because she wants a new life, but is scared of her boyfriend, please pray that she will have the courage to separate from or that her boyfriend will have a change of heart, we need your guys help we now that we found her through the power of prayer and we need to help her through the power of prayer, We are going to keep working with her, and we hope that we will be able to help we have some plans but we are praying that she has the faith and courage to do what is right, but i want you guys to know that God lives that we are his children and he loves, Know how grateful i am for your guys prayers, and be happy this week I hope I didn’t leave this letter on  a bad note, but just know that we talked with Veronica and she is thinking about separating from her boyfriend and we are asking for help from the members so everything should work out :)
I love you guys so much
Love Elder Tanner