April 13, 2015
Oh man, I want to talk about grace today, and prayer:) Mom, and Dad,
I was so very nervous about being enough, being good enough and what you guys
said was so perfect, about "do your best and leave the rest!" Mom, I
cut that blurb out and put it about my bed:) I was reading a talk by Elder
Bednar this week from the last April General Conference and he talks about this
(he also talked about this this General Conference!) He says that grace is the
force to do good works that we would not be able to do if we were alone. It's a
power that allows us us to do good and serve above our own capacity, that which
we are not able to do alone. And prayer, we have to prayer for this force, this
expiatory grace to finish and complete everything that we are trying to do. In
1 Nephi 15:11 and 3 Nephi 18:20 we are promised that if we ask and search for
this power (or grace), we will be given according to our desires!
11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye
will not harden your hearts, and ask me infaith, believing that ye
shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things
shall be made known unto you.
20 And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name,
which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto
you.
I have seen this soooo much just this past week. I prayed for force
and ability to be a good trainer and a good example for my new comp. Heavenly
Father has helped me sooooo much with this. I prayed for ideas to help the
members be more in invoved in this work. We are seeing so many little miracles
with the members helping and getting excited! I have been praying for more
energy every day to keep going and He always helps me feel excited and keep
chuggin along until the end of the day. When my faith is weak I ask for help to
have more faith and He gives it to me. When we can't find people to teach I ask
for more orientiation and guidance and He guides us!
When it says, "whatsoever" we ask, it really means whatever
we need that is right. This principle of doing all that we can and then asking
Heavenly Father to carry us and strenthen us with the expiatory grace of Jesus
Christ is so beautiful and it really works:)
On monday and Tuesday I was just about dying of nervousness thinking
that I was not ready to get a brand new comp! But wow, I got blessed with a
wonderful companion! Her name is Sister Ribeiro, she's from Rio de Janeiro,
she's 21, was born in the church, very humble, very sweet, very excited to work
and learn and doing soooo great! I feel like she's already been in the field a
lot more then 1 week! It's funny, she thinks everything I do is the law, so I
need to be super careful! hahah. We're getting along famously ( yus Dad:) and I
would be really happy to "die" here in Santa Candida with Sis.
Ribeiro as a comp!
This week was great we were working all week to find someone that
was prepared to be baptized this week but Friday afternoon we still didn't have
anyone. We were knocking doors when all of a sudden I realized that we were in
front of the house of Erick, a 12 year old that I had visited once with Sister
Peterson (Yay sister P!) but his mom wasn't ever albe to meet with us. Erick's
Grandma is a member and has always taken Erick to church every since he was
born. His mom never let him get baptized for lots of different reasons. Anyway,
we decided to see if they were home, when we got to the portão Erick got there
the same time as us and his mom was there and really willing to talk to us. We
found out that Erick was still going to church and loving it and wanting to
serve a mission! That kid's faith and desire was so very strong, I feel
confident that because of his faith and his grandma's we were guided there at
just the right moment. We talked quite a bit about baptism with Erick and
Georgia (his mom) and she still wanted to wait to let him get baptized, but the
spirit was so strong and guided our words and she finally asked Erick if this
was what he really wanted and he said, "yes, yes! I've been waiting since
I was 8 years old!" The spirit was so strong and she said yes! We invited
him to be baptized the next day and they accepted! He was soooo excited and
happy! And said the cutest prayer thanking Heavenly Father for guiding us there
to help him. It was so cool:) All of his family came to the baptism and his
grandma and aunt were so excited and grateful after waiting so long. There were
a ton of members that came to support and it was a very lovely experience:) He
was confirmend yesterday and is now an official member of the church! It was so
wonderful to know that Heavenly Father used us to help this young man that was
so grateful to be baptized! :) Coltran, there's the Erick story :)
*best testimony yesterday in fast and testimony meeting* There's this
older member of the ward that is a widow and super rich and just talks when and
how much she wants got up yesterday and said that she doesn't know why she's
still here because her husband has already been in Heaven for 6 years but she
said, "I'm here hoping that everyone single one of you likes me, I
hope that you like me because if you don't you're not going to get into
Heaven!" That was pretty classic, and hey, I think it's true so. .
..
Have a lovely week my dear people!
Looove,
Sister Ventura :)
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