Can He Trust Us?

The Lord asks us to do things all day, every day and then leaves it up to us to do it or don't. If you don't, he still loves you.  He still helps you. He still watches over you.
But if you DO what he asks you to do, then he trusts you. And he will give you more and more inspiration of good things to do as long as you are willing to act on it.  If you don't act on it then the time will pass and he won't be sending you anything new for awhile.

That is where the parable of the talents comes in.  If the Master gives you talents and you use them and increase the value, then he can trust you with more. Talents can be skills, gifts of the spirit, and inspiration of what to do and who to do it for.

We have seen this happen in our Spanish Branch over the last 1 1/2 years.  We are now having baptisms weekly. New converts are leading and teaching others.  Branch missionaries are going out to find the less actives and visit the members. And they are holding family nights together.

When the members became strong enough and willing to act, the Lord sent us new members. When he knew the Branch was ready to teach each other, friendship each other, and give everyone a calling then he sent us people prepared to be baptized.

It has been a real joy to see this Branch grow and the members take care of each other. Some of our newest members are Ramon and the Chavez family.

Just Pinch Me

At church today we had an attendance of 63. It is so fun to stand at the chapel door and just look at all the benches filling up. But here is the amazing part.  Three people came to church today for the first time in a long time. One was for the first time since we have been here. They are people that we have visited at least 20 times each over our time on the mission. And suddenly, they were there. One sister with her son.  One sister with her three children. And one young woman that we have invited for forever. If you could have seen how their faces shone.  They knew they had chosen to do what was right and they were loving it.

And along the same lines, we have completely run out of space to sit in our Relief Society room! We have 20 seats. And we have 20 sisters that come each week and three young children in a double classroom. We have 30 sisters that attend at least once in a three month period of time. What will we do when they all come at once? It is a wonderful problem to have, but it is a problem. While discussing it with the other ward that meets in the same building at the same time it was decided to ask if we can knock a wall out of the back of the room to make it three classrooms large! Amazing, we now have so many sisters attending that they have to knock a wall out to fit us all in. Seventeen months ago there were six sisters attending. The Lord is blessing us beyond measure and beyond seats!

This past week we worked toward taking the newest members to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead. Elder Pack helped some of them find family names to take, got them all interviewed, made appointments at the Temple, found rides for all 13 of us going, and got us all through for the baptisms! One sister is deathly afraid to go under water.  She panicked at her own baptism. But she had her grandmother's name to do. She let everyone go ahead of her.  We told her she could just do the confirmation if she couldn't do the baptism.  But in the end she said she wanted to do it, and she did it. The Spirit of Elijah has hit her so strong that she went right home and looked on her computer to find another family name to do. We worried who would continue to help this Branch with their family history after we leave, and now we know. We will train this sister and even though she has been a member only a month, with the Lord's help she will magnify this calling.

Another sister in the Branch actually has a car that runs fine. And she needs friendshipping. So when the Lord directed us to her name to give the Relief Society sisters a ride to the Temple each month, it was such a perfect blessing! He is helping us fill every need and responsibility this Branch will have after we are gone. It is amazing to watch His plan unfold. We are so relieved and so grateful.

Here are three of the four brand new church members that we took to do baptisms in the Fresno temple today. Elder Pack helped them find and do family names. It was a great day!

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Taken for a Ride

I cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough for carrying our car in his hands throughout this whole mission.

In one three day period we were asked to take a missionary that serves 1 1/2 hours south of our city to a doctor's appointment 1 1/2 hours north of our city. We took advantage of the travel to stop on the way home and teach an investigating family that we met months ago at a restaurant.  They really like us to visit but they live 40 minutes away.  We played the "I'm thinking of a color" game, which the six kids loved! We have long since passed the family referral on to the missionaries serving in that city and they visit to teach each week. The oldest son was very interested in lds.org.  You just never know how things will turn out!

Then Sunday some Sister Missionaries in a city north of us asked if we could take them to a city two hours south of us to a baptism in Visalia.  Both of these young sisters had taught the investigator who was now finally being baptized. It was amazing to see these missionaries' joy in seeing their previous investigator get baptized and to visit again with the ward members they knew who had come to support the baptism. They felt the Spirit so much there that they said they felt completely drained on the ride home.  It was well worth our efforts.

However, this week has been very hot. It has been like 110 degrees hot. Our car, tires, air-conditioning, and every part of the car has continued to work perfectly as we serve in this mission. We have put 27,000 miles on the car just since we have been on the mission. And the car is ten years old.

 It is a miracle to me that the Lord is carrying our car through this mission. It is needed to take the Relief Society sisters to the Temple in Fresno each month, an hour away.  And it is needed to pick up people who need rides to church each week, sometimes making the trip back and forth to the church multiple times to pick up everyone. Every week there is a Missionary District or Zone meeting and we drive to the next city to pick up missionaries and bring them here. And we volunteer to drive the missionaries that are on bikes to across town appointments when the temperature gets over 100.

And somehow it all gets done because the Lord is carrying us-and our car.