Ghost Busters

We stopped by an investigator's house and I saw some people in the house next door and I just thought we should talk to them instead. The first person we talked to said he was leaving and said we should talk with the owner who was an old guy that wasn't making any sense. So I asked to talk to his daughter. She finally came out but gave us every excuse(lie) in the book. ''I'm just about to leave. My family won't like to have you here.'' Ya know the same old, same old. Well we were persistent and finally she said we could share. She was a little cold and really didn't want to talk to us but I just knew we had to-but I had no idea what to say. So I just prayed like crazy and all the words came. We talked with a grown daughter and her mother and they started to tell us about the terrible things going on in their life because of the evil dad. And in not so many words they said he's practically possessed.  They said how they've listened to every religion and it hasn't helped. They were crying and we just listened and testified of Christ. We sang 'Come Unto Jesus' and we just let them know how God loves them. By the end they were just so happy we had come to bring God into their home and be their personal ghost busters. The best part-they came to church! And when we where there it turns out she has a really good friend who is Mormon. They felt really comfortable and uplifted.

A couple things I learned from this experience. First, why are we so resistant to the help we so desperately need? God tells us where to find help. The scriptures, prayer, church, prophets. The list is endless. So why when we are hurting do we shy away from the things that will help us. When I was in Indiana and Elder Holland came, he talked about the part in the Bible where Jesus is sleeping in the boat and his disciples wake Him up when the storm comes. Elder Holland talked about how when we have the storms of life we CANNOT jump off the boat. We need to have faith that Jesus Christ is there leading the boat and that the safest place to be is by His side. So just be humble. And realize that you can't do it on your own and that the only way to do it is with God.

Second- There are so many people around us. They're hurting and they need God. And they are YOUR friends. They want to be invited to church. They want to have a support. They want someone to talk to them about God. Can you imagine how much earlier Mirta and Amalia would have come to church if their friend had reached out to them and invited them? It's not just the people that aren't members, the members need help too. So be a representative of Christ and invite your friends to come unto Him.

When we were traveling to a district meeting, Hermana Gentry talked to a lady on the bus who was really great but even though Hna Gentry asked her 5 times, she wouldn't tell her the address to her house. BUT she gave us a referral of her son. So we visit her son and his family who are really great too and he kept asking who told us to visit him. But we get so many referrals that we couldn't remember who. Well when we asked him who else we could visit, he gave us the name and address of his mother. HAHAHA God can be pretty funny sometimes.

We were visiting a less active and in the middle of the lesson, her 6 year son comes home. He sees us and runs to me and hugs me and gives me mil besos on the cheek. Hermana Gentry was expecting a similar reaction so when he walked past her she asked 'What about me?' He just said 'you're ugly and I don't understand your English.' Ahh classic little kid. hahaha

The sweet, humble familia Cari that I've talked about before, their daughter Estela got baptized! It was quite the miracle because usually the members here are so lax they just never quite get around to baptizing the kids so then when they are 9 or 10 the missionaries realize that they never got baptized but at that point it's considered a convert baptism. But cute little Estela wanted to get baptized so bad that she kept asking us about it every time we went over and bugged her dad about it and so finally the branch did something about it! I thought of Annika the whole time and how close her baptism is!

Well I love you all so much!!!

Hermana Pearson

Estela's baptixm