Know. Live. Love.

It's weird to think that we're almost done with the transfer, 

and with July altogether! 

This is us with Erica, the sister that was sealed to her parents, husband, and children on Saturday!  We didn't have a lot of time to go to their luncheon to celebrate, but we were biking by the church and stopped by (hence why my face is so red).

This week we had the immense privilege of going to the temple with a family as they received their own endowments, and then to attend their sealing this weekend. It was humbling and so, so beautiful! A little bit of backstory - Alejandra joined the church first, and has since worked with the rest of her family, and now three of her sisters and their whole families are members and her parents and her own husband and children are all members as well. She's also brought a lot of friends into the church. Well, on Tuesday, Alejandra's father, her sister Erica, and her brother-in-law Miguel all received their endowments. Friday, we witnessed a set of four sealings in the same room - first, Alejandra and Erica's parents were sealed, then Alejandra and Erica were sealed to them, then Erica and Miguel were sealed, then their two kids were brought in and sealed to them. The room was so, sooo full of love and happiness, and incredible emotion! We were so humbled to be asked to come by the family. Alejandra was crying so many tears of happiness, it warmed my heart. That is the joy of sharing the gospel!!

But because of all of our trips to the temple this past week and a half, we're running out of miles that we're allowed to use on our car. So we've been biking a lot more - on Saturday we biked 11.3 miles in the afternoon heat and I thought I might die. And then yesterday, as we were biking to try to visit a less active, there was a MONSOON! We were absolutely SOAKED through, every time I peddled my foot went into water, the street was so flooded! Luckily most of my things only received little to no water damage, but my bag was definitely not made for rainy climates! And we didn't get the phone out of the side pocket and inside of Sister Hanson's bag fast enough, so now the touch screen isn't working ... which means it's impossible for us to do anything but answer if someone calls. It's a problem ... but hopefully we'll get it worked out soon! Anyway, as wet as we got and as crazy as it was, it was actually kind of fun and definitely makes for a good story. We were all excited that this less active was DEFINITELY going to let us in (we've never met them) but they still didn't answer the door ... oh well!

Sad news from this week, though - remember the member who told us she wanted to get her two kids baptized? She cancelled four lessons we had set up with her this week and we have since not been able to get a hold of her and she did not come to church, nor did the kids. So ... they're not going to be able to get baptized this weekend most likely :/ 

But we got in touch with Luis again! He's not quite as prepared as we thought, he was talking about how busy he was and that he didn't have much time in his life right now. We talked about putting the things of the Lord first, and as we were talking with him I felt one of the strongest promptings of my mission. He's working on building a house in Mexico for his mom, and I said, "If you read one verse in the Book of Mormon every day this week, you will receive a call from Mexico, and something that is not working out with your project will be resolved." We were both a little shocked by it, but I felt the Spirit confirm, as did Sister Hanson, that it was an inspired promise that would come to pass if he did his part. So we're praying for him and hope he'll accept the blessings our Father in Heaven is trying to give him!

Thursday night we held English classes for the first time! Only one person came, but we all still felt like it was successful (we're just starting so not everyone knows about it yet). Also, it was SO nice and refreshing to be teaching like that again! It wasn't exactly how I usually teach, but it definitely had theatrical elements of role playing and I felt much more comfortable in that setting than teaching as a missionary haha - just because I feel more confident that I know what I'm doing.

I've been reading a lot in 1 and 2 Samuel and getting a LOT out of the stories! 1 Samuel 28 - Saul goes to a witch to have her conjure up the spirit of the prophet Samuel since God won't answer his prayers. Verse 14's footnote talks about how the vision of 'Samuel' was not of God. Therefore, it must have been of the devil. But everything prophesied comes to pass. Why? Because, as the footnote says, the effect of the vision was to destroy all hope. Saul wasn't fated to die in the way that he did - if he'd truly turned to the Lord, he could have received forgiveness. But the evil spirit masquerading as Samuel lied and convinced him it was impossible and he should just give up (vs. 16). It was a spirit of despair, and Saul made its words a reality by fatalistically believing them. He's the one who gave up on the Lord, not the other way around. We need to be careful not to let the devil deceive us into thinking the Lord has given up on us, because He never will - His arms are always stretched out to us!

Love,

Hermana Garner