dos dones de los cielos!!

February 10, 2020

Hello my friends!!

Another week in the books with 2 baptisms!! WOOOhooo!! God is good.

No, but seriously this week was pretty awesome. We had put baptismal dates with Ulises and Naim for this past Saturday, so naturally we used the majority of our time this week focusing on them and preparing them for their interviews. And it was the best!! I don't know if it's just been my luck or if all the children of Mosconi are just angel geniuses, but I am still in shock at how easily we were able to teach them. Unfortunately, not all the children in Hna Quequezana's experience were easy to teach so she had some reservations that they might not be ready for baptism this week, but they were able to pass their interviews with flying colors!! I think that Ulises and Naim have more of an understanding of the gospel now than I did at their age!! They were seriously dones to us from los cielos (gifts from Heaven).

For every baptism though, there are a lot of things that have to happen in order for everything to work out. We have to rely a TON on the Lord and pray that our people will pass their interviews, our members will help us out, and everyone will show up on time. Haha my last baptism with David didn't start until like 9:30pm so we practically had to run out the door when it finally ended at 10:15...Thankfully Ulises y Naim were awesome in their interviews with the elders! But because they are kids they needed the permission of their mom to be baptized. And even though she had been supportive the whole week of their baptism, the power of Satan is real too and she was unsure if Naim should be baptized too on Saturday. Sooo Hna Q and I prayed and prayed for her to change her mind and for everything to work out and in the end it all did!! She allowed both of them to be baptized!! Their baptism was actually really awesome and the spirit was so strong. Everything else ran smoothly and we were able to start and finish on time!! It was really a blessing because President Orquera and his family actually came to our baptism!!

This week the Orqueras came to Tartagal on Thursday for conference with my zone and Oran. Conference was awesome as always. It was great to receive training from President and other missionaries! This conference I really learned how important it is to teach PEOPLE not LESSONS. Everything we teach and say as missionaries should really be focused on how we can address the needs of our people and help them come closer to Jesus Christ. I know that as we really let the Holy Spirit guide us in every aspect of our lives, our Heavenly Father will help us become what He wants us to be and carry out His work! And what a privilege it is to be a part of His work!!

On Friday we had interviews with President and later that night President and his wife also came to our apartment in Mosconi, so we got to see a lot of him and his family this week, which of course is always a blessing and privilege!! They are the sweetest and treat all the missionaries like their own children:) He tries to make it out to all the apartments of the missionaries in our mission to bless them. Thankfully Mosconi is a pretty safe area in the mission and we haven't had any problems with getting robbed. The only problem we do have is with the bugs.... and the rain occasionally. This week it rained A TON and Mosconi does not have any sort of draining system so the streets were flooded with water and reminded me of hurricane Harvey. But thankfully it's only the streets and we haven't had any houses flood yet.

We also started teaching one of our neighbors named Fani this week! We actually didn't even go seeking to contact her, but one day when we were walking home she asked us what religion we were. So naturally we were OBLIGATED to give her a Book of Mormon :) When we had our first follow-up lesson with her she said she had read the entire chapter that we left with her (3 Nephi 11) TWO TIMES and some other parts of the book because she was curious!! When we began teaching her about Joseph Smith and how we got the Libro de Mormon today she told us well since they are scriptures from prophets they must be true! Haha YES Fani yes!! If only all the people we are teaching could be just as accepting of the Book of Mormon. Finding people like Fani who are really just open and ready to receive us and our mensaje is really a testament to me that this is the Lord's work. He is always preparing people in Mosconi to receive us, we just have to have His spirit with us SIEMPRE to guide us to them!

I hope you all have a great week and remember how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you!! Yo se que Dios tiene un plan por cada uno de sus hijos y está siempre con nosotros. Debemos siempre intentar acercarnos mas a su hijo Jesucristo y poner El en el primero lugar de nuestras vidas!

Con amor,

Hna Tate

Angel children - Ulises, Naim, and their sister Victoria