Doctrine and Covenants 6:36

"Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Buen día de Sant Jordi!!!!! Best day of my life!!!!!!!!! Yesterday, ok maybe exaggerating a little...but not a lot. It is a Catalunya holiday where girls give guys books and guys give girls flowers...I think girls get gypped, but what else is new. I´d totally take the book. But we give out Books of Mormon. They don´t celebrate it up here in País Vasque, but we had a mission goal of handing out 1,000 books on Monday. Miracles: 
"My miracle story is a whole day of miracles!!! El día de Sant Jordi! It was full of miracles and tender mercies from my Heavenly Father. We had two great visits in the morning with investigators that were progressing, but still did not have baptismal dates. Our goal was to just talk with them and figure out what their doubts or problems were and invite them to be baptized. We spent lots of study time praying and preparing and ended up not even teaching the prepared lessons! But we were prepared to follow the Spirit and this is what made the difference. They are both now progressing towards baptism.
During personal study, I was impressed to study 1 Nephi 3 and write out the events of Nephi, Sam, Lemuel and Laman going back to get the plates. The first attempt didn´t work, their plans and second attempt didn´t either. Most people would have said they were justified in giving up, but the angel told them if they tried one more time they would have success. I couldn´t get this out of my head all day.
The ward members here wanted to help out with Sant Jordi, so we cleaned out our piso and the chapel of all Books of Mormon--half went to members who promised to give them to someone on the 23rd and the rest went with us to a plaza in the evening to hand out. Some ward members and the ward mission leader met us there and spent an hour talking to people and handing out books. Our Relief Society President had taken a book before to hand out and tried to give it to her son, but he refused. She came to the plaza to support us and told me about it. She has been trying for a long time to help him find the Gospel, but he has had zero interest. She told me that she was so impressed watching us missionaries talking to people and not being upset or frustrated when people were rude or didn´t want to talk to us. She grabbed a book out of my hand and walked up to a Spaniard women and started a conversation. The lady did not want to talk about religion and walked away. But the look on her face as our Relief Society walked back toward me was one that I will never forget--she found the courage to open her mouth and invite someone to change their life just like she had done not too long ago. Her husband came with her, but was in a bad mood and said he couldn´t help us. I felt impressed to tell him to read Alma 26:27. Right after they walked away, a man accepted a book from us, so I sent them a text telling them about it and to “tengan fe y sigan adelante” with the scripture Luke 1:37.
We were discouraged at 9:45pm when we were returning to piso because the majority of the ward members who said they would give out a Libro de Mormón did not and we had not reached our goal--we were 2 books away, but had given away every book we had. We received a dropped call and immediately after that a text. The call was from a member who forgot to give out a book when we called her 2 hours earlier, but just couldn´t sleep so she got up and found someone to give a Libro de Mormón to and then called us! The text was from our Relief Society President who said that coming to the Plaza and then our texts gave her the courage to try just one more time with her son...and this time he accepted a book!--1 Nephi 3 and going back to get the plates. What an incredible example of faith and the courage to act! Heavenly Father knows the desires of our hearts and will help me and guide us even when we can´t understand how. With these last two books, we reached our goal. But it wasn´t about the goal for me anymore. I will never forget el día de Sant Jordi and the miracles I was blessed to be a part of. I will give away a Book of Mormon to someone on April 23rd for the rest of my life."

Miracle stories are so good! Ok, here´s another: 
"We are also working with the sister of a member and our most recent convert. She is going through some very difficult times, especially with her sister, who kicked her out of the house. She doesn´t have a job or money or anywhere to live. It is a very difficult and complicated situation. The Bishopric is helping her a lot. We finally found out where she is living and have been visiting her, but I feel so helpless because as missionaries we can´t do anything to help her physically and this is very hard for me to handle. She had a tentative fecha back in January, but never really had the desire to work towards baptism. Then she prayed about it in March and felt she received the answer that our church was true, but not the right church for her. We had some very spiritual visits with her this past week and she opened up about the pain and hurt she has from the actions of family members. We told her that Christ suffered not only for our sins, but for our pains and sicknesses as well and that through baptism we don´t have to carry around this pain anymore. This really touched her and she wants to be baptized on the 12th of May. The Spirit truly guides when we are willing to listen and follow."

Wow, Megan´s back and Caleb is almost done with high school and looking fly at Prom and Chloe´s rocking the v-ball court and April is almost over! Wonderful!haha It all makes me so happy! Hna Maxwell will go to Madrid this weekend to pick up her card so I will work in Bilbao with...Hna Dalton.haha Ya, the other one. We´ll have to tear it up as the Hermanas Dalton for a day y pico. Should be interesting. Hna Maxwell is great. We get along SO well, I don´t even know how we got so blessed to be companions. Enjoy it while you can, right? Before you get to the crazies.ahaha Joke....maybe.

Pics to come next week, I promise! Life is great and I am so happy and seeing miracles flowing from heaven every day--are you? If not, open your eyes because they are there. And when we notice them and give thanks, we receive more. So open those eyes of faith and behold the hand of God in YOUR life.
¡les quiero un MONTON!
-Hermana Dalton

PS Yes, it is rainy and cold again. No worries. We are good ol´ friends by now.

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