Have I got NEWS!

Just have to let you all know, I am working with one of the greatest sister missionaries in the world!  This week I met my new companion, Hermana Alvarenga from Argentina, and we had one of the best weeks ever on my mission. We accomplished so many things and found so many people! I'm going to take up Sister Smith's advice and basically type my whole week out since I haven't had a wink of time to write in my journal.

So on the day of transfers--Tuesday that is--we were able to visit an investigator we have been trying to visit for the month and a half I have been here. Her name is Mirella and she desires to investigate the church a lot more and attend church weekly but her husband doesn't want anything to do with us. She recently found out she's pregnant and is so scared that she won't be able to raise her children well without a steady home situation. We shared the family proclamation with her and it brought her a world of comfort. She desires to make Jesus Christ the focus of her home. We also visited that day with a recent convert of less than 2 years who is struggling to be consistent in her attendance. We've been trying to have a heart to heart with her and it finally happened! She felt so frustrated because she feels like she is trying to do the right thing and doesn't feel good. Her son, Christofer is rebelling against all the church activity and she wants to feel peace because she is trying to make good choices. We talked to her about trusting in the Lord and continuing on even when it gets hard and promised her that the Lord will make it known to her why these trials are happening. Our last visit was with a less active who was the pension of the hermanas before, and she also has a son who prefers attending the Catholic church instead of the church of Jesus Christ. Ah! There were so many great people we visited that day.

 Ok, so I gotta be more brief (: Wednesday, we found out that 3rd times the charm. We contacted for the 3rd time a reference from the gospel principles teacher, Silvia Holguien. The reference's name is Sonia and she was pretty closed off because she had doubts about the BOM. We gained her trust though and delivered a powerful lesson and when we came back on Saturday, her son joined us and we watched the 20 minute video of the Restoration that melted them. They have agreed to pray and read the BOM to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God and expressed their understanding of how to recognize an answer. I can't wait to follow up with them! That same day, we finished our intercambio calendar that's got all our divisions with the sisters planned out along with the study visits; we also did a small service project with Silvia and she talked about some mission stories and we discussed the beautiful things that teachers experience. She is an incredible example to me!

Thursday we found 3 new investigators that have been SO prepared by the Lord. We invited each of them to baptism and we were able to help them recognize what the Spirit is in their first visit. We also got some great help from the ward in obtaining some references and we met a less active who prayed with us for his first time in 15 years. He teared up after praying and we talked to him about how that's what it feels like to "come home to God" after so much time of being away. 

All the weekend went well and we met up with our new mission leader who has great plans. Unfortunately, I've got seconds on the clock and gotta go. Hope everyone has a great week and I invite everyone to share the gospel with a loved one! 

Love,

Sister Furness

p.s. this is a photo of our new district eating at our pensionista's house. Happy P-Day!