WEEK 35: HIS grace.

Hello!! How are you all?!? Sorry, it's a little later this week because we just got back from our District activity at Tiwi Beach! Pictures are to come on that next week though because my camera was dead and another sister took pictures for us. 

Well first off, thank you all for being such awesome friends and always emailing me!!! I'm sorry if I don't get to email you all back today, the internet is horrible today again and I am left with very short time, but I will do my best :) This week has been another really really good one. Words cannot really express my love for this work and my gratitude for the calling I have as a missionary but here we go…

Tuesday – Michael Jackson is our inspiration.

Guys this is real life. We taught our little Michael Jackson loving investigator this day and it was awesome. We taught him and his siblings about faith, and since they are so little and CRAZY we had an analogy for him about Michael Jackson hahaha and he was so into the lesson, it was awesome. Teach according to their needs right? Haha he loved it and now every time we teach them, he applies what he learns to Michael Jackson and actually really understands what we teach, so it’s great :) That night we also taught the Arabia family. It was a really good lesson and we got down to the concern the mother had, since she hadn’t been to church in a while. As I can’t go into too many details, it was a really touching lesson. She cried to us as she told us she really wants to change and overcome some things in her life. It was so cool and touching to me to see her, as she learned of the commandments of God, to really have such a strong desire to change for the better. We left a reading assignment for her of Ether 12:27. :)

Wednesday – HIS grace is sufficient for ALL men.

So this morning, because we were planning to go back to the Arabia family in the afternoon, I studied Ether 12:27 and about weaknesses. In this scripture, the Lord says to us:


And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

For some reason, this time I read it the word grace really stood out to me. So I decided to study more about the word grace and what it really means. So, True to the Faith defines grace as the divine help and strength we receive through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, when it says in the verse “my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me” the Lord is saying to us that His DIVINE help and strength is ENOUGH for us. We need not to search other places to find help or peace or comfort when we can go straight to Him. Do we realize the power of His Atonement? Do we realize that His grace is here for us every day? Do we realize that He sacrificed His life for us? That His grace is sufficient for us if we humble ourselves and go to Him for help? I love the hymn “I Stand All Amazed” as it really expresses this well. (ps shout out to my grandpa, I will always think of you when I hear this song and listening to it in your car all through out my childhood.) Let me just write out the super amazing lyrics here while I’m at it……

I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me,

Confused at the grace that so fully He proffers me.

I tremble to know that for me He was crucified,

That for me, a sinner, He suffered, He bled and died.

Oh, it is wonderful, that He should care for me enough to die for me.

Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me.

His grace is sufficient for all men. And oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me.

We shared this scripture with her and it ended up being a really good lesson. We got to the bottom of her concerns and I was grateful I was given the words to really be able to express myself. She told us that she really felt unworthy to go into the church at her current circumstances, and I was just praying that I would be able to express myself well to really help her understand that the church is wide open to her and anyone. I told her the church is kind of like a hospital, if none of us were sick we wouldn’t need one. If all of us were perfect already, we wouldn’t need a church. But we are all imperfect, and we all have weaknesses. Anyways, a lot more was said, but this lesson really touched me. I am glad I studied a lot about the scripture because I was able to really testify of the grace and power of the Atonement for each one of us. Okay…more about this story later :)

Thursday – Heavenly Gifts

Today we taught a lot of people, had a service project of washing one of our investigators clothes, by hand which is awesome and so much fun, and she really appreciated it. Well, our last lesson was a family home evening at the Arabia home haha again. It was really good, we watched the movie “Together Forever” about eternal families. We also shared a verse in Ether 12 again, but verses 8-9, which is about heavenly gifts. We related the verse to the heavenly gift of our eternal famlies, and the potential of each one of us here on earth to receive this eternal gift. Well one of the members that worked with us that night, Margie, shared something good about the verses and it really made me think.  She shared about the heavenly gifts all around us that we have now. For example, our knowledge, that is a heavenly gift since we can take it to heaven with us as well. It really made me think about the small miracles and gifts in my life that Heavenly Father gives me every day, and it really helped me realize those more. So I challenge you all to read those verses and discover your heavenly gifts in your lives as well. :)

Friday – Promptings: follow them.

Guys, real life being a missionary is awesome. So we had weekly planning this morning and as we planned we felt a really strong impression to go to one of our investigators later that day that we had already visited the day before. Kind of weird, but we both had such a strong feeling. She has been an investigator for 14 years!!!!!! and has been really progressing lately. We got a feeling that we needed to go and extend baptism to her. So we went, and we shared a verse with her and extended baptism and she accepted, but said she still feels like she hasn’t gotten her answer yet of ‘when’ so we shared a verse with her in D&C 58 I think about how we need to act for ourselves, and that God doesn’t need to command for everything we do and she started crying and FINALLY realized that she needs to act for herself!!! She was really thinking and pondering about it and said “misisonaries have asked me to be baptized so many times but this time it’s different” YES! That’s the power of following the Spirit.

Saturday – THERE IS SUNSHINE IN MY SOUL TODAY!!!!!

Today was the baptism of Joey!!!!! AKA the most prepared boy 15 year old boy ever. His baptism was glorious, he has such good support from the members and leaders of the branch!!! I have really seen the importance of the members in this work through him. It has made the biggest difference for him!!! There is so much I wish I could share about his baptism. Well, the whole program of the baptism was by the youth. We had Joey pick the speakers, chorister, prayers, everything!!!! And the youth even did a surprise special musical number for him!!! AND this is the best part…the boy that baptized him used to be one of our less actives…but JOEY our investigator (now member) reactivated him!!! And now he is so active and even got to baptize Joey and they are the best of friends at church!!! And they both told us the other day that they both want to serve missions :) Hahaha in Joey’s testimony he thanked us missionaries like 6 times and kept saying “they never got sick of teaching me and because of them I have found this happiness of the gospel and I will be changed forever.” This is the happiness that missionary work brings. IT IS GLORIOUS and words can’t even explain it fully. After his baptism, the branch had a special ‘branch home evening’ for all the investigators we have. Let me just say I AM SO BLESSED to be serving in this branch where they really are so focused on missionary work!!! Our branch is awesome, and our branch President has really helped us in hastening the work. The activity was so awesome and so fun, and we had such a good turn out!!!!! Over 200 they said!!! This branch is awesome and I never want to leave.

Sunday – Another really good Sunday.

I’m running out of good titles for Sundays because all of them are good haha. We had 7 investigators attend sacrament, Joey was confirmed, and Marvin blessed the Sacrament!!!! Eventful day to say the least. It is so awesome being a missionary and I love Sundays so so much.

Well everyone I’ve used up almost all my time. Missionary work is the best and I am [still] obsessed with it.

OH, I hit my 8 month mark since I entered the MTC today!!!!! Its going too fast AH I really can’t take it.

Nagmamahal,

Sister Reategui