49th week in Spokane

"You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" the miracles come if we prove our faith and always endure through. This week was filled with miracles and tender mercies from tbe Lord. It started off with Francisco. When I first got in this area, about five months ago, Francisco was one of my first lessons we taught here. Unfortunately he moved out after about a week and we never saw him again but we decided to go back and try him again. Turns out he's back home and wants to meet with us still. So we taught him the restoration. Francisco is at a point in his life where he needs a change. He is tired of the life he lives now, he feels very unstable and unsure about everything. We assured him the if we put our faith in Christ, He will be our rock. We shared with him Helaman 5:12 and promised him that he will find stability and direction and purpose in this Gospel. Promised him that if he puts his faith in Christ, he will be able to start a new life and be forgiven of everything he's ever done. Told him that his family needs him to step up and be the example so that they too can feel of the Savior. We soft committed him to be baptized which means WHEN you Know these things to be true, will you be baptized. He said yes but he didn't want to set a specific date, but at least he knows our purpose as missionaries and knows what direction he needs to go. In the mission field worldwide we are refocusing on getting our investigators to pray vocally with us present, because without that how can we know if thy are praying on their own, or if they even know how to pray at all? So I've made a personal goal to never take no for an answer and to never compromise. So with Francisco he offered the ending prayer and it was so sweet because he gathered his kids around to pray with him. Tender mercy number one! Next is Deicy. Deicy is Ashton Couch's girlfriend. Ashton was baptized about a year and a half ago, he's 17. We've known Deicy for a while because of Ashton but she's never been interested in learning more about the church until now. She asked us if she could be taught and so we taught her the restoration. She really liked everything that was said and believes it could be true. We gave her a book of Mormon and invited her to read from it. We invited her to say the closing prayer. She was very hesitant. We went over how to pray but she was still unsure. One thing that we do as missionaries when we invite someone to pray, we immediately fold our arms and bow our heads. It shows that we have faith in them that they can pray. So we did that and waited as the silence filled the room. Missionaries get real used to the silence! Well, Deicy was still really hesitant and suddenly we heard Sister Couch praying instead of Deicy. So when she said amen, instead of ending, we said thank you sister couch for showing Deicy that perfect example of how to pray. Deicy, will you now pray for all of us? She was still hesitant. So we asked her if you could thank God for anything, what would it be? If you could ask Him for anything, what would it be? You just said a wonderful prayer, now will you say it again but this time address our Heavenly Father and end in the name of Jesus Christ? And she did. And what a sweet experience it was to listen to her first uttered prayer! Tender mercy number two. She said that she would come to church and when we saw her again she had already read to 2nd Nephi 13! Next is the Espinoza's. We were able to meet with them twice this week and it was really good because the first time we were able to focus on Rose, 9, and the second time we were able to focus on Lily, 13, Rose wants to get baptized and we are working towards September 18. In the second lesson with them they were both kinda hesitant to pray, even though rose already has, and so when invited to pray she didn't want to and pretty much the exact same thing happened as did with Deicy. Sister Espinoza gave the prayer instead and they thought they were off the hook! But we re-invited lily to pray and asked the same questions we did Deicy. She prayed. Then we did the same to rose. She prayed. So hear we have a mother that is trying to do everything she can to help these kids along the right path and trying to get them to come and be interested in church and in Christ and all three of them this night said a beautiful prayer out loud as a family. Tender mercy number three. Next is Jessica. Jared was baptized about a month ago. Everyday he gives Jessica a ride to and from work. so throughout his conversion he has been talking to Jessica about it. She agreed to meet with the missionaries to learn more. We had a way good lesson with her about the restoration and Jared helped teach a lot of it. He is solid! Well as we got to know Jessica and she opened up to us it was evident that this is the time in her life that there needs to be a change. There's a lot of things that have happened in her past and a lot of things that are happening now with her family that has made her very humble and teachable, which makes her susceptible to feeling the Holy Ghost. She accepted the invitation to be baptized on Sept 17 and we are all working towards that goal. Same story with the closing prayer, she was hesitant but she did pray. It was a beautiful heartfelt prayer and I am certain it was her first time to ever pray out loud. Tender mercy number four. She came to church, we met with her before it began to teach her about the sacrament meeting and she read to 1 Nephi 10!  Neither Deicy or the Espinozas ended up coming to church. but Rose and Sister Espinoza did come and watch a baptism on Saturday and that is always good. A member on Sunday brought a guy to church named Raul. We talked to him afterward and he said he really enjoyed it and would like to learn more. We are meeting with him this week so I will look forward to reporting back on him next week. It has been such a wonderful blessing to be able to watch as these children of God come unto Christ. It is truly a miracle. The miracle of conversion. I am so grateful to be able to be a tool in the Lord's hands as He prepares and guides His children to follow Him and follow Christ.