Anyways, this was an awesome week! We are writing on Monday because we had an all day ward activity on Saturday that we were pretty much a big part of. It was called, "One day as a missionary," and it was honestly one of the coolest experiences I have had on my mission. We started at 6 in the morning with all the youth from the ward coming to the chapel. We assigned them companions, there was breakfast, and then we did our whole missionary morning routine, studying with the youth of the ward, all that jazz. Then at 10 we started a mini-MTC for them. We trained them on how to use the Book of Mormon, how to contact people in the street, and had them practice with us. Then, we had a lunch and in the afternoon we gave every single youth a Book of Mormon, had them write their testimony in it, and then we took all the groups out to have them give their Book of Mormon to strangers in the street and share their testimonies with them. It was seriously such a sweet experience. All of the kids, even the deacons and beehives, went and shared their testimonies with complete strangers, gave them a Book of Mormon, and invited them to meet with the missionaries. They were all so excited but so scared. We would go and start the conversation, get to the topic of the Book of Mormon and then look at the kids and then they couragously bore their testimonies to these people. A lot of them were rejected, but they wanted to keep going, keep sharing, and there was such a sweet spirit around the whole activity. There was a testimony meeting to end the day, and almost all of them shared their experiences and it was really one of the highlights of my mission.
Yesterday I think Elder Blanco and I had one of the most, if not the most, spiritual experiences of my mission. We have a recent convert in our ward named Gina. She is 18 and was baptized a little over a year ago. She has one of the most powerful conversion stories ever. She was clinically depressed, and attemped suicide mulitple times. One day she was praying to find a way to get closer to God, and happened to meet a new friend that day who was a member of the church. Long story short, she was introduced to the missionaries and baptized a few weeks later. She is her class president for the Laurels now, brings referals to us almost weekly, and is planning to leave on a mission next January. She is also the only member in her home. Well, yesterday we finally had the chance to teach her mom. We got to the lesson at 4, and her mom started telling us about her mom abused her when she was little, and how she has never been able to forgive her for that. She told us, sobbing, that she just wants to find inner peace, that she wants to go to church and even get baptized, but she is too afraid of what her mom (Gina´s grandma) would do to her and her family. She told us that she just couldnt go to church. Then Gina shared her testimony and grabbed her mom by the hand and said, "Mom, I'm tired of going to church by myself. I love you and I want to be with you forever, I want to go to a temple and be sealed to you and dad and my sister. But you can only do that if you come to church with me." It was seriously one of the most powerfuly moments of my mission. After battling with her and testifying, she accpeted to come to church next week. I dont really know how to describe what happened in the lesson, but it was really cool. We saw her change in the 2 and half hours we were there (thats a very very long time to be teaching a lesson) and we are really excited to see her progress. Prayers for Peggy please!
Anyways, this week is transfer week, and we have a training we are going to give to the sister training leaders, plus the good-bye meeting for the missionaries who are going, so it should be a busy week! Love you all, have a great week! Talk to you on Sunday!
Elder Matheson
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