¡Milagros desde Venezuela!

This past week Elder Garcia and I were able to see an incredible miracle. We were contacting in the street like always and we contacted a young girl and she told us that she was a member from the church from Venezuela and that she was looking for the church. We told her where it was and then we asked her if she lived with her family and if they were members. She told us that only her and her mom were members and so we took out a lesson to go visit them. When we arrived at their house, their was the grandma Eusebia, the mom Eugenia, the dad Adoni, the uncle Ramon, and their kids Nazaret 17 who is the member, Ronald 16, Maria 13, Raul 10, Mariangel 7 and Mariangeli 3. All of them accepted to be baptized for the 15 of February. The dad said that he wanted to go to church first and see more about the church but he traveled to Colombia over the weekend so we are going to have to work with him more. Yesterday at church all of the family attended except for Ramon because he was working. 

Jackson's Apartment

Alex, Patricia and Jenifer attended church as well. Last week was a fight with Alex and Patricia. Almost every time that we went they said how they didn't want to do it or how they couldn't go through with the marriage. We did a lot of talking and everything and now they are doing so much better, and they are very excited for their baptism. 

Rodizio's

Also yesterday in church I had a surprise visit from my converts from Santa Clara. Gustavo, Ediliedy, Camila and their parents that recently moved here from Venezuela came to our meeting yesterday and brought a traditional Christmas food from Venezuela called hallacas. It was super good to see them again and I was very happy to meet the parents of Edileidy and Gustavo who are in the process of getting married and baptized as well! Hope everyone has a great week!

Alex and Patricia

We experienced some pretty cool miracles last week. One of them was a day that we decided to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ in the contacts. One of our lessons had fallen through, and we were contacting in the plan B which was a dirt hill that we had never really contacted in before. 

We started talking to a couple and from the way that the wife was looking at us I could tell she was a chosen. We talked about baptism in the contact and the husband and the wife both said that they would like to be baptized and so we asked them if they had time that we could go to their house and talk with them and they accepted so we went to their house and taught them and their daughter. Alex is the dad, Patricia the mom, Jennifer their daughter and their baby Yolandi. Alex and Patricia are in their 30's and Jennifer is 13 and their baby is 4 months. They are super humble and they accepted to be baptized the 8th of February. It is very and sad to see because they had lost one of their children at 4 months old and their baby girl, Yolandi, was born with some problems with her head and her brain is not developing right. They are scared that they are going to lose her and it brings them to tears every time they talk about the subject. We gave Yolandi a health blessing so that she could heal and that her body could heal correctly. Alex and Patricia need to get married but they are super serious about it and they are working on getting the papers that they need to get married so please pray for them that they can get married and baptized! 

We also found another couple named Liz and Jonathan. Liz is very interested in our message and she wants to get baptized and married. Jonathan is a bit more reserved and doesn't speak much but he said that he wants to as well. The only thing is is that they didn't come to church on Sunday when everything was confirmed. They said that they had to go visit a family member so we have a lesson with them tonight but please pray for them as well. 

The work is starting to pick back up here with my companion and I. Elder Garcia is a great companion and I am glad to be working with him. Hope that this week goes good for everyone! 

Transfers

Well transfers came again. My companion Elder Garcia is staying for his 4th transfer. We both thought that he was going to go but we are both hyped that he is staying. 

Garbage dump on the streets close to where Jackson lives. 

Last week was good with New Years and everything. We watched the fireworks and the next day the streets were dead, and there were some drunk people out, haha. Our neighbors starting partying at midnight on New Years and they were blasting their Peruvian music and they partied until 9 in the morning and they were super drunk. It was kind of funny but I didn't sleep at all that night. 

Streets on New Year's Eve

So these past couple of weeks we have been working with this Venezuelan family y todo and we have been filtering them to see who really are the chosens in their family. There is one that has really shown that he wants the changes in his life. His name is Freddy Rivero, and he is living here away from his family in Venezuela. He is about 45 years old, and he has heart problems and he's super homesick. He misses his family a lot but we are helping him prepare for the 25th of this month. 

We visited John Pierre from last week and he was doing good but he failed us in going to church on Sunday and so we had a sit down with him and told him that he really needs to show us that he wants these changes in his life. So everyone please pray for him. We are also working with some other potentials but it has been going a little rough with finding but my companion and I are really determined to work harder this transfer. 

Our laundry lady is our mamita pretty much, but she's super awesome and she made us robes of the Peruvian flag with our names on them. Well I hope everyone has a good week and a Happy new year!