so after the week of suspense that i put you all through...haha...i shall finish with the stories that i didn't mention in last weeks email. so first was the baptism of one of our investigadores. the story of how we found her is the miracle...haha...because she married a less active member and one day the husband drove by the chapel here in apatzingan and recognized it as an lds church and decided that heck why not stop by sunday and go to the services. and so sure enough one sunday he showed up at the chapel with his wife and kid and so we talked to them and the wife turned out to be this totally chosen, just golden investigator...haha...she picked up everything super quick and to be honest she appeared as though she was a member of years, and so we taught her and after about a month and a half she got baptized!
in this upcoming month of february she is going to be going to the temple in guadalajara to do baptisms for the dead and right now were helping her prepare names of her family members that she wants to do the work for. the big goal of her and her husband is to in this time next year enter the temple and be able to get sealed and so were helping them out right now in every way that we can...haha...but shes way cool, loves learning about the gospel and its doctrines and teaching them to other people, which is a great way for new converts to be able to grow in their testimony and knowledge of the truths of the restored gospel. and i'm personally way excited to be able to attend their sealing one day :)
the other stories i'm going to tell are the stories of how two of our investigadores got their answer in regards to the book of mormon being a true book. they both are what you'd call "eternal investigadores" because they've gone through missionary after missionary and still have yet to get baptized, but little by little were working with them to break down their doubts and concerns about the church, and especially the book of mormon.
the first is a lady, she is a doctor that owns a pharmacy, and this story happened about 2 or 3 weeks ago. so a guy stopped by to deliver some medications and stuff like that that she had ordered for her pharmacy and after he dropped everything off he pointed to the book of mormon that she had on her counter and asked her if she was reading it and she said yes. he then began to tell her that she needed to go and burn the book because it is from the devil and that the people that gave it to her are the devils angels that go around teaching false truths and "engañando" people. she said that it wasnt true and that she had read the book and it talked about Christ and taught the same principles as the bible and then the man told her that she thought like that because we had her under our spells and that she needed help breaking the spells we had put upon her and then began throwing out a bunch of stuff about the church to disfame it and make it look bad, and she said that he just kept going off for a while and then left and after he had left that she felt confused and not really to sure what to think anymore about everything.
so she decided to do what we had taught her to do when she has a question, kneel and ask God in a prayer. and so she did just that and after finishing her prayer she felt that she needed to open the book of mormon and that the first thing she read would be Gods answer to her prayer of hope, and so she grabbed her book of mormon and opened it up and read the words found in 2 nephi 33:5 and well i invite you to read it and you'll be able to see how perfectly this scripture answered her prayer. and after having read the verse she came to the conclusion and received the affirmation that the book of mormon is true and that this is the true church of Christ also. unfortunately though shes leaving this week to go study in guerrero but she said that she is going to do everything in her power to find the church and keep studying because she wants to get baptized and knows that she needs to do it. so i'm happy to have helped her and even though at best i wont be there to be part of her baptism i know that the influence i had on her and the seed that was planted will be of eternal impact and significance to her.
the second story is that of a lady named tere, who actually lived in costa mesa for along time, and her daughter graduated from saddleback high school just this past year, but anyways here is her story. so she grew up in the catholic church (like everyone here haha) and to them the only true word of God is found in the bible, no ifs ands or buts. and so for her its always been hard to believe in the book of mormon and have a testimony of it. and so one night she was thinking alot about the book of mormon and everything that she had read from it and everything we had told her about it and upon finding herself amidst all these thoughts and questions she decided to say a prayer to try and receive some peace of mind. after having prayed she also decided that she would put God and the book of mormon to test, and open it up and the first thing that she would read would be her answer. and she did just that and interestingly enough opened up to guide for studying the scriptures in the back of the book and to the subheading of the prophet isaías and read about what it says there and how the book of mormon prophet nephi taught his people the words of isaías and that this prophet is cited often in the book of mormon.
upon reading this she received the answer and assurance from the spirit that the book of mormon and the bible contain the word of God written by his prophets for our benefit and well being as his children. she explained that this was exactly the answer and peace of mind that she was looking for. two cool stories that i wanted to share with you because they really show us the truth about two things: one that the book of mormon is the word of God and contains the fullness of the everlasting gospel and two that God listens to our prayers and answers them in a manner to be for our benefit. these are two truths that i add my personally testimony too and assure you all that God listens and loves each and every one of us. the book of mormon is true and its the best way for us to grow closer to God and it teaches us whats necessary to return to his presence.
i love you all and hope that youre able to recognize and give thanks for the blessings that our Heavenly Father bestows upon us daily. i love you all and thank you for all the support and prayers. have a great week and keep on keeping on!
with much love from mexico,
Elder Maccarthy
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