17 Miracles

Wow this week... Where do i even begin. 

For being the last week of one of my companions it was crazy. We had a lot of fun and was a bit of a roller coaster. So to the 17 miracles part. So this sunday we had a baptism. Basically everything was in opposition to her the whole time. Here are the miracles that lead to her baptism. 

1. we found her 3 weeks ago in a "conventillo" (basically a pathway with a bunch of houses) with a towel on her head. she said she was looking for god, didnt know if he existed and wanted to learn more and was brought to tears in the first contact when she said a prayer. she accepted to come to church. 

2. Her whole family was against her going to church. we lost contact after the first lesson and she wouldnt answer our calls. She had missed the first 3 sessions of conference and we couldnt find her. We felt like we should go by the conventillo to look for another possibility and right after we rang the doorbell of the other person she came out, and oh was she surprised to see us. She said that she wasnt going to go.

3. a member MAGIALLY shows up and bears his testimony to her, then she decides to go to give it a try. 

4. She loved general conference and really felt the spirit. We set an appointment for tuesday.

5. We go to her house tuesday and have a great lesson we invite her to pray and in her prayer she said "my mind was set but thank you for changing it and sending these girls to doubt my decision" SHE WAS GOING TO DROP US! but she didnt thanks to the spirit. 

6. we keep teaching her the whole week and she keeps her commitments and everything seems to be going well

7. she had a bit of a problem with smoking and coffee but in the end it all worked out

8. Sunday: we go to church, she comes and my companion is talking to her and she says that SHE WAS GOING TO DROP US... AGAIN. But once again, the lord comes through and touches her with the spirit and wants us to keep coming by

9. Starting the week of her baptism. We are quite a bit behind on teaching and cant see us too much during the week. luckily we finished everything

10. she feels pressured to be baptised because we always call her when we cant pass by to see how she is and everything preparing well for the big day. My companion says that if she doesnt want to its ok and that its her choice, were only here to invite. she thinks about it for a moment and says that she wants to be baptized. 

11-17. now heres the huge roll of miracles showing that the lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes just too mysterious and is very direct in answering prayers. So saturday she has her interview and we go over the baptismal interview questions and she has problems with a few of the questions, including tithing. we resolved the problems including her questions about tithing and she passed her interview. all good for the next day and super excited. Sunday comes everyone is excited then all of the sudden 3rd hour of church rolls around and its assigned by the stake to talk about tithing.... long story short basically all of her questions about it the day before were answered DIRECTLY. not being generally accustomed to this kind of answer, she got a bit freaked out and thought that we had said something and the whole ward was targeting her to force her into the whole thing. She got really mad and said we were all crazy and basically it was a huge daggar to the heart because we were really good friends with her at this point. She said she didnt want to be baptized and left.

Naturally we felt really sad cause its like a great friend had just said that everything we did was crazy, and, well we cried. My companion after about 15 minutes asked me for the phone and sent her a text telling her that we love her and asking her to pray about it. She responded saying that she wanted to believe in god and in the church because she thought it was all true. We then ran to her house and long story short we all ended up crying together and the member that magically showed up the last time that was going to baptize her showed up MAGICALLY AGAIN. She decided to be baptized (better late than never) and it was a sweet moment. 

God is a God of miracles. Believe it. 

love

hermana ostler