Prayers, Fasting, and Love

Pictures with the Arredondo family!

Hello!!!

What a crazy week! Having a new companion is really weird. It's
alright though, we seem to click pretty well and I've adapted to a new
routine. We've been dropping lots of investigators, so sorry there are
very few updates. Jackie dropped us because her parents won't let her
read the Book of Mormon. :( we are praying for her.

Our area is doing alright, definitely not as good as we hope. But we
will be changing that! We have had a big movement lately of working
with the ward to get our goal of 36 baptisms this year. This has been
awesome! We have a special sacrament meeting planned with a church
tour after, and we are working full force with the members to invite
everyone to it! We will be fasting, praying, teaching lessons about
it, handing out fliers with the members, etc.. We are very excited and
we feel the bishop was inspired.

Hmna Walton cooks! She is amazing and I get fed way too well now. She
is also pretty healthy so it's been a good week as far as food goes!
We met a woman named Cecilia a few weeks ago, when trying to contact
her son. She didn't seem super interested, but we gave her our number
and set up an appointment. It fell through, and she kind of slipped
through the cracks as we were focusing on some other investigators.
Tuesday she called us and asked if we could come over. We were super
surprised (it took me a minute to remember who she was, and Hmna
Walton had never met her before). We visited her that night. She was
really upset about a problem she had with work, and how it would
affect her ability to take care of her 4 kids as a single mom. We
didn't know what to do, and said a gazillion silent prayers. We felt
like we should fast with her. This seemed a bit far fetched, because
no one wants to not eat for 24 hrs. But we followed the spirit and
thought her about fasting. To our surprise and delight, she said she
would! All 3 of us fasted until the next day, when we visited her with
cookies to break the fast. It was so cool! She has so much faith. We
have an appointment with her this week so we hope for the best!!

The next day we went to eat with an active member in our ward. When we
started teaching our lesson, she started crying- it turns out she is
having a lot of trouble with her husband and doesn't know what to do.
We again felt so lost as to how to help her, and again said a
gazillion silent prayers. And again, guess what our answer was?
Fasting! I didn't want to fast again, at all. I actually pushed the
prompting away. But then I heard Hmna Walton say "ayuno" (fasting) and
I knew what we had to do. The spirit told both of us, but I was too
selfish to say it first. So we fasted again- this time for a broken
family. Both experiences were very good for me, and I am so thankful
for the spirit.

Quote of the week:
"Depression is being in the past. Anxiety is being in the future. Give
it all to God."

I can testify that the Lord knows you personally and wants you to be
happy. We are given trials in our lives to help us rely on the only
source of power that will never leave us: our Loving Heavenly Father
and His son, Jesus Christ. I know, with all my heart, that God loves
His children. He will never leave you. He will always help those who
are willing to act in faith. So turn to Him! He hears you and He loves
you! 

Hermana Hokanson