Dear Family,
This week has been an interesting period of time. I only have a few stories from this week that are worth telling, but they're pretty good, so I hope you'll enjoy them. At the beginning of my transfer here in Edinburg, my companion was continuously looking for an investigator that they had been teaching, but all of our efforts were to no avail. I had never met her, and we had been swinging by her house every day for about a week and a half, so I was beginning to lose hope.
However, after probably stopping by her house about 20 times, we finally found her home for just a few minutes. We were able to talk with her and sort out what had been going on and if she still wanted to be baptized. She said yes, and should now be getting baptized this Sunday. She is halfway through Alma in her personal reading in the Book of Mormon and has read every pamphlet a missionary can give. She is doing well and this next week we will spend teaching her daughter who has been coming with her to church, but is currently unsure about being baptized. Hopefully we will help her to be ready by this Sunday as well, so that she and her mother can both be baptized on the same date. This was a lesson in faith for me because after stopping by so many times I really didn't see the point anymore. But my companion knew her and never lost hope. And look what happened!
The other story I have from this week involves a lesson we had with a recent convert's brother, David. David is a pronounced atheist who doesn't believe in God because he has never really felt the Spirit and can't understand what the beginning of any of this was or where things came from. I explained to him that for me, that is exactly what faith is. As a 20 year old man, I don't know a lot of things, but something that I have learned is that as humankind, we know the beginning of nothing. Everything can be broken down to a smaller and smaller point, until something just has to have "been". For me, faith is not knowing where something begins, but believing in it anyway. As Latter-Day Saints, we know of the principle of exaltation, which helps to put our progression and the origin of God into one eternal round. I don't know where God's God is, or where the first began, that is where my faith comes in. I do not know the beginning of all things, but I know that God exists and that the words of His holy prophets are true, and so I have faith that it is a true principle. (This sounds way more jumbled than when I was speaking to him, probably because when I was speaking with him it was more guided by the Spirit.) Anyway, the really miraculous part of this is when I was speaking with him in English, his mother, who only speaks Spanish, just started crying out of no where as I was testifying to David of God's existence. After the lesson she came to me and said, "I don't know what you said to my sons, but I have a feeling that you did a lot to help them and I'm very grateful." Very few times have I felt myself being carried in my speech by the Spirit, but during this time I know that I was. I have a firm testimony that the Lord does guide this work, and not just by directing you where to go and what to do, but he literally puts His words into your mouth so that you can bring His children unto Him.
I'm low on time, but I just hope everybody knows how grateful i am for your support and prayers as a missionary. I hope everyone continues to do well in the family and that everything goes well with those in our family who are carrying children. I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder wood
