"Miracles happen when you come to truly know HIM!"
When we ate lunch with flia: Amores (what a great name) and we just love them because they are such a super happy family! We are always laughing. Hermano Amores calls us his daughters and he is always protective of us. I found out that they are such amazing people because they have suffered and experienced so much. Hermana Amores said that both of her parents passed away when she was 12 years old! I cannot imagine! Hermano Amores was falsely accused of things when he was bishop and President Arnold of the 70 restored his authority to him yet they have NEVER LEFT the church! They easily could have blamed God for their trials but they would never do that. They are so strong in the church and have such great faith in the Lord. Their faith has carried them through the troubles to the great positions they are now in. I look up to them.
That brings me to one of our favorite talks that we have been handing out to families. The talk by Elder Anderson called "no lo dejen a EL!" (we never leave Him) Its so inspiring. My favorite is the end of the talk when the Lord asks his Apostles: "Will ye also go?" and Peter says something like Lord to whom shall we go, ye have the words of Eternal life, we know thou art the Christ. That is powerful! I tear up every time I picture the Savior asking will ye also go? because when times are hard I stand up and tough it out and say the words of that song, "No Lord, Ill never no never, ill never no never, ill never no never, no never forsake!" We all need to pull our own hand carts in this life( which is shorter than we think) because He suffered the Garden and the Cross for us to have rewards of Eternity.
Familia Amores are great examples of enduring til the end. We talked with their inactive son at the table because its our goal to bring incomplete families together in the church again. We will be talking with him more often, because we can see the love they have in their eyes for their son. Our first big miracle was when we went to Flia: Tapia. Estefania´s mother Alejandra recieved her powerful answer that THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!! She is very excited for her baptism. As we were traveling on the collectivo back to centro, this boy got on the bus asking for charity all covered in dirt with holes in his shoes. I thought, how sad, I would love to get him some food or a pair of new shoes but then i thought, even better, I can share the gospel with him and his family. While we were getting his address we passed our destination. so from there, we let the spirit guide and surely... the spirit did. We were next to the church so we knelt there to pray for inspiration of where the Lord wanted us to go. I rose up and told my companion we needed to cancel our appointment in villa 9 and stay in this area for the remainder of the time. We walked all day without any success but planted many seeds along the way. it began to get very dark. Our watches read 8:30 and we were far from home. The next thing we know, we are walking back to a bus stop and I am ever so strongly prompted back track a few steps and speak with this guy in his yard. The girlfriend comes out and says "oh yes, we have been looking for a religion!" As misionaries our eyes got really big and we replied with excitment: "ok, well we have been looking for you" We ended up teaching them the first lesson that night and she told us we were a miracle because her friend had texted her to ask her when she was going to come to the Evangelical church, but right when she read that text she heard our voices in the front yard. she knows we were sent from God. That was such an incredible blessing from the Lord, I know we were directed to them from the spirit the whole day we just didn´t know it.
Over the weekend we had to travel to San Fernando for another meeting from 6 am to 6 pm. During our meeting with President and the other missionaries. We had random news reporters come and interview us and take pictures of us for the paper of Buenos Aires in Capital. It seems to me that people are really interested to know why there are so many missionaries here in their country and these women came to investigate. little did they know the spirit they would feel. A few of us stood up to bear our testimonies of how we came to be here and of course my heart was pounding for me to stand.They left with two Book of Mormons in hand and smiles on their faces. It was an incredible experience.
Saturday was Hermana Romo´s Birthday, I woke up in the morning feeling kind of sick, i feel that our diet hasn´t been very good for us. My stomach can´t handle all the greasy food. Before we left the house we knelt to pray with Heavenly Father in a very sincere, long prayer. As i was speaking, a very dark shadow passed over my eyes as if the clouds had covered the sun in our window, (but there were no clouds) thinking nothing of it I started praying for protection over us and the shadow moved. Right before I was about to finish, I felt a presence of some sort behind me and then we heard noises as if a gust of wind had brushed the wall and shut the closet door. We opened our eyes and nothing was there but we felt great peace. This day was filled with many miracles. I sure can feel the difference when people pray for the missionaries because it really helps us. We were walking to a cabina to use the phone, little did we know that our first miracle awaited us there.The store owner Esteban spoke with us about his family, we shared our testimonies and left him with a Book of Mormon. He took the words right out of our mouth when he tried to speak in English and said "perhaps God is calling me and that is why you are here" Of course we responded once again, "EXACTLY! thats exactly why we are here" haha We met a remise driver that sure enough we know has been prepared for the gospel. He says he wants to leave a legacy for his children and always be married to his wife. Sure enough he lives four houses away from Familia Tapia, the exact area were we were looking for more people! We also have been blessed financially, in the fact that many people have cared enough for us to not charge us full price for things. I got a chocolate cake for that night to sing Hermana Romo Happy Birthday. It was such a good day that i stared into the sunset with gratitude in my heart and thanked Heavenly Father for this adventrue we are living in this wonderful country as missionaries of the Lord.
Sunday was crazy and still wonderful because the life of a missionary is still wonderful, but the things that happen are crazy. Church was great, even though a couple of our ivnestigators didn´t show up. (disappointing) We had several miracles also. People that haven´t come to church in over 3 years, were sitting with their whole family row by row in sacrament meeting and our faces lit up with joy. We visited Esteban to see if he had read at all and surprisingly he had. He says the book is beautiful and he knows its true. He says he plans on reading the entire book. We look forward to the joy he will obtain from doing so and we hope to soon meet his family. On our way home we contacted Norma and her daughter was overly anxious to visit with us. They are two new investigators that we are so excited for. As we were coming home we were cautious of the park thats never lit at night because we have been followed before. But we are very protected by the Lord, so we are also very smart and alert. Plus it helps that we are both from Cali haha and Hermana Romo probably has a black belt in karate because she is from L.A. haha When we got home, while planning, a strange man was at our door staring into the peep hole and the lock. We shut the lights off and we peeked out and he hid on the other side of the door. He was there for a good enough amount of time that we called our leaders and sure enough Hno. Arrieta from our ward came with a policeman. We were thankful to Heavenly Father for keeping us safe and thankful to the help we recieved. Right when we think the adventures were over, before laying in bed we noticed a gigantic red spider on the wall above the bed. It was for sure poisonous! and Hermana Romo cracked me up attempting to kill that thing. It would not die, It was so freaky!
Looking back at how much the spirit has guided me to go one way instead of the other, and talk to one person or another, I am AMAZED at the power we are endowed with as Missionaries! There are too many miracles too even count, there are too many times we have been magically guided and protected by the spirit, that strengthen our testimonies. This is the Lord´s church, and this is His work that we are carrying. We know it and therefore, He is with us. I have really come to be aquainted with my Father in Heaven more than ever before and really talk with Him as His daughter. I have felt his love more and come to truly know how he speaks to me. I invite all of you to pray UNCEASINGLY to Him all the day long about anything and everything. I promise that your relationship with Him will grow and having a strong personal relationship with Heavenly Father will cause your heart to grow. It will expand in ways you never knew possible.
Thank you all for your encouragement. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your love. May God bless you for all that you do. I pray for you all!!! I REALLY DO! I´m sending letters in the mail so please send me your home addresses.
Till next week, stay classy,
haha love you guys.
con amor,
Hermana Ashley Gillum
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