Hermana Katie Holt: Week 15: Welcome Presidente Y Hermana Boucher

Hello everyone!! So it's super funny because to be completely honest, I totally forgot about the 4th of July this past week hahaha!! But the hard thing was, everyone here didn't! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there was this huge festival/party type thing and I'm pretty sure everyone in San Sebastian went for all three days! I kid you not, there was NO one in the street!! Haha I literally felt like I was in a cowboy movie and a tumbleweed crossed the street! So the work was a little slow those 3 days, but we still had some great lessons this past week!

We recieved a reference from the other sister missionaries a couple weeks ago of a lady they had talked to who wanted to listen to the missionaries. We tried to contact her all last week but her gate was closed! We stopped by again on wednesday and she was there!! Woo!! Oh my goodness, she is absolutely awesome!! And she has THE biggest desire to know the truth! She has a firm religious background too so she has a ton of faith which is great! We went back Saturday and taught her the first lesson. The lesson went SO well guys!! Like SO well!! She participated and basically understood everything! When we taught the Apostasy she was like, "ohh ok yeah! And because of that, this happened, and because of that, this needed to happen, right?" And she was basically right 95% of the time!! It was kinda crazy!! It's like she was Mormon before or something haha I don't know! Anyway, one of the most powerful parts of the lesson, was the Restoration. Hna Sosa lets me teach the Restoration part of the lesson and I am SO glad she does! But this lesson in particular, I don't know why it seemed different, but as I said the first vision the Spirit was SO strong I can't even explain it!! And I absolutely am certain that she felt it too because after I finished she just put her hand over her heart and just said wow, it's true. It was incredible!! There is so much power in the message of the Restoration. You know why? Because it's TRUE! And the Spirit only testifies of things that are true!! She came with us to church yesterday which was awesome and we have another appointment with her tomorrow so we're praying that all will go well!! But really, I have never seen anyone this prepared to recieve the Gospel!! GAH!! I'm so excited!! Haha after we left the lesson Hna Sosa and I could not stop jumping up and dancing!! Haha it was awesome! How grateful we feel that Heavenly Father allows us to find and teach His children! He truly loves ALL of us!

So, our other progressing investigator, the husband of one of the members in our ward, is apparently going on a trip this next week... a month long trip. NOO!! We taught him lesson 3 and really focused on faith and how with faith, we don't need a perfect knowledge of all things and we asked again about his baptism, and this is when he told us about his trip! Gah!! So teaching him has been put on hold and we'll see what happens when we get back. He plans on reading the Book of Mormon while he's gone though and we have chapters for him to read! So, we're just praying that he reads them! Our other progressing investigators (the mother and daughter) had another family thing this past sunday so they couldn't come to church again.. but THIS sunday!! We teach them a ton throughout the week and they are still receptive! We extender a baptismal date to them too and they said that they want to feel completely prepared before they do so, but they are definitely willing! So, the desire is there which is great!! So we have a lot of appointments with them this week! We do have a little bit of a dilemma though.. there is another family in our ward that apparently isn't on "good terms" with this family we are teaching... soo we are praying that everything will turn out alright!!

Anyway, really fast, we got to meet our new Mission President this past week and his wife!! Presidente y Hermana Boucher!! They are SO awesome!! The meeting was a super quick one but we got to visit with them and everything and he talked about the mission and his vision for the mission and all that fun stuff! I'm super excited and we have another meeting next week to go over even more stuff!! So, lots of meetings and lots of missionary work!! It's basically the best :) Anyway, have a great week everyone!!!

Love,

Hermana Holt