You are a Child of God

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey, well it is time to write you once again. How has your week been? How is work and everything? This week has been great! This mission work is so great, and I just love it so much. So if you remember me talking about family rivas, we have commited them to baptism in august. The spirit was so strong and I knew they would get baptized all along....it just took a little more time, but that is ok. Also this week hermana chiquin and I had a miracle. We had an investigator in my second week in the mission, hermano carlos. After week 3, he left to san salvador for work, and we never saw him again. We were so bummed because we had committed him to baptism and everything. I was so bummed because he was one of our best investigators. He was so ready to be baptized, to have a change in his life. And it touched me, because he was so excited to receive the priesthood too. Well guess who we found while we were walking down the street?? Hermano Carlos.  He returned to Metapan, and we never knew it. But we found him. Right then and there we had a lesson with him in his house. His mom and brother joined in on the lesson too. We recommitted him to baptism as well as his brother and mother. They are also getting baptized in august. Finally after being here for a change and a half, I am seeing the fruits of my work. It feels good bringing people to Christ, to share this happiness with them.

There are some people we have here that we teach, that sometimes decide to discontinue the discussions. We had hermano santos...I talked about him a little bit in my last letter. We were so sure he was going to get baptized. Well he has had problems with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. We had been working with him really hard. Last appointment we had with him, we went to his door to find him drunk. We shared a message with him outside his door, and afterwards, my companion took his bottle of alcohol away. We thought that maybe he wouldn't remember us taking the bottle away from him our next appointment. Well next appointment we had with him, we knocked on his door. He opened it and started screaming at us. "You took my bottle away....how can I trust you again..you are not welcome in my house, and I am not getting baptized in your church, EVER."

With that we tried to convince him that we were only there to help him. We got a slammed door in our face. The feeling as you walk away from a person you worked so hard with....its hard to explain. Just devastating. Devastating because you want what is the best for him. And because you have the knowledge that he is a son of God, and he doesn't. To know that we need to follow God and do our best in this life to return to Him someday, and he doesn't have a willingness to do so.

This week we have a lot of people like this....they don't understand the happiness the gospel can bring to their lives. They feel alone and so sad, angry and confused. I sit there in the lessons awestruck. How do you not know that you are a child of a loving Heavenly Father? Do you not know of your worth and divinity? And to be without that knowledge in this world, that you are a Child Of God, is so sad. I cannot imagine how different my life would be, if I was without that knowledge. So I found a scripture I like....D&C 50:41. It says, " Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my father hath given me."

Challenge for this week: "Remember you are a child of God Challenge". During your family home evening I want you to take a piece of paper. For every person in your family, write down a good quality that the person has. Then pass the paper around for everyone to write on until it gets back to you.(Everyone should have a piece of paper at the end with qualities specifically just for them.) After this, put this paper where you can see it. When you are having a bad or hard day, look at this paper and remember you have good qualities and are a child of God.

 :) Well, love ya tons...gotta go. But Remember, I love ya, God loves ya, and that is all that matters.

Until next week, Hermana Thomas