November 25, 2013
I
have a testimony of the amount of love God has for His
children. Despite the world's misconception that there is no god and no
Satan, I cannot deny the love I have felt for the children we are on the
earth. Also, I am also a witness of how perfect God is. How perfect His
plan for us, as a world and individually, cannot be expressed in words.
He loves each of us and has prepared a way, each day, that we can feel
and know of His love.
Saturday was incredible.
Our barrio [ward] decided to hold an activity for the obra misional [missionary work] in the
ferria [market]. As expected, nobody but the obispo [bishop], the first counsellor, the
young men's president and the four of us showed. We planted our tents in
the middle of two separate calles [streets], Alejandro Vial con Uruguay and
A. Vial con Ecuador, then prepared for war. Hermana Moody and I were
immediately bombarded with starers. The beginning was hard. It is very
difficult sometimes to approach somebody, in a different language, and
start talking about your beliefs. I can testify. It is not comfortable
and it's not easy. And being a generally quiet, nonsociable person,
missionary work is often times discouraging because I don't know what to
say. But as we continued to preach, handing out pictures of Christ
and other folletos [brochures] - The Family: A Proclamation to the World, I started
to get into a rhythm. It started to become exciting. Half way
through, looking out into the sea of people swarming the tiendas [shops], I
recognized a warmth in my heart. I looked at their individual faces as
they passed and felt a wave, a sea, of love for each of them. I
suddenly knew my purpose. I am bringing the salvation of God to His
children, who are fairly unaware of their steadily-approaching
destruction. I am literally here bringing the world His truth. Every
day, I work myself into a coma for a genuine, important purpose.
Having said that, Satan is
very keen on my becoming so overcome with the utter importance of the
work. I felt it all day yesterday. It was a physical weight. I have
never so badly wanted to leave everything behind and buy a plane ticket
home. Satan's presence was very real and very enticing. I was hit with
all the responsibility I am bound to have to take upon myself in the
next week and I wanted to give up. With the end of my training neigh at
hand, Hermana Moody has not ceased to talk about how much she doesn't
want to leave the sector but probably will. She's been here for 6
months. And here anxiety about leaving has hyped up my anxiety about
staying. If she leaves, I am in charge. I don't know if all of you
realize how big of a charge it is to be the leader of a sector, but I
have never been in charge. Yeah, I am the oldest of 6 kids, but I do not
feel nearly ready to take upon an entire barrio [ward] of people. The language
is steadily and slowly coming, but I feel completely green. I hope that
if the day comes where I need to shoulder the weight, I will suddenly
gain wisdom and courage and not be afraid.
All right. Did you know
there is a certain way to apply sunscreen? And my family has actually
been increasing their chances of being burned? Put the sunscreen on an
hour or more before you go outside. If you apply it just a bit before
you jump into the pool, you're taunting the sun and asking it to burn
you. I've felt the consequences the last month. The members tell us
constantly that we need to be careful and where to apply the lotion and I
can testify to each of you that the Latinos know what they're talking
about. Serious.
Hmm. Well, Adriana is
still Adriana. We've yet to teach the WoW and she probably
unintentionally broke the Law of Chastity Saturday night. We passed by
and she was drinking a tall glass of red wine sitting across from a man
on her patio wearing a black lace shirt with nothing but a bra beneath.
Yeah, she's not quite ready for baptism. But, Friday we passed with
Hermana Rybak (Relief Society President - did I tell you everything is fine with her?) and the two
women bonded like crazy. Hermana Rybak shared her conversion story a bit
and they really got talking. But, we've still got some work to do.
Marie Lincé from Haiti is... fine. We taught her the first lesson
Saturday as well and it is becoming quite the challenge because she
doesn't speak Spanish. She does, but she doesn't understand a lot of
what we say. She sort of committed to pray about Joseph Smith, and we
powerfully gave our testimonies, but she is a very stubborn woman. She
has asisted the clases de ingles faithfully since we found her and she
is slowly coming to trust and confide in us.
All right. Inés Saldaña is
a golden investigator. 65+, she had cancer several years back and the
Elders gave her a blessing. She was healed within a few weeks. And now
has a testimony of the sacerdocio [priesthood]; she's read the LDM [Libro de Mormon or Book of Mormon] and knows it's
true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. All she needs now is baptism
so she can start over. We taught her the plan of Salvacion and asked her
to be baptized. She told us she will think about it and she needs time.
We're hoping she can come to church next week for a baptism the Elders
are going to have, that way she can see and get a feel for the idea. I
hope we can find her again this week. She needs the members and this
gospel.
We had 69 people in the
Sacrament Meeting! I know that seems like nothing to you all the States,
but it is something of a miracle here. There are over 600 members in
the Registro for our barrio [ward] alone and we barely have 50 people asisting
every week. It just goes to show that miracles happen and that God is in
the work.
Weelll, there are many
more things I'd like to say but didn't write them down to remember. So.
Thank you for your love. For your kindness and support and loving
letters every week. I appreciate so deeply the prayers and hope you can
feel mine. I pray and think about you more than I ought and love you
more than you can imagine. Keep your scriptures open and see the
miracles in the small things. I love you all. Please don't forget that
God loves you more!
Hermana Castleton
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