Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the father: Ye shall have eternal life. -2 Nephi 31:20

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Bilbao week 10 - Luz Marina and the Plan of Salvation

Alright now i saw the pictures better. Thanks mom for sending those again. They look good!! Sorry Greg and Brittany i forgot to congratulate you last week. FELICIDADES!!! Seriously im so happy for both of you. Finally one of the brothers supports Mike in having kids haha. Hope everything goes well with the pregnancy. Im praying for both of you.
We had an incredible miracle with Luz Marina so im just going to jump into it. Luz Marina is from Colombia. Shes the mom of a recent convert Angelica (Elder Pericle and Elder Johnson baptized her last year with her husband Alex and their 8 year old son Daniel). Luz Marina was going to be baptized in November but ended up having to go back to Colombia the day before her baptism for an emergency to see her dying mother. She just got back from Colombia about 2 weeks ago after being with her mother when she died. We had a short with her 2 sundays ago after church and talked to her a little bit about Gods plan and to see if she wanted to keep preparing for baptism. She told us that she wasn´t sure but that she would keep coming to church and let us know if she wanted to start preparing for baptism again. We didn´t want to keep pressuring her, so we just left it at that. Then this last saturday, we had a visit with her, Angelica and Alex. Elder Prieto and I had planned to teach her the whole plan of salvation and focus a lot on the importance of baptism and becoming eternal families. When we started teaching about life after death and the spirit world, she stopped us and asked me, "Elder Reeves, I was talking to my mother the day before she died. As i talked to her, an overwhelming feeling of peace and calm came over me and I knew everything was going to be alright. Where did those feelings come from?" As she asked me that inspired question, I thought back to my experience when Emily passed away. I was able to testify to her that those feelings come from the Holy Ghost and that in times of need, it acts as the Comforter and gives us that peace and that hope that everything will be alright. I testified to her that her mom lives, that Emily lives, and that we will one day be able to be eternal families if we just follow the path that God has made for us. We then taught her about how after baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and we can have that constant companionship for the rest of our lives. Then out of nowhere she said, "I want to be baptized." WOW. It spirit was so strong and powerful. We set the date for the 9th of march. One of the biggest miracles Ive seen on my mission so far. I love the Spirit and I love the plan of salvation. I know God has a plan for each and every one of us. If the whole reason why I had to go through the trial of losing Emily was just to be able to testify to Luz Marina about the plan of salvation, it was worth it. My understanding and my testimony of Gods plan started that day in December of 2005. Its a testimony that can never be lost and will forever grow stronger.
The other family that we contacted that came to church called us the other day and said that they talked to their family in Madrid and they told them that everything about the church is wrong so now they dont want us to come over... huge bummer but pray for them so that they will be ready in the future. Everything else in life is great. Love you all

Elder Reeves

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