Seeing God's Miracles!

Angie and Gianpierre's Baptism!

Familia,

AHHH thank you so much for your prayers! We had a MIRACLE this week. We worked so hard....The hardest that I have ever worked in my whole mission! And up until Saturday at 3 in the afternoon, we didn't have a baptism. Yamile had left her house with her boyfriend, and Gelen, her sister did not want to get baptized without her sister there....So that baptism fell through, which was SO sad. We told the family that getting baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ was going to bless them so much and that Yamile would come back to the house. We left, Saturday morning, so sad that Yamile hadn't shown up so they could both be baptized that night. We had also gone to Angie and Gianpierre's house to see how their parents were feeling about their baptism and they had still said NO...that it was too soon. Man, I was heartbroken. I felt abandoned, I was doubting a lot of things and I needed help. 

A few days earlier I was reading in Helaman 4 verses 13, 15 and 16 and I realized how much I needed to humble myself before the Lord. When we are humble and we repent, Heavenly Father will always bless us, and allow us to ¨prosper¨ as the scripture says. Well, we needed to prosper in our missionary work! So I put these scriptures into practice and I was REALLY humbled. And I knew God would bless us with a miracle. So, this Saturday morning I was just so sad because I felt like I had really done everything I could for these 4 investigators. Hermana Lopez and I hadn't baptized in three weeks and that was really hard for me. I kept thinking about what I was doing wrong. Well, after lunch, we decided to go ask Angie and Gianpierre ONE more time. We went to their house and they ran down the stairs out to us so excited and said ¨Mom and Dad said yes!!! We are getting baptized tonight!!!¨

We went to the baptism with these two and their family as well. They have five kids in the family, ANgie, Gianpierre, Cristian, Emily and Efrain. And they are CRAZY kids. Except Angie, she takes care of all the little ones (she reminds me a lot of Emily :)) The WHOLE family came, because we basically dragged them there to see the baptism. Angie and Gianpierre were baptized and it was a beautiful baptism. Angie's testimony was the purest testimony I have ever heard. The whole time Cristian was running around and I was chasing him trying to make him quiet and President(he attended) was just laughing at me from the stand...haha, but it was a GREAT baptism :) And the best part of all!: After the baptism, Angie's parents expressed to us how they felt at the baptism and how they are all going to start coming to church as a family!!! It is like they had a change of heart in just a few hours! Our zone leader, Elder Wheatley, called us and said ¨How did you guys do it??¨ And my only response was, ¨We didn't do anything. God did it.¨ And it is SO true. These parents had the hardest hearts. They wanted nothing to do with us. They wanted their kids to listen to us...but they wanted nothing from us. And literally, in a matter of a couple of hours, they had a change of heart and have accepted the gospel in their lives. I learned SO much from this experience. That God IS there. He is listening to us and HE ANSWERS PRAYERS. After the news, that they were going to be baptized, all Hermana Lopez and I could do was go home, kneel down, and thank God for everything that He has done for us. I know that He is there and He is helping us with this work.

I know that every single hardship we go through has a purpose. I know that God loves us SO much that he gives us challenges so that we can learn something from them and grow and progress. So many people here in Peru ask us why there is so much sadness in the world and my response is always that we experience sadness so that we can experience great joy in the next life. I know that we have hardships for a reason, and I know that God is there and he listens to our prayers...Our concerns...our hardships, anything. He is listening and He will always answer. I am SO grateful for this miracle :)

Well, today we have transfers so we will see if I get transferred! Just found out that Hermana Jones is leaving El Olivar! Changes are crazy on the mission! I will let you all know next week! LOVE YOU ALL!

Con MUCHO cariño,

Hermana Agle 

I LOVE these kids soooo much!!