Week 11 - God Always knows best!

Another week!

My district for the last time together!
Hermana Jaco goes home Monday!!

Tuesday: We were walking and passed a women who saluded us and we kept walking. When we passed her I could tell her eyes were sad and it seemed like she was about to cry. I felt really strongly to go back to her. I stopped and told Hna S. she was sad and we needed to talk to her, so we did. We ran back to her and when she turned around tears were running down her face. The only thing I could think of to do is ask if she was okay, even though it was apparent that she was not. She said she was not, and we talked to her for a while telling us of her troubles, said a prayer with her, gave her a tarjeta and she continued on her way. I am very grateful for promptings of the spirit. When we act on the sometimes seemingly simple and quiet promptings of the spirit I know that we show God we are willing to follow and do what He needs us to do, and will bless us with more promptings, trusting us more and more to bless His children.

Wed: Had Entrivistas with President, which was really good. He truly is inspired! And I am so grateful for him and his willingness to serve here. He told me things I really needed to hear, and I was able to find answers to my prayers.

Friday: Entrivistas with our hermana capacitadores, not sure what that translates to in English. I went tracking with Hna Halling, who is from back home. She is amazing and I learned a lot from her. We also had a lesson with a less active  (since 8 years) teen Alexander who is 19. He started talking to us when we were visiting another youth in his same apartment building. During the lesson with him and his mom, his mom expressed how she had been praying and waiting for the day when he would accept and want the gospel in his life. Milagros!  I read D&C 12 in my studies today and it hit me really hard. I was being humbled and answers were being given right and left. One verse in particular I really loved, verse 11: "Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men; and unto all who love my name." I needed and still need to work on this- not being partial at all in my love. Give 100% of my love and show everyone the love God has for them through me. I can't be prideful and love at the same time, it's not possible. Oh man I love the scriptures.

Sat: Had a lesson with the sister of L. because he wasn't home. We had planned a lesson for L., but when we got there I knew it wasn´t the lesson we were supposed to teach. Plan of Salvation immediately popped into my head, but I kinda pushed it away because she had sat in a lesson of Plan of Salvation with L. We both were sitting there and I looked to her as if to ask what we were going to teach. My comp started talking seeming like she knew what to talk about, and guess what she started to teach. PLAN OF SALVATION. Exactly what the spirit told me was what we were supposed to teach! And it ended up being the perfect lesson for her. The spirit gives every person impressions in different ways, but always only speaks truth.  We had a family home evening with one of our investigators that was super fun and they taught us some games from Haiti! Had español classes too which is always super fun. At one point we were explaining how to say ´como se dice´ which is "how do you say". We were giving an example: Hna silva said "how do you say wii" I responded by saying "Nosotros!" but wii is yes in frances and si in español but wii sounds like WE in english whish is nosotros in spanish!! three languages is a little hard to keep track of haha! Hopefully that made sense, probably not but it was super funny.

Sunday: 2 less actives came to church today! A. and R. and one of our investigatores. I love Sundays.

Monday: Oh miracle today. We were teaching Y. a lesson about the law of chastity and were in the middle of it when her pareja- similar to boyfriend- walked in early from work. He hardly ever is there and we were able to talk to them both about getting married. And unlike every other time we've mentioned getting married they both were accepting and will make plans to get married! Yay! We watched a video later that night from a talk of Elder Christofferson were he tells the story of a blackberry bush who is cut down by the gardener so that he is able to grow better and produce fruit. At one point the bush asks why he cut him down when all the other pine and aspen trees were growing tall and largely. The gardener responds by telling the bush that he doesn't need him to be a pine or aspen tree, but he needs him to be a blackberry bush. I love this so much because it's so true- God sees the potential of each of us individually and each of us have gifts and talents he needs us for. Only he knows our full potential and our experiences- good or bad- shape us into who God needs us to be. And later we can look back (I know I can in my life)and say thank you for loving me enough to cut me down. I'm so grateful for God loving me to help me learn exactly what I need to, so long as I trust Him and follow in His way.

Such a good week of learning and being reminded again and again that God ALWAYS knows best. Always. This week try to trust Him a little more, and notice the things that are blessings in disguise. Love and pray for you all!

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Briggs