Kieren's Last Post!!!! 11 March 2015

This week was amazing. 

Marcos, with whom we have been working, praying, and setting goals for quite a while now, finally was able to stop smoking in enough time to be baptized and confirmed last Saturday and Sunday. It was an amazing blessing and miracle to have at the end of my mission. 

We have also been working with a really special family that has 6 kids! This Sunday, one of our dear members went to their house to pick them up and the mom and one of her kids went to church for the first time! The daughter, who during the lessons said that she probably wouldn´t come, loved church so much that she told us she will for sure be coming back! 

One of the other members in our ward gave us a referall of their next door neighbor. After just a quick conversation with her at the gate, she said she would go to church, and she did! The members gave her and her little daughter a ride and sat with her. 

The members really make a difference. I love this ward. 

I think a scripture that really sums up my mission is Mosiah 5:2. I thank Heavenly Father so much for molding me into who I am now and showing me that I can become even more. 

We got to go to the temple yesterday which was one of the moments of greatest happiness that I have ever experienced in my life. 

My time is short here, but know I love being a missionary. I love my Savior and I am so grateful for everything he has done for me. 

Love,

Sister Smith

Baptism Day!

The beautiful Bride

At the Wedding

2 March 2015

5 years ago, two sisters knocked on the door of Fernanda and Eduardo. They accepted to hear a message and liked it. They went to church, learned about the gospel, but somehow things just didn´t fall into place and after the missionaries changed, the visits stopped and they stopped going to church. Three months ago, as we were looking through the Area Book, the name of this family stood out. We wrote it down and sent a couple of sisters to go knock on their door (everyone in the district was working in our area). They came back with an excited report "You HAVE to visit this family. They are really special." They truly are.

They accepted the gospel so willingly and have an amazing faith. We were finally able to help them see it through and get married and then baptized by the authority of God, starting their new journey as a family, united in the discipleship of Jesus Christ.  

I have really developed a great love for this family. Yesterday, when we visited them for the first time after baptism, we read parts of 2 Ne 31. Fernanda, who when we started barely knew how to read, was so proud to be able to be "reading without stops" and when we asked them what the next step is after baptism and confirmation, they responded "endure to the end" how? they stopped and thought. "keep going to church, learning, studying, pay tithing, and obey all the commandments." Yes! They are amazing. I hope to see them be sealed and become an eternal family!

2 Nephi 31:19-21
"And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. 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.
 And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God, without end. Amen."

Love you!
Sister Smith