LOVE IS OUR MOTIVATOR!

                                                                                                                        Oct. 26, 2015

Oi Familia,

I´m going to make this letter a bit more brief than normal because I want to respond to a lot of you individually/send more pictures!! I am doing so well in Cotia!!! 

 

I had a recent experience with a recent-convert named Maria Fernanda (about 10 years old) that I want to share with you all!!

This past sunday at church was the Primary Program in which all of the children sang/spoke about Jesus Christ, and it was beautiful!!! Maria Fernanda had to prepare a talk about the Godhead prior to the program, so my companion and I taught her more about it in a lesson. While we were teaching her, the Spirit was evidently present, and Maria said something that I had never thought seriously about before. We asked her what she knew about Jesus Christ, and she responded that He was always obedient, and that He paid for our sins because He obeyed the Father´s will. But we told Maria that the purpose of Him suffering for us was much more than simply obedience--it was love for each one of us, and love for our Heavenly Father. I told Maria something along the lines of how we can´t be obedient without first having love for something/someone. This came into my mind, and is so essential in our lives: we must always remember that before everything else comes love. LOVE IS OUR MOTIVATOR in every aspect of the Gospel. This lesson struck my heart, and I continued to ponder over the importance of me serving a mission--it all began with love, and love for my Heavenly Father is what keeps me going every single moment of every single day.

 

I don´t know if there has ever been a time in my life when I have prayed as much as I do in the mission because I can always rely on my Heavenly Father to respond and help me through anything. Thank you all for teaching me the importance of relying on Heavenly Father and my Savior. 

 

As far as the other investigators I told you about, Leonardo, Bianca, and Geovana are having trouble keeping their commitments, but we are going to work on that with them!! We had to be bold with them to see if they really had a desire to learn about the gospel or not, and Leonardo and Bianca are going to keep learning, slowly and surely, and we don´t know about the desire of Geovana yet, but we are going to work with each one of them this week to progress towards keeping their commitments. Ivan wasn´t able to come to Church this past Sunday, but he has opened his heart and his feelings toward us as to why he has rejected having the missionaries teach him in the past, and he is still having trouble overcoming his smoking habits due to how difficult his job is. We are going to work with him this week, and testify of the truthfulness of the Atonement. 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Have a wonderful week, and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Sister Harris