Honestly, the main event/person of this week was our friend Jeziel. We've taught him for a little over a month now, and he's just a super awesome guy. We've invited him to be baptized several times, but there's always been something that's stopping him. However, this past week had some of the most spiritual lessons of my mission and really reminded me of the Lord's involvement in everything.
We ended up having a lesson with Jeziel every night this week, and they were all so cool for different reasons. On Wednesday, we had a lesson before he had soccer, and he ended up asking if dreams come from God. He shared the dreams he'd been having, but if we're being honest, I was about to say that maybe all dreams don't come from God, and we don't need to read into them too much because I was just not seeing a connection. Fortunately for me, our recent convert had a more spiritual connection and tied all of Jeziel's dreams to the gospel perfectly. We ended the lesson with a prayer, and the Spirit was sooo strong. Jeziel had tears in his eyes and said that he didn't want to go to soccer anymore and was just going to go home and think about what we said.
Then on Saturday, there was a baptism in another ward and Jeziel ended up going. We had a lesson afterwards and it was genuinely the best lesson of my mission. He ended up telling us about some of his fears and doubts which he hadn’t shared before, and then our member legitimately just crouched next to Jeziel and testified for 20 minutes. We couldn't hear anything that the member said because of the screaming kids that were running around, but Jeziel had tears in his eyes, and we could feel the Spirit so strong, so I assume it was good. Then our member left, and Jeziel shared one more thing that I related to perfectly, so he ended up hearing another 20-minute testimony. Jeziel was silent by the end of the lesson and then started laughing and we were like, "Uhhh why are you laughing, none of that was funny," and he just started crying then and said that he laughs so he doesn't cry, but that it didn't work that time.
On Sunday, we, along with the elders, decided to fast with Jeziel and pray that he could recognize the answers he's been getting. We came home after church and didn't look at our phones for about an hour. When we grabbed them again, we had 10 MISSED CALLS from people. We called Jeziel so quickly, and he answered and was like, "Did you already hear?" And we said, "No, we want to hear it from you." He goes, "Hmmm, well, hmmm, I'm potentially going to get baptized on Saturday." We asked him if it was really just a potential, and he says, "Hmmm, well, hmmm, I'm definitely getting baptized on Saturday." HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! 🥳😭🙏😱🤯 It's actually such a miracle and this week was just so insane!
Teaching Jeziel has been such a testimony-building experience for me because we really had to pull out everything for him. He wanted to learn everything he could, he always had deep questions, he had concerns that I've never had another friend have before, but this week taught me so many things:
1. God ALWAYS answers prayers, just maybe not in the way we want them.
2. Fasting DOES bring the additional spiritual power and insight that we need into our lives.
3. Revelation is different for everybody, but it's also perfectly tailored to each person's individual needs.
4. It takes a village (or in this case the most enthusiastic Spanish branch you've ever seen.)
Sorry, that was a little long, but it was the coolest week of my whole mission and I wanted to share.😁
Love y'all! Pray hard that Jeziel gets baptized on Saturday and that it's a special day for him!!
🧡 Hna. Pursglove
We ended up having a lesson with Jeziel every night this week, and they were all so cool for different reasons. On Wednesday, we had a lesson before he had soccer, and he ended up asking if dreams come from God. He shared the dreams he'd been having, but if we're being honest, I was about to say that maybe all dreams don't come from God, and we don't need to read into them too much because I was just not seeing a connection. Fortunately for me, our recent convert had a more spiritual connection and tied all of Jeziel's dreams to the gospel perfectly. We ended the lesson with a prayer, and the Spirit was sooo strong. Jeziel had tears in his eyes and said that he didn't want to go to soccer anymore and was just going to go home and think about what we said.
Then on Saturday, there was a baptism in another ward and Jeziel ended up going. We had a lesson afterwards and it was genuinely the best lesson of my mission. He ended up telling us about some of his fears and doubts which he hadn’t shared before, and then our member legitimately just crouched next to Jeziel and testified for 20 minutes. We couldn't hear anything that the member said because of the screaming kids that were running around, but Jeziel had tears in his eyes, and we could feel the Spirit so strong, so I assume it was good. Then our member left, and Jeziel shared one more thing that I related to perfectly, so he ended up hearing another 20-minute testimony. Jeziel was silent by the end of the lesson and then started laughing and we were like, "Uhhh why are you laughing, none of that was funny," and he just started crying then and said that he laughs so he doesn't cry, but that it didn't work that time.
On Sunday, we, along with the elders, decided to fast with Jeziel and pray that he could recognize the answers he's been getting. We came home after church and didn't look at our phones for about an hour. When we grabbed them again, we had 10 MISSED CALLS from people. We called Jeziel so quickly, and he answered and was like, "Did you already hear?" And we said, "No, we want to hear it from you." He goes, "Hmmm, well, hmmm, I'm potentially going to get baptized on Saturday." We asked him if it was really just a potential, and he says, "Hmmm, well, hmmm, I'm definitely getting baptized on Saturday." HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! 🥳😭🙏😱🤯 It's actually such a miracle and this week was just so insane!
Teaching Jeziel has been such a testimony-building experience for me because we really had to pull out everything for him. He wanted to learn everything he could, he always had deep questions, he had concerns that I've never had another friend have before, but this week taught me so many things:
1. God ALWAYS answers prayers, just maybe not in the way we want them.
2. Fasting DOES bring the additional spiritual power and insight that we need into our lives.
3. Revelation is different for everybody, but it's also perfectly tailored to each person's individual needs.
4. It takes a village (or in this case the most enthusiastic Spanish branch you've ever seen.)
Sorry, that was a little long, but it was the coolest week of my whole mission and I wanted to share.😁
Love y'all! Pray hard that Jeziel gets baptized on Saturday and that it's a special day for him!!
🧡 Hna. Pursglove
Photographs Below :)
1. Zone conference 😎 (main photo above)
2. We are to act 💪
3. Temple 💛
4. Exchange with Sister Wright 🥳
5. Split comp Sister Hansen!
6. Pretty flowers
No comments:
Post a Comment