Another Atheist taught, 5 months down, NO MORE CHICKEN (Mar31)

To start out properly, FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS MELANIE!!!! I hope you and my brother are enjoying New York. And YEP, even I knew about the surprise...and I am in a completely different country! :) Love you Melanie! :)

Well, I taught the District Meeting in English and it went pretty well because I actually taught it in Spanglish. Why? Because i DO NOT REMEMBER ENGLISH. And this is not a joke. When I speak to people, I do not remember words in English and in the end, I just speak in Spanish! I taught, well tried to teach, chapter 8 in Predicad Mi Evangelio. And there is an activity in the end of the chapter that has you think of the END of your mission..

"What do you want to say you have done as a missionary?"

"What do you want to have become?"

"What differences would you want others to notive in you?"

And it REALLY got me a-thinkin'...O want to say that I truly learned to LOVE others, that I truly learned how to serve with LOVE. I want to become a daughter of God who is worthy to be married in the temple and is ready to be a good wife and mother.... I want others to notice that I am more PATIENT, that I smile more, that I love to work and serve, that I am more loving/humble- that I do not seek the attention of other people. I really liked this activity! It made me WANT to become better, it made me more excited for the person I am going to become! I encourage EACH and EVERY ONE of you to do this activity and apply it to your lives. Don't be discouraged if you have a lot of things to change because, well, we ALL need to change. But we can do it through our loving Savior Jesus Christ! :)

I also found this escritura genial (awesome scripture)...

"But REJOICE, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be GLAD also with EXCEEDING JOY." (1 Peter 4:13)

I was a bit sick this week, diarrhea,.. kidney pain...the usual. We called the medic and he asked what I ate...I thought and thought..."Pollo." The last time I was sick, I also ate chicken before. So what is my prescription? I cannot eat chicken for 2 weeks, in case that is what is making me sick. And I beg of you, when I return home from my mission...please do not feed me chicken. hahaha. It is SO common here, it's sickening. hahaha.

Hermana Eliason and I with the SAME skirt...how embarrassing.... hahaha!

Eating with la familia Garcia The pot we are holding is a type of dessert with
bananas, pecans, bread, raisins.... SUPER delicioso :)

We had a MIRACLE. We contacted a menos activa familia, la familia Analis. We were told not even to BOTHER with this family because they would not welcome missionaries, and we had no idea why. WELL, they came to church last Sunday and EVERYONE was surprised! We visited them on Tuesday and they told us, "We don't want to be angry anymore, we want to endure and endure, and make covenants in the temple. We want to come back." And then he told us why they left, I am not going to say what happened but.... I am going to share a scripture...

"Wherefore, I say unto you that ye ought to forgive one another, for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the lord, for there remaineth in him

the greater sin.

I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive ALL men.

And ye ought to say in your hearts- let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds." (D&C 64:9-11)

Please forgive others...we are NOT perfect and we have NO room to judge. And if you are having a hard to forgiving others, please kneel and talk to your Heavenly Father. Do not let the person who offended you control your life.... please rely on your Father in Heaven. If Jesus Christ can forgive those who betrayed him, abused/tortured him and in the end killed him.......you can forgive also.

We worked HARD this week again...45 LESSONS! WOO WOO! It was exhausting and I slept well every single night. haha! On Friday we taught 10 LESSONS. Holy. Cow. I was SO tired. But it was great to report in the end of the week how much work we got done.

On Saturday, we taught Armaldo (we contacted him on Tuesday), who does NOT believe in God but is willing to listen to us! Normal Aubri would be terrified to teach an Atheist, but Missionary Aubri was STOKED! hahaha! I told him how I studied Astrology and science before my mission and I told him, "Armaldo, God is the ULTIMATE Scientist! He has created EVERYTHING so we can adapt, grow, experience and ENJOY our lives." It was a pretty awesome experience teaching with him. And then he looked at our scriptures, "You use 2 bibles?" We laughed and said no and talked a bit about the Book of Mormon after and he said, "Where can I buy it?" We laughed harder, "You will pay nothing...we will give you one." His is SO interested in the Restoration, and I am SO excited.

Can you believe I have been out here for 5 months?! The time is FLYING by!

We had a pretty cool experience on Sunday. We have an investigator, se llama Cesar.He is SUPER old, but incredibly kind to us! We gave him a book of mormon before, but he gave it back to us the next time we visited him because the letters were too small. I asked him if we could come back and give him a bigger book of mormon. He smiled and happily agreed!

Well, on Sunday a member gave us a HUGE book of mormon to give to him. We went to his house and I hid (well, I TRIED to hide it....it was HUGE!) it behind my back, "Cesar! Tenemos un regalo!" and his reply was, "El libro?" My heart rejoiced to hear his desire to read! I smiled and gave him the book, he smiled big, "Dios les bendiga siempre!" And then he sat down and told us this, "I am going to read this until I die." The Spirit raced into the room and touched my heart as we watched him open it and start to read the first page. Wow. We talked about the Book of Mormon with him and asked him if he would read and pray about it, he happily said yes!

As we were leaving, I looked back and saw Cesar sit down with the book and start reading! OH the Spirit was MEGA strong. This is the type of desire we should have to read the Book of Mormon. It IS the word of God, it is an instruction book of HAPPINESS. It will guide us to every answer of every doubt and/or question we may have. I have been SO blessed to have read and studied the Book Of Mormon. Every night I ask my Father in Heaven if it is true and EVERY time I receive the answer, "Yes. It is true, these are my words....you know it is true." I do not have a DOUBT in my mind that it is true. I love the Book of Mormon, I KNOW it is the word of God, and I know it is another testament of Jesus Christ.

Please read it, please pray and please use your faith that you WILL receive an answer specifically from your loving Father in Heaven. I know Joseph Smith used this exact faith to ask God which church was true. And through his diligence and faith, we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the world TODAY. 

I love you family. I will send more pictures next week, but the Ciber I am in is struggling with Internet connection and sending pictures......patience Aubri, patience. 

I love you all! Please take care of yourselves and take care of others around you!

DIOS LES BENDIGA!

Con Amor,
Hermana AubriAnna Winsor