Snippets of Sam: Baptism and Following the Spirit

This week was soo good and soo hard.

Good stuff! Friday Ximena and Felipe were baptized!! It was so amazing!!! So many people from the ward were there that there was hardly any room to move in the tiny little room with the font! Felipe bore his testimony and later Ximena said that she felt the spirit so strongly! Hermana Moore and I sang Teach me to Walk in the Light and I could feel the spirit so strongly. I love the primary songs and the simple truths they tell. Afterwards we went out and taught some more and could just feel the spirit so strongly all day!

Sunday was also rather funny because there was a dog that came to sacrament meeting and sat by us. During the sacrament he laid down and seemed to meditate like the rest of us. I thought it was so funny!

It was a good relief because Saturday was pretty rough. We got a really depressing message from one of our investigators and it was because we didn't teach the Word of Wisdom with clarity and power. All day I prayed so hard that we would be able to know how to help and fix the problem and all day I had the scripture 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for I know it is the power of God unto the Salvation of men.' and another in Alma 18 that talks about how Ammon taught King Lamoni boldly. I realized that I had been trying to teach 'sauvicita' as they say here. I hadn't boldly declared how important it is to live the commandments because I had been afraid they would turn away. I had made it sound easy and optional so our investigator hadn't understood the true necessity of the principles we were teaching. It was very a wonderful learning experience and I felt the spirit so strongly. I prayed all day to have the power to teach her clearly and boldly and that the spirit would speak to her through me. When we taught her that night it wasn't easy and she was rather stung by our words. But I felt the spirit and I knew my words were God's words. I worried all night about what would happen, and prayed every second that she would find a testimony of the word of wisdom. The next day she told us what she had learned and how she had gained her testimony that she had to make sacrifices and move forward, and though it was going to be hard she had to do it. I learned a very important lesson that day that when we declare our beliefs we have to do it boldly and with confidence, echoing Paul's words, 'I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for I know it is the power of God unto the Salvation of men.' it is something I will remember for the rest of my life. I have learned more lessons from the mistakes I've made then the things I have done right but they are lessons I don't think I will ever forget!

We also had a really neat lesson this week with a new investigator. One day a couple weeks ago I was feeling that I really needed to follow the impressions of the spirit more and learn how to recognize them better. I said a small prayer that whatever prompting I felt that day I would follow it. About three minutes later as we passed by a lady weeding her garden, I felt a flash of an impression, it was so powerful! I knew in that moment we had to talk with her. I turned so quickly I cut off my companion and said, 'Necessita ayuda', do you need help? She said yes and we began to talk with her. She seemed really interested so every day after that we passed by her house to visit her, and she was never home so we kind of stopped. Then one day this week my companion said that we really needed to try again and when we did she was home, we taught about the Gospel of Christ and we felt the spirit so strongly! She told us she needed this message in her life so badly and felt that a hole had been filled in her. It was amazing! And another testimony to me that God loves and KNOWS his children!

I love you all so much and am so grateful for you examples in my life! You are all incredible!! Thank you for always writing and being such a great support to me!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Hermana Wride