Oh my goodness, what joy I feel as I type that! I understand now better than ever what the Lord meant when He said that our joy would be great even in bringing just one soul to a knowledge of the truth. That is real.
As you can see, it was an exciting week in Paraguay! Here is a little background story that Kaitlin shared:
Friday evening, we passed by his house to take him to Hno. Britez' home for his last lesson before his baptism. We asked him how his day was, and he said, "Terrible. Really. It was a really, really bad day." We were kind of surprised by that, and we asked him what had happened. He told us that he had been talking to two of his classmates about the church (!!!! indicator of real conversion--that he's sharing what he knows with other people!!!!!), when his English teacher came up behind him and started telling him a lot of things about the church that weren't true. From what José told us, they are some of the craziest ideas I've ever heard of a person having about the church. They really confused José. He told us he wasn't sure what to believe, that he was just...confused. The Spirit whispered to me that we shouldn't try to explain away every doubt or question that had come up, but that rather, we should just get to Hno. Britez' house and continue with what we had planned; we had planned to read 3 Nephi 11 again, which is the first chapter he ever read from the Book of Mormon. So we got to the Britez' house, sang a hymn, said a prayer, and we started by explaining that tonight we were going to read a chapter together from the Book of Mormon. We explained that there wouldn't be a lot of talking or explaining in the process-that we were just going to read it verse by verse and listen--listen to the Spirit. And I tell you what...that was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had on my mission, without question. It was incredible. It was almost tangible, the Spirit that was felt during those few minutes. After the last verse was read, there was a moment of sweet silence, and then we asked, "How do you feel right now, José?" "Good," he said. "I feel really good." We then read the last two paragraphs of the introduction to the Book of Mormon, and we asked, "José, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized tomorrow, to join the Kingdom of God that is on the earth again?" "Yes," he said. And that's all that was needed. A thousand missionaries don't have the power to convince anyone of the truthfulness of the gospel, not even if they use the most eloquent combination of words and explanations. But the soft, powerful, undeniable feelings given by the Spirit can. That is the key to true conversion. And the Spirit reaffirmed to José that this was the truth and that he was making the right decision. Wow. The Book of Mormon is true. It is powerful.
We love our girl, Kaitlin! We have a paper chain and every day one of the children removes a link--we are counting the days until she comes home!! But...we will miss these amazing Monday emails!
And now....I shall attempt to add pictures. The first one is of Kaitlin with her companions and Jose' just before his baptism. Kaitlin is in a threesome right now: Hermana Ramos and Hermana Cintas are her companions. The second picture is after Jose's baptism. Clara is also in the picture--Clare was baptized a few weeks ago. In Kaitlin's words "They are two of my most favorite people in the whole world!" The third picture is Kaitlin with the other trainers and new missionaries, and the fourth is Kaitlin and her companions.
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