MANUEL IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!

It was a great week here in Plano with Hermana Mata.. still working hard and seeing miracles!
Monday: We had an Family Home Evening with the Marrero family and their mom who is living with them and dying of cancer felt so bad that Hermana Mata's tortillas didn't turn out that she taught us how to make yummy flour tortillas and rice and CACTUS!!.. It was a yummy dinner and Hna. Mata felt a lot better about herself once her tortillas turned out!
Tuesday: We had splits planned with two of the young women in the stake so we had double appointments for the whole afternoon and then of course thirty minutes before we were going to leave one of the young women called and canceled.. so we were running around the rest of the afternoon trying to hit all of the people we made appointments with. We started the day teaching an awesome lady who at the end of the lesson told us she was going back to Mexico in three days.. I hate when that happens.. then we had a powerful lesson with Martina.. tried to set another date with her and she said she feels a lot of peace about getting baptized everytime she prays but wants more. We just told her that she is waiting for God to give her another answer and God is waiting to see what she is going to do with the answer he already gave her. So Martina is not getting baptized anytime soon but we are still not giving up on her... it was a pretty sad lesson though. And Hna. Mata was super disappointed because this was the first time in her mission she had a super disappointing lesson like we had but I just told her that if we stopped for the day or took a break then Satan was winning and the person we were suppose to find right now or needed us right now was the one loosing.. so we kept going and had a bunch of punched appointments but it was all better when we went to teach Gabina... when we first got there she was so frustrated almost on the edge of tears.. so i asked her what was the matter.. and she just sat there holding her HUGE Book of Mormon and said she had faught all night long trying to read the book... she said she put it at different distances, in different amounts of light trying to read it but couldnt do it!! I've never seen anyone with such desires to read the Book of Mormon.. it's such an example to me! That night we taught a lesson to Rosa Lopez and her son Brian actually sat in with us and at the end of the lesson where we talked about living together as a family... Brian was just sitting there almost day dreaming so we tried to pull him back to the lesson by asking what he was thinking about and he just said with the biggest smile, "I was thinking about how amazing it would be to actually live with my family forever." I love how much hope this message brings to families.. especially their family who is having lots of problems right now!
Wednesday: We brought Gabina a magnifying glass... I wish you could all see her sitting there with her huge book of mormon trying to read with her thick glasses and a magnifying glass.. but she did it!! It was super slow but she had a smile ear to ear and she just kept reading and reading and reading...It's so sad how we, people that can see and read, don't even pick up the Book of Mormon some days and here is Gabina who can barely see fighting to read it. She definitely understands the importance of the Book of Mormon.. do we? We then had a lesson with Manuel and Jorge and they told us that they knew everything was true and Jorge was able to tell us the entire Joseph Smith Story and about the first part of the Book of Mormon... they are crazy golden!!
Thursday: We had another amazing lesson with Gabina where we finished teaching her all the commandments...she is so ready to be baptized... everytime we taught her a commandment she would state her concern with living it and then solver her concern before we could say anything... she LOVES coffee.. but after we taught her the Word of Wisdom she said, "Well I guess I'm gonna learn to love hot chocolate!" We talked to her about Tithing and she thought it was BEAUTIFUL!! who thinks the law of tithing is beautiful!! She's awesome! We then had a youth come out with us and all of our appointments punched but then at the end of her three hours with us we found a potential investigator home named jorge ( a different jorge) we tried to teach him a first lesson but if we were interupted by his clients (he sells things like soda, chips, phone cards from his appartment and someone knocked at the door every five minutes) he was interupting us with tonz of questions that he wouldn't let us answer. so I finally told him that he could only ask questions on topic and could have one question at the end of the lesson.. we were teaching about Jesus Christ establishing his church and calling his twelve apostles and he said,"OHHHHH I have a question on topic... Did Jesus Christ have a wife?"... definitely not on topic Jorge! but at the end of the lesson he said the closing prayer and asked God to help him stop talking and just listen to us and really has sincere desires to know he has just been so confused over the years by so many differnet opinions.. he also blesses Hna Mata and my future husbands, childrens, jobs... he practically gave each one of us a new patriarichal blessing. :) his prayer was really thirty minutes long!! But we have a return appointment with him and I can't wait!
Friday: was a really good day.. we taught four new investigators.. all of which are awesome... they are all cute young moms. They have lots of potential and we taught all of their kids in the different lessons to sing "Soy un hijo de Dios".. that night we had dinner with recent converts for one of their birthdays and we ran over the interview questions later with Gabina so she was good to go for her baptismal interview on Saturday.
Saturday: We had lunch with the Castros.. hilarious as usual.. got two more new investigators.. then went and Gabina passed her baptismal interview..YAHOOOO!!! Then we went to pick up the young women who was suppose to come out with us for the night and she wasn't there.. her mom let her go to the mall instead of coming out with us... so i was trying to call around and see who could come with us at the last minute because if we couldnt find someone we would have to cancel our appointment with Jorge and Manuel.. but at the last minute we found Maria Del Angel who left her boyfriend to come out with us!! So we showed up to teach Manuel and Jorge but Jorge wasn't back yet but Manuel was all dressed up in a collared shirt and all shaved and clean.. he had cleaned the whole apartment even putting a tablecloth on the table and bought us waters to drink... we then started asking him why he didnt get baptized before when he was going to church for two year and he said he didnt feel ready then but that he feels ready now.. we then set a baptismal date with him for the 5th of September!!! We then started asking him if he was married or has kids trying to get to know him a little more... He then tells us that he had girlfriend and has an 8 year old son with her and they both live in Plano.. then he says.. I actually think they are members of your branch.. So we asked her name and I think i went into a state of shock when he said their last nigh twas SANDAVAL... well the Elder in our branch have been working with a family for over 6 months trying to get them married and baptized and last week they figured out a marriage date with them and then they are getting baptized with their 8 year od son on the 28th of August.. wel this is the SANDAVAL family.. and the 8 year old son that the eldesr have a baptismal date with is actualy MANUEL's son!!.. what a CRAZY coincidence.. God definitely has a sense of humor. Manuel said they are friends and fine with each other but we'll will see!! but he is still getting baptized the week after his son is baptized!
Sunday: was a good day at church but only Gabina showed up to church.. we then that night had dinner with the Cano's and then Anabella and Nelson met up with us to teach an appointment that punched so they contacted people with us then we went to visit Ariel who wasn't there but ended up teaching one of his roommates the Plan of Salvation and half way through the lesson Ariel came home so then after the lesson with the roommate we taught him. He told us he had been at his friends appartment and felt really anxious and butterflies in his stomach so he left and came home and said they disappeared as soon as he saw us. It's amazing how the spirit can really guide you to the places you need to be.. i was just happy that Ariel got to experience that first hand and understand the importance of listening to the spirit.
We had an awesome week filled with spiritual experiences, heat and fun!! love you all.. thanks for your love and support.. BUT STOP COUNTING THE DAYS!!
love,
Hermana Barber