Hola Hola Amigitos y Familia!
Happy 4th of JULY!!!......we were super lame and we did absolutely nothing....here in Puerto Rico 4th of July is just a day to go to the beach...and, as missionaries it is a normal day for us! But, we partied the day before by eating pancakes with red white and blue toppings for our leadership meeting, so I got a little American pride this week, haha :)
This Sunday our sacrament meeting was PACKED! There were 2 baby blessing, and a missionary farewell who is off to Mexico! and so many people who hadn't come to church in a long time came! That was the big miracle of the week. The second, was that the youth here on the island had EFY (or what is now called SOY) It's a youth camp run by the church that helps youth strengthen their testimonies. It is basically run by young single adults as they council young people. Well, apparently a lot of youth attended soy including many investigators. One of which was an investigator in our ward that the Elders have been teaching for A SUPER LONG TIME! And, he got up to the pulpit to bare his testimony during sacrament meeting and told the whole world that he wanted to be baptized, and since there was no water, he was going to be baptized the next Sunday (ahh, droughts are wonderful aren't they?) But, he came home from this youth camp so spiritually uplifted, and finally made that commitment to do a covenant (or promise) with the Lord!
Watching this boy and seeing so many less actives come to church this Sunday gave me so much joy that I can only imagine the joy of our Heavenly Father. He is truly happy when we follow his commandments! Honestly, this area has been so wonderful and has truly humbled me (and I have so much further to go) but I am so grateful for the challenges that the Lord has given me. One day I was getting caught up in everything that I was doing wrong, or that I needed to improve, and as I sat and thought about it, the Lord brought a light into my personal study.... I am not perfect, but the wonderful thing, is that our Heavenly Father sent his son so that we could be better. If we humble ourselves before him, he will lift us up to do the things that we know are right. This area has helped me to really more fully rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ, and understand his love and mercy for us! The Lord has so many blessings for us if we let Him into our lives, we can receive them :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Hermana VanKammen
P.S. Have you ever tried fried pumpkin? I did this week! It's super good :)
also, the other picture is of my companion and I with our matching skirts :)
Happy 4th of JULY!!!......we were super lame and we did absolutely nothing....here in Puerto Rico 4th of July is just a day to go to the beach...and, as missionaries it is a normal day for us! But, we partied the day before by eating pancakes with red white and blue toppings for our leadership meeting, so I got a little American pride this week, haha :)
This Sunday our sacrament meeting was PACKED! There were 2 baby blessing, and a missionary farewell who is off to Mexico! and so many people who hadn't come to church in a long time came! That was the big miracle of the week. The second, was that the youth here on the island had EFY (or what is now called SOY) It's a youth camp run by the church that helps youth strengthen their testimonies. It is basically run by young single adults as they council young people. Well, apparently a lot of youth attended soy including many investigators. One of which was an investigator in our ward that the Elders have been teaching for A SUPER LONG TIME! And, he got up to the pulpit to bare his testimony during sacrament meeting and told the whole world that he wanted to be baptized, and since there was no water, he was going to be baptized the next Sunday (ahh, droughts are wonderful aren't they?) But, he came home from this youth camp so spiritually uplifted, and finally made that commitment to do a covenant (or promise) with the Lord!
Watching this boy and seeing so many less actives come to church this Sunday gave me so much joy that I can only imagine the joy of our Heavenly Father. He is truly happy when we follow his commandments! Honestly, this area has been so wonderful and has truly humbled me (and I have so much further to go) but I am so grateful for the challenges that the Lord has given me. One day I was getting caught up in everything that I was doing wrong, or that I needed to improve, and as I sat and thought about it, the Lord brought a light into my personal study.... I am not perfect, but the wonderful thing, is that our Heavenly Father sent his son so that we could be better. If we humble ourselves before him, he will lift us up to do the things that we know are right. This area has helped me to really more fully rely on the atonement of Jesus Christ, and understand his love and mercy for us! The Lord has so many blessings for us if we let Him into our lives, we can receive them :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Hermana VanKammen
P.S. Have you ever tried fried pumpkin? I did this week! It's super good :)
also, the other picture is of my companion and I with our matching skirts :)