A Broken Heart & a Contrite Spirit

This week, we had a few investigators fall out of thin air. One is the boyfriend of one of our less active members named. For the first time ever, she let us in her house. We weren't sure what we were going to teach, but we felt the spirit tell us to be there. He sat down and he asked us, "what do I have to do to be baptized in your church?" That's an MTC story for sure :)

After quite a few trials and grief, some grief more recent than other grief, I can say that I truly love this area and this work. I struggled for a while to put my heart into this, and now that I have, I'm shocked at the capacity I have to love. I feel the spirit so strongly as we teach and as we work. I feel like the Lord has helped me see the importance of missionary work, and I feel privileged to be a part of it. As I focused these last few weeks on loving instead of mastering the language, I found my ability to speak and understand heightened. I connect so much more with these people than I initially

did and I love them from the moment I meet them. I feel the Lord has given me his eyes for a moment so I can see His children the way He does.

With recent events, I have had a broken heart. Sister Martinez, who is preparing this as her topic for a talk for Sunday, pointed out to me that the Lord asks that we come to him with a "broken heart and a

contrite spirit." Sometimes that heart will be more broken than other times. But without that brokenness, we would never feel the capacity to love nor would we ever know of the joyful, purifying power of the Jesus Christ's Atonement.

When you are hurting and your heart is broken, that's the way the Lord wants it to be! But it is only truly beneficial if you have a contrite spirit and come to Him, trusting that he will "encircle you about

eternally in the arms of His love."

We had a grief counselor come to the mission last week, and one thing he pointed out was this: "I have never met anyone who said they would trade the years of love in order to escape the grief."

Do your best today, even if your best isn't anywhere near where it was yesterday.

Les quiero mucho!

Sister Abram

P.s. We have iPads now, so we can receive emails throughout the week, we just can't reply to them until Monday.

Sent from my iPad