Hermana Warburton: Noche de Hogar y Fe

¡Buenos días!

So good to email and talk to you all again!

This week hermana vargas and i have been working hard! and my cute little daughter is growing up fast and becoming such a great missionary! i am so proud of her! its so neat to watch someone from day 1 grow and learn new things as a missionary. :)

This past week i learned a lot from the people here in ecuador. there really are some great people who have helped me become a better person. This week we visited a less active member - Rina Fernandez and talked to her and shared a scripture about the stripling warriors and the importance of mothers. i am so amazed at her dilligence and willingness to go to church with 3 little kids all by herself! she takes them to church herself and does it with such grace! for me, her example of perserverance was so great to see.

yesterday we had a family home evening (noche de hogar) with the Familia Amalia! (Amalia, Karla, y the grandsons Gabriel y Andres-- our investigators) It was sooooo fun!! but it didnt start out like that. Acutally the night started out pretty much like a nightmare!

Before the noche de hogar my companion and i were in the church with the relief society practicing a song they are going to sing for stake conference. (somehow i am now the designated piano player at all functions). Amalia and her friend Miriam (who is a member) were there practicing, and we had all planned that after the practice we would go to Amalia´s house and have the noche de hogar. At 7pm when the choir practice ended, it started raining like crazy! Down pour!! sooooo much rain. its not like the little rain we sometimes get in utah.. the rain here is CRAZY!! and because of the rain nobody wanted to leave, and Miriam wanted to postpone the noche de hogar for another day....

Luckily a member had his car and took the people in the church by groups to the house of Amalia. After some arranging of food and chairs, we were finally able to have the noche de hogar!! It was a miracle!! And a lot of members in the ward came and joined us, and also our zone leaders came! We probably had around 20+ people there!

We played Jeopardy with questions about the gospel from the 5 missionary lessons. and it got pretty intense!! haha! i was actually suprised! but amalia and karla (our investigators) were so cute and had such a fun time playing and being competitive. and of course we ended with some delicious food! :)

The noche de hogar that started out like a nightmare, ended up to be such a great night! :) Wow. i had a fun time, and the members and investigators that were there did as well. But my favorite part of the night was not the games or the food. My favorite part of the night was actually towards the beginning when we sang the opening hymn "I am a child of God" (Soy un hijo de Dios). As we sang with 20+ voices singing that they are a child of God, with such a strong conviction, i couldnt help but feel the Spirit, and realize that wow. we are children of God. And these people here in ecuador are great people who, also, are children of God and have truly seen the blessings of the Gospel in their lives. I felt so blessed to be in that room singing I am a Child of God with the people in this ward!

This week we talked a lot about faith! almost with every person we taught! how important is faith!! i read a talk this past week by neil l. anderson about how faith does not grow by chance, but by choice. The way we live will either help our faith grow, or diminsh it. Prayer, obedience, honor, purity in thoughts and works will help our faith grow. without doing these things, our faith will diminish. i have seen great faith in the people here. its amazing to see how they will have faith despite their adversities and trails. its their faith that carries them through their trails. Their love and faith in Jesus Christ is amazing! :)

Gracias por todo su amor y oraciones. Sé que Dios es nuestro amoroso Padre Celestial y nos ama. Él nos da mandamientos para guiarnos y ayudarnos tener mayor felicidad en esta vida. Sé que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y podemos lograr mas paz y gozo cuando seguimos a Él. ¡Tengan una buena semana!

Translation: Thanks for all your love and prayers . I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father and loves us. He gives us commandments to guide us and help us to have greater happiness in this life . I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and can achieve more peace and joy when we follow Him.Have a good week !

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Warburton