January 20th - The Best Week Yet!!

Hola Familia, 

Hermana Corniea says that she is awesome and that she loves ya! The work is definitely going.   We have some goals for this transfer.   We are taking President Monson's advice from the broadcast this last June and involving more members.

My teeth are fine.   I just need my root canal tooth re-colored.  Yep, I'm still painting my fingernails.  Today they are purple but last week they were pink! I did get the package from Grandma, It will be so helpful.

There is an update on T. later on in this letter.  We are working with a man named M. who we were going to drop but he showed up at church yesterday, so we are giving him one last try. We are going to try with the members. I will let you know some more things that went on in my snail mail. 

I hope that this week went well for you! This week was possibly one of the best weeks on the mission!  We found some new people to teach, but the highlight of our week was Saturday.  We did a church tour focused on the Restoration.  It was so cool. We first started talking about the Spirit and how it feels. We read Galatians 5:22-23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. "  We asked T., our investigator what stood out to her and she said peace, love, and gentleness.   We told her that if she feels any of this today, that is the Spirit testifying of truth.  

We started out in the chapel and talked about the sacrament and why it is important that we partake of it and the significance of it. She said she understands now why we come to take the bread and the water. We then went to the back of the chapel and explained that we were going to turn the lights off. We explained that the world was in darkness until God called a prophet and we shined a light on Adam. We explained that Adam was a prophet and how he taught the people the teachings of Christ but eventually the people rejected him. We then turned the flashlight off. We did this for Noah, Abraham, and Moses.  We told her that even after Moses we were in darkness.  We then went to the Relief Society room. Before we entered, we asked her what God gives us to bring us out of darkness, and she said "a prophet". We answered "Exactly".   Not only a prophet, but God sent his own Son, Jesus Christ.  We had 20 Chairs lined up with pictures of the life of Christ in chronological order,  starting with His birth, through His life and His death and resurrection.   We explained that Christ set up His church when He was on the earth.   Even after he was crucified, He was still the head of the church.  We explained that one of the apostles, Judas Iscariot, died and so the apostles got together and called Matthias to replace Judas.  The apostles continued to go out and preach the gospel but the apostles were getting killed and martyred faster than they could be replaced.   Eventually, Christ's church fell without His authority, and so we were in spiritual darkness again. We asked her the same question we had asked her before, what does God give us to bring us out of darkness?  She answered again, "A prophet."  Then we watched the DVD about the Restoration.   After the movie we asked her how she felt.  She said she felt happy but also sad because of the prophet Joseph Smith's death.  It was one of those moments where the Spirit touched her so much that she wanted to cry.  We then told her that it didn't end with Joseph Smith.   We went through the pictures of the prophets and apostles that were on 15 chairs on the other side of the room. We asked her what this means to her.   She said that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. We then took her into the baptismal font room and committed her to baptism on the 15th of February. She said that she was excited!  She could imagine the only thing holding her back was her nerves.  So, we knelt right then and there in the baptismal font room and she prayed to know if this is the true church and if she should get baptized on the 15 of February.  We pondered for a moment and asked her again how she felt.  She said she felt at peace.   We said that this is her answer. She knew it was.  It was one of the best days of my mission!!

This week I studied in the book of Acts and Preach My Gospel on how to be more effective teachers.   And how to begin teaching especially by using the scriptures. As I was reading, it was really cool to see that the apostles were set apart with power and authority and that all of them were preaching the gospel which is like a district of missionaries. I am learning some really cool things about how our missions are like the apostles and how they taught with boldness in an area. One thing that I found funny while reading the book of Acts, is Saul and Barnanbus have an emergency transfer!  Haha!! It is the end of Acts 15.

One thing that Hermana Corniea and I are doing are working with members a lot more.   We are trying to take President Monson's advice and to only knock only when we really have to because we have noticed that it isn't effective.  We are going to be doing a lot more church tours and things that we have seen work. It's the people that matter.

Speaking of this, a couple of transfers ago, Hermana Palafox, Hermana Howell, and I were teaching a Brazilian man named M. I want to let you know that I received news that he got baptized two weeks after he got to Brazil.  He now has the Aaronic priesthood and is preparing to receive the higher priesthood at the next stake conference. It was such a reminder to me that even though I am planting seeds they will eventually get harvested. I have truly seen the fruits of the labors the Lord has blessed me with. It is not because of me that I am seeing success it is because of Him!!

Much love to you and everyone!!
Hermana Fitz

Success in Ventura, CA and Brazil!!