Hermana Megan Stoor: Failure and triumph.

This was a hard hard hard week. But also a week that we needed so much. Saturday we made sure we went around to every single one of our investigators houses to make sure they were all ready for church the next day and planned out very carefully how we were going to get them to church. Sunday morning....went looking for two of them..not there...went back to church...not a person there. Sometimes its really hard to see everything fall through after you have worked so hard to make it happen. So...we have alot of work to do this week. And I have learned lots of new things this week that I hope I can just keep applying throughout my mission. I am really really loving the new focus that the prophet and apostles have set forth for the missionaries. We are not here anymore to just worry about baptizing and retaining. We are here to preach faith in the Lord to repentance. We are here to teach repentance and baptize converts. We had a multi zone conference this thursday and had a great training from President Spjut. And I have done my absolute best to apply it in our lessons and I can already see a difference. When I left the CCM, President Cox told me to make some goals for my mission. We talked about it for a while and I said some number goals...but I am definitely changing those now. My new goal for my mission isn't going to have to do with how many people i want to baptize and how many menos activos I hope to reactivate but I just want to make sure that every single one of those people that I help convert...that they are REAL repentant converts.That when they are baptized they have already had a true change of heart and have the real desire to stay faithful for all of their lives.

None of my investigators are there yet...but we are hoping to get three of them there this week. We had to really good good lessons with Nestor and Mynor this week and I think they are both starting to understand what it is that they are looking for by seeking out the gospel. Nestor opened up to us a whole bunch this week. We taught him the law of chastity and we could tell he was just burdened with a ton of guilt. After a good 30 minutes with him, he told us that one day after school, him and his friends went back to one of his friends houses and invited over some girls that he didn't even really know and he did some things that he isn't proud of. He told us how he had felt so much relief when he had told his mom about it and we spent some time explaining to him the relief that come through the power of the Atonement. Then at the end of the lesson, we knelt down with him and had him say two prayers. One to start the repentance process and another to know the truthfulness of the restoration of the gospel. After he prayed, he just looked at us and told us to be quiet and then closed his eyes and kept praying. I think he felt it and as he learns more, I have faith he is going to feel the relief and peace that he needs. We are going to set a baptism date with him this week for the 27th.

We also had a super good lesson with Mynor. The people down here are believers in Christ, but they don't understand his suffering in the Jardín. They only understand that he suffered for us on the cross. We shared with him Alma 7:11-12 and Helaman 5: 9-12 and explained to him that Christ came to redeem his people of their sins but not in their sins. We helped to understand better the process of repentance and the power of the atonement in his life as he repents of his sins. He felt the spirit in the lesson. Now we just have to help him to not fight it anymore. He just has alot of pride and hurt feelings to get over. I think as soon as we get through those with him, he will just run into the pila. We hope. The elders in the area are also going to start working with him. We think with someone there to visit him every day he will get there soon. It just breaks my heart that he is struggling so much. We love him so so so so much.

Horacio is just as old as ever. The other day we were teaching him and he just stood up out of his maka and started running. for the back door (which he does so he doesn't fall in between walls.) It felt like we were in a movie. He ran out the door and it slammed behind him. We went around the house...in the pitch black looking for him. And when we found him he just turned around and started to follow us back. Said he just had to go to the bathroom. Just funny that he didn't say a word...just stood up as i was talking and started running for the back door. But anyways, he has finally agreed to give up his cafe and is so excited to get baptized. He couldn't come to church because he had a doctors appointment but we are hoping for this next week so that he can get baptized. When we told him he couldn't get baptized this week if he couldn't come to church, he was just about in tears. It was so sad. But hopefully next week we will be good to go.

Anyways, life is good here in Turín. The people are as wonderful as ever and we have got tons to do this week. It is amazing to see how the church has moved throughout our little area in the past years from having no members in the year 1980 to about 100 people faithfully attending now. The Lords hand is definitely in this work and we know we have got some miracles coming soon. Hurrah for Israel!

Hermana Stoor

Just a picture with my new friend. I love these birds...even though they like to bite me.

Last Lunes was Ernestos birthday...we had the Elders call and ask for him to go to Santa Ana to get pizza and while he was gone, we made him a cake. His first ever home made (box) cake..they loved it! And it was a fun

party and a good way to thank him for all he does. He is such a wonderful person!