Dreams and Miracles

17 August 2015

Dear family,

We just made crepes and churripan with the sisters in our group at our apartment. Thanks Mom for the crepe recipe! My hands still smell like crepes and it reminds me of birthday breakfasts.

Our new members were confirmed yesterday and we had some other miracles at church, the first being that her father went to sacrament meeting! Hermana Fullmer insists that he is going to be the next baptism in Los Mares, even though we haven't taught him Lesson 1 yet. We have the bishop on our team and they are friends now so good things are going to happen in their family. Our new member also brought her friend who lives in another sector. And another young man we are teaching came! He's the sixteen year old investigator  I wrote about before who is really sensitive to the Spirit and felt very touched at a baptismal service he attended for two teenage boys. We had taught him earlier in the week and had talked about the Holy Ghost. We invited him to come to church and see the confirmations of our new members and he came!

On Saturday we went to the temple grounds with our new member and her friend who is not a member but has various family members who are Mormons and has heard a lot about the church. We taught the Restoration in the temple gardens and the friend cried. We got permission to enter the threshold of the temple with them and that is where our new member started to cry. When we left she needed to sit down and she asked us who the people in white were. We told her they are missionaries or volunteers, normal members who work in the temple. She asked if those who are baptized in the temple wear white, too. Yes, we said. She told us that before she met us she had a dream in which she saw her mom. She was dressed in white and she was walking up a staircase with other people. Our new member said that when we entered the door of the temple it was the same place. She said that in her dream she tried to follow her mom but she wasn't wearing white and that she was pounding on glass trying to get in. Her mom was smiling, waving to her, beckoning to her. A few days ago she said she wanted to wait for her father to be baptized to do the work for her mom. We didn't say anything about it but in my mind I was thinking that she shouldn't wait. That day at the temple she said, "I'm going to have to do her work as soon as I can. She's ready, isn't she?" There has been so much evidence on my mission for me that the Spirit World is so much closer than we imagine. I'm sure that when I die and enter the Spirit World I will understand more and think that I was blind the whole time I was mortal.

A recently baptized teenage boy has also asked us about dreams lately. He told us that sometimes he has dreams that come true. I found it was a good moment to tell him that I had dreamed that he would investigate the church again before he did. 

Mom, I got your letter about dreams this week. You asked me whether I dream about home or the mission and the answer is both. I think I dream in Spanish and English, as well. I have had dreams in Spanish since the beginning of my mission in Primer Crucero. A funny dream I had lately was that I returned home after my mission ended but the stake president was out of town and I couldn't be released for four days. I tried to keep the schedule at home, waking up and exercising with Adria (like I wrote her about). I went to church with you guys in our ward, still as a missionary, and the Relief Society president asked me to teach Relief Society. Mom was really worried about me because I didn't have the lesson planned, in fact I hadn't even read the lesson and didn't even know what the topic was at all. I told her not to worry because I was a missionary and I could teach ANYTHING in the context of Lesson 2, the Plan of Salvation. So I stood in front of the chalk board and taught Lesson 2. When I got to the part about life on earth I opened the manual and had people read paragraphs from the lesson. Whatever principle it was, it had something to do with our lives, obviously, and the lesson worked. I bragged to Mom that I could do it with Lesson 1, the Restoration, as well.

I also got your massive envelope with the workouts! Thank you! It is fun to have something new to do.

I have some sad news from Calle Larga. Hermano Mura passed away. I don't know any details but Hermana Nuñez called me last week after writing her family because they saw it on Facebook.

Last week we started teaching two sisters who live together. One invited us to come in and we met the other, who is deaf and mute because she had meningitis when she was four years old. We have no idea how to teach her because not only is she deaf, but she also never learned to read and their family made up their own signs without using a universal sign language that other deaf people also use. We have taught them twice and I just pray in my heart that somehow we will be able to communicate with both of them. I am confident that the Spirit is what communicates our message with everyone, even when we can use words. We started teaching Lesson 1 and only got as far as "The Gospel Blesses Families." I felt inspired to ask them if they had family photos and they showed us their scrapbook. We spent the whole time talking about their family and I knew the deaf sister understood something because she was able to use gestures to tell us about people in their family, what they did, how tall her nephew is, etc. 

Have a great week! Enjoy the last moments of summer! I'm looking forward to Spring here in Chile!

Love,

Hermana Eva VanCott

 

Photos are from the wedding and baptism last week.