Sunshine and Butterflies

Dear Family,

This week was a week full of miracles! We ended up finding 5 new investigators and 2 new families to teach and begin working with. The people here are so humble and receptive. They just need a little help keeping their committments. We also found a menos activa that is really receptive, but commitment is a desafío for her also. However, she felt the Spirit when we read 3 Nefi 13 with her and now she needs to put God first more in her life. She is super sweet and I feel like she is going to progress a lot. We are also working really hard to help the branch here. I feel like we aren´t progressing as much as we could be because of basic problems like reading the scriptures personally and praying, then doing that with the family also. So, we have a plan to visit the members in our sector and invite them to share the gospel with the people around them. This helped a lot when we invited our other menos activa to do it and it has helped her have more of a desire to share and be active in the church. Marcela our recent convert didn´t come to church because her WHOLE family came to stay this weekend. It made us worried so we went and visited her. She is ok and felt really bad that she didn´t go to church. In fact she gave us cake to make up for it... However, in the two weeks since we invited her to read the book of mormon in six months, she has read all the way to 2 Nefi 25!! She loves to read and it is a huge testimony to me that this book has divine power to change lives and our nature. Since she didn´t come to church, she wasn´t able to have an interview for the temple, but we are going to try to get her an interview this next week. She has a son in Santiago so it will be super easy for her to find excuses to go to the temple and do ALL her family history work. She is staying strong and told us that this week, when she had a little thought to not read the book of mormon, she was reminded of when we told her that Satan would try to get to her, so she just said a prayer and kept reading and felt a ton better. It is amazing how the armor of God works! It is also super amazing because now her husband is interested as well. He won´t accept us to come teach him yet, but he has a book of mormon and read the beginning and listens to Marcela talk about what she learns. I have faith that the Lord will lead him to listen to us when it is the correct time. He is super nice and repects Marcela a lot for her decision to be baptized and told us that he has seen a huge change in her. They are super in love and have almost 35 years of marriage. It is super cute. 

So hey, something super cool. Last night at about 11.45, we had a little earthquake (temblor is little, terremoto is huge) of about 4.5 and the epicenter was in a little pueblo about 30 minutes away from San Fernando, where I am. It was super cool because we woke up and it lasted for a while, about 15 seconds. It was a little scary because it was building, or getting stronger for a good 7 seconds, then started dropping after that, but Hna. Hellbusch told me that if an earthquake builds for longer than 8 seconds we need to seek shelter, so when I was counting and it wasn´t dropping, I thought the world was going to end!! It was super awesome. If you want to know what an earthquake feels like, just go on a roller coaster and its about the same, but not as extreme. Earthquakes are only scarier than roller coasters because they aren´t planned and cause damage. :) It is also cool because the weather changes whenever there is an earthquake. I don´t know why but lately we have been getting sunburns from the tons of sunshine and there have been a ton of orange butterflies everywhere. But today, there is nothing but rain and clouds!! I think all the butterflies died... :(

So I know that you maybe are a little sick to hear this, but READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERYDAY!! And don´t just read it, but study it, absorb it, dive into it, eat it!! (maybe not that last one). Because I am never happier in life than when I read the book of mormon and feel the Spirit testify to me of truth. Life has meaning and makes sense and I get super excited to do what is required of me when I read this amazing book. Make a promise to read it everyday. One of the speakers in general conference talked about ponderizing a scripture every week, and I can testify that he understands the importance of scriptures. Can you imagine how good of an impact it would be if everyone read the scriptures everyday and applied them to their lives?? Our less active Susanna, after we read 3 Nephi 13 with her, made an awesome comment when she said, El creer in Jesucristo es demasiado bueno. Su vida va a ser demasiada buena. It is super funny because she basically saying that it will make too much of a good life to live the gospel. It is just TOO GOOD. And why not want that? :) The challenge for this week? Make your life TOO GOOD and TOO HAPPY by reading and praying and going to church. :) Just fill your life with Jesus and be happy ;) 

I love you all. Have an amazing week!

Hna. McCubbins

Jessica will have been on her mission for one year this Thursday, October 22, 2015. These pictures look back at the starting points of her mission. She has grown and learned so much this year. It's been an amazing journey for her.

This picture was taken when Jessica first got to the mission field.

This is the first picture of Jessica with her missionary name tag on.