You are many. I hope you know that my prayers are often turned towards you. I'm pretty far away from you but I remember you. I have said many times to my companion that one of the biggest blessings I have is my foundation of family and friends at home. I draw strength from your examples and from your love.
Damiana - moving forward again
Damiana has been taking huge steps forward with her faith. She has now come to church for 4 weeks in a row (yeah!) and is working towards baptism. We went by to visit her and Javier last Thursday and couldn't get Damiana to come out of her room. After a few minutes of convincing her that everything was alright, she came into the family room to talk with us. We said a prayer and started like normal.
Damiana didn't seem normal. She was angry. And not the usually amount of sass that we are fond of. She was upset.
Finding the source of her frustrated front took a while but we found out that she had fallen back into her cocaine addiction and was embarrassed to tell us. She felt pressure to follow all of the commandments and if she wasn't perfect to at least act like she was following all of them. We were able to help here understand that we're not here to teach instant perfection. We ourselves aren't perfect. Far from it. What we are here to do is teach repentance. We have hope because we know that the remission of sins will come as we follow Jesus Christ (see 2 Nephi 24:25). We testified to Damiana that she can improve! She can do it!
The next step for Damiana is abandoning her sin. She has already recognized that she is sinning in her addiction, has felt sorrow for it, and has confessed her sins to God. To help Damiana leave her sin behind, we told her to cut her nails. As I recently learned, cocaine addicts often grow out their nails, specifically their thumb nails, and use them to snuff the cocaine. Damiana cutting her nails was her way of symbolically giving up that sin.
Having this experience has helped me understand people better. Before coming here, I always thought of "druggies" as bad people that had subjected themselves to some substance. Now, I am beginning to realize how wrong I have been. If any of you have or are currently struggling with an addiction, I would have you know that there is hope. You do not have to fight alone. Perhaps you are like Damiana and have turned to an addiction because you feel sad, bored, unloved, or unhappy. Or perhaps you have an addiction because you like what you do and you don't feel bad about it. Whether it's for these reasons or for others, there is more happiness in Christ. You can be healed of whatever misunderstanding or sorrow that you have experienced.
I know that redemption from sins comes through Jesus Christ and that He can help us improve.
I love you guys! Stay strong and rely on Christ
Elder Smith
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