19 February 2018

fam, 

Some good news came in this week. We are getting another senior couple this week! From what we know, it looks like it might be this Thursday.  

Zone conference was on Friday and like always was a really great meeting. Unfortunately it went a little long. After the meeting there was a leadership training for the missionary leaders, which Elder Rencher had to stay for. After that we got word from the Assistants that if we could, we needed to help unload some of the things the mission has supplied the new couple. We could, so we spent and hour and a half unloading furniture. The mission housing coordinator came with us and treated us to dinner after. That was super nice. We raced down to the Franco's taco shop and ate there before our afternoon appointment. The Franco's tend not to let us pay, but between the language barrier of the Francos and Elder Gosling's persistence in making it so they'd accept his money, it was both humorous to watch and was enough to let us pay for our meal. 

Saturday we started the day off with Santiago. He is doing pretty decently. He is starting to recognize the testimony I think he's had for a little bit. We talked a lot about choices and why they're so important. We shared 2 Nephi 2:27 which explains that things either bring us closer or further from God. It was a pretty good lesson and we were able to be pretty bold with him. We talked about some of things that affect him spiritually. 

After Santiago we went to a less active member to help him translate for a phone call with a credit card company. It was a little awkward because at first the people wouldn't let us talk for him, which is understandable, but the member did not like the interpreter at all. He was getting a little heated and we basically took the phone call over to diffuse a little bit. We figured out the problem but then the last few steps couldn't be done by us due to some policy. But we got it all resolved.  

We had a really good lesson with the Sarmientos this week. Daniel, the father of the household, I think finally has connected some important dots. We talked heavily about the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets. We've constantly asked Daniel to pray about the BoM and read from it to gain a testimony that it's true. Some people get answers to prayers quickly and some don't.  The same goes with some questions that are answered quickly while others don't get answered as quickly. We shared 1 Nephi 10:17 which in few words explains that if we have faith and a desire to know something we can get answers to those questions through the Holy Ghost by diligently seeking. You could almost see the dots connect when Daniel said that, "God sometimes holds off on answers because we first have to show that we truly want something." Things are looking pretty good for that family, but they still won't accept a baptismal date. 

Heads up, next P-day will be this Saturday as it's the end of the transfer.  

12 February 2018 More Chiwawas, Sabbath day, Foundation of Christ

fam,

Tuesday I had a great trade off with Elder Waters. We met with one of their investigators. Elder Magalei and I picked up a man named Jose. I think we met with him twice before I was moved to this side. Turns out he is doing really well. In less than a month he read the entire Book of Mormon and has a pretty impressive understanding. He talked about the Book of Mormon like a member would. He said he didn't even like to read but that something drew him in. Unfortunately he still hadn't prayed about the Book of Mormon. We talked about that and committed him to do so. It's pretty amazing that he finished The Book of Mormon and his comprehension is even more amazing. At the end of the day, however, it doesn't really matter how many times you read the Book of Mormon but how those principles found in it are applied that bring us closer to Christ and help us become better disciples.

The Sarmientos are doing well. Wednesday we had a lesson in the Pinas home. We taught the shortest lessons we've ever with them, I think just under 45 minutes. We try to be short but it's so hard when just golden questions are being thrown left and right. We taught the Sabbath day and it turned out really well. I figured I would never use Exodus 31 because how intense it is with the law of Moses, the whole "whosever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death" felt like a little much. For our lesson it proved to be just the right thing, well just verse 13, which says,"Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you"

Thursday we passed by a member who recently had fallen and broken her back. The family let us in and she was asleep but her inactive sister and non-member husband were home and we had a great visit with them. The lesson was short but powerful. The thing was at the end Elder Rencher went to the bathroom leaving me with the two. The wife asked me if I wanted a Guatemalan sweet juice called "calientito," who am I to say no? She ran off to get a little for me. She came back and I took a big sip. Calientito translates to a little warm and oh my gosh it was so hot, it immediately burned my tongue. Still I finished pretending as if nothing happened, sacrifices bring forth the blessing of heaven, right?? My tongue is almost back to 100%, still hurts alittle

Friday we had another escapade with Carlos. We knocked on his door and he welcomed us in and sat down. We talked for a minute and started with a prayer, as usual. We planned on watching the restoration video to make it easier to share a restored truth, which turned out to work pretty well. After the prayer the idea came to mind to sit more defensively. The geography of the room had me sitting more angled towards him leaving my side to a hallway, where the mad chiwawas charged from the week prior, which I changed putting me in a more oblique position to fend off the little critters if they were to break free. This turned out to be an inspired change. Towards the end of the video Carlos got up to blow his nose. In that process he opened the door separating us from the tiny monsters bent on attacking us. I heard the sound of running coming our way and immediately knew what was coming our way. This week he had two chiwawas bolting around the corner towards us. For some reason both came at me practically ignoring Elder Rencher. They both charged and jumped at me in full fury. As I fended off the beasts, Carlos stumbled around the corner yelling at them saying we were friends. It brought to memory the scene in Finding Nemo when the sharks unsuccessfully try to change their disposition to, "fish are friends, not food." Carlos scooped up one but the other slipped loose then proceeded to charge full force around the coffee table, jumping on the couch and at full speed charging as if to jump from the arm rest at Elder Rencher. Rencher was able to then stop the dogs progression with my meeting the dogs face with the underside of his boot. Carlos was then able to grab the other and throw them in their previous room. Seriously those things are crazy. Like I've seen jumpy dogs and dogs that like to bite but never anything which such fury. 

We had a good miracle on Saturday. We felt like we needed to visit with a member currently suffering with cancer. We knocked on the door and one of her roommates, who also is a former from a few months back, name Javier opened the door. He invited us in and we talked for a minute. Turns out he and his extended family are going through a lot right now. Basically the toughest Mexican rancher I've met practically broke down in front of us and asked us to share something with him. The lines "a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall," which I recognized to be part of Helaman 5:12 and the line "And ye cannot bear all things" which is a line from D&C 78:18. With what I had from the spirit I figured that Javier needed the part about how a life built on the foundation of Christ cannot fall no matter what trials come their way. After we read verses 9-12 and asked what he thought he pulled out the lines on repentance and explained a bunch of coincidences that gave our visit to him greater significance than we though. The whole experience reminded me of 1 Nephi 4 when Nephi was led by the spirit not knowing before hand what he would do. We were given just enough information to proceed and had a greater and different effect than we imagined.  

 Sunday church canceled again, but hopefully won't next week... Apparently waking up to 7-8 inches means no church, but it does mean lots of shoveling driveways.

January 29 and February 5, 2018

January 29, 2018
fam,

Wednesday was pretty good. We had interviews with President Brennan. I really enjoy interviews, especially if they take us out to lunch. We are the smallest district in the area and the last two times he scheduled us for a time where we could grab lunch before the next district came in, perks of being a Spanish only district with only two companionships. It got exciting when we carpooled to the nearest chick-fil-a We were in President's car following the zone leader's car. Light turns yellow and the ZL's drive through and President totally gunned it through a red to stay behind the zone leader's car. It was pretty funny. Luckily no one was at the intersection but still. He apologized.

Friday we stopped by my very first media referral. Carlos Rodriguez, asked for a Bible and a Book of Mormon. We stopped by and knocked the door and no answer. Knocked again and still nothing. But as we were leaving this old guy yells out to us to come back. We come back and he asks us if we had some time to talk for a minute. That was an obvious yes. It was pretty interesting. He had us open the Bible to Acts chapter 8 and we read 1-23. He then began to scold us about how we didn't have authority to do the things we did. Authority comes from God and we only went to a seminary and got a fancy diploma saying we were priests. He called us phonies. It was pretty funny actually. He wasn't in the mood to listen even though we told him that we were two representatives from the only church that agreed with him. One thing I found interesting is that he said that authority comes from the Holy Ghost. That's where we parted our common ground. Now in the Old Testament, Aaron got his priesthood from Moses by the laying on of hands. In the New, the Apostles got their authority from Jesus, and the Apostles chosen after Christ's ascension received that authority from one who already had that authority from Christ. In the book of Mormon it's the same when Christ came to the Americas (3 Nephi 11). I'm not sure why people think that's changed if they believe authority matters....Even with just a Bible it should be clear that things have not changed or shouldn't have. That is why I'm so grateful that the Fullness of the Gospel was restored through a living prophet bringing back the full power and authority to lead and guide God's church, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is lead by those prophets and apostles. We left the guy with a pamphlet and a return appointment a week later. He has with him a pamphlet explaining how God has not changed and still runs his church "built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." (Ephesians 2:20)

Saturday we had a great lesson with Santiago. It was super funny. We had planned to read with him about baptism. We read the baptism of Jesus in the New testament and 2 Nephi 31. It turned out to be really spiritually powerful. As we closed our visit he started talking about his JW pastor friend he also is meeting with. That isn't ideal but I'm not terribly worried. He talked about how he was confused about the differences between all the different churches. He also brought up the things his JW Pastor teaches him that he doesn't like and are just confusing. Santiago was like "Everyone talks about a God of love, but how can that be true if he only will save 144,000 people?? I mean, I'm for sure not one of those! Also why not 150,000?"  Santiago is a lively guy and really is straight forward with everything. He said what we teach just sits with him well and the other pastors really just confuse him and what they say doesn't sit right with him. 

We always go to the Branch leadership meetings and but yesterday they got a bit heated.  They proposed what could be called a "Branch Mission Plan".  The plan is supposed to help us turn the branch into a ward.  There has always been a big problem getting people to church in our branch.  Many people can't drive, and even if they can they don't have a vehicle.  There are some families that drive four cars just to pick up four car loads of people.  The branch presidency proposed that we rent out one of the Catholic cathedrals downtown to hold our meetings so that, we can get more walk-ins, people can bus to the church (which they can already do at the perfectly good LDS chapel we already have), and so that we can be more like all the other churches and have a place to meet downtown.  It did not go over well.  I think they had good intentions, just a bad plan.  The Primary President gave a powerful testimony about how when her family lived in Columbia they had a two and a half hour trek to get to church, and they same journey on the way back.  She spoke of how that had strengthened her testimony and the blessing her family had received from that sacrifice.  She said that the members don't need to sacrifice anywhere near as much, and that they would be greatly blessed for doing so.  They also threw down on the idea that it was impossible for some people to get to church without a car.  Kind of needed because it really is just an excuse.  I loved one thing the Relief Society President said, responding to the idea that we should move downtown just like all the other churches.  "You can't compare us to other churches because we are the only true one." It was a good point. I really just think one of the counselors got antied pretty bad from someone and was a little frazzled. Also side note, a chapel burned down somewhere north of here and they petitioned to build a new chapel and the church said no. Apparently the church won't be building more chapels in Michigan until activity goes up.... crazy.

Having an Elders Quorum president in our branch is SO nice especially when combined with the new format for third hour classes. Last Sunday was on the Sabbath day. It was a pretty fantastic lesson and was actually spiritually satisfying, not a very interesting topic but taught in such a way the spirit was there in abundance. For a portion of the lesson we read Genesis 2:1-3 and discussed why God rested on the 7th day. After all isn't he all powerful? Why would he take a rest? It was a really interesting discussion. 

February 5, 2018
fam,

We had another lesson with Carlos Rodriguez. A light refresher from last week was that he tried to anti us with basically the doctrine from our church, interesting. Our lesson was slightly eventful. Friday we got a few inches of snow and it was slightly cold. We knocked on their door and were graciously let in. Our last visit was on the porch. We sat down and were joined by his English speaking wife. We talked for a minute and he seemed pretty excited to see us. Out of no where this tiny Chiwawa charged around the corner and was just ferociously barking and jumping at my feet and ankles trying to bite. Never have I seen a more furious dog in my life. I stuck my boot out to separate me from this demon and it kept jumping at me trying to get around the shoe. In my head I was thinking this wasn't ideal. First off, I'll never let a dog actually bite me and this thing was going for the kill. The wife kindly added that the dogs were nice and never bite but in my head I was thinking how much of a shame it would be if I actually had to kick this dog to stop it from doing the very thing it "never does." Small chew marks where left on the toes of my boots, but it's fine. Once we said a prayer and that dog was carried off things calmed down a little bit. We actually were able to teach a little, emphasis on a little. His understanding of the Bible is actually impressively accurate, some false doctrine but nothing so wild. He misquoted a few things but the doctrine was near correct. He ranted a little about tithing and how churches nowdays are businesses. Impressively he knew and understood the doctrine of what Jesus did during the three days between his death and Resurrection. The understanding of those three days between the death and resurrection comes from like one verse in the Bible, a doctrine clarified by virtue of the restoration, but still impressive. Side note apparently you can buy faith in other churches, that bothered him deeply. It was a good visit but he didn't read, won't let us teach much, kind of antis, so we really can't do much there and I'm sure the bite marks will buff out.

Tuesday was trade off day. I went with Elder Magalei again and it was a decent trade off. We did some good service at meals on wheels and had a few good lessons. Nothing too crazy. When you've been companions with everyone in the district already being someone's companion just feels like an extended trade off. 

Sunday church was canceled. We woke up to 7 inches of new snow which was pretty, but unfortunate. We went through our studies and right as we were almost ready to leave we got the cancellation text. With that much snow our travel times are significantly increased. The Ford fusion preforms so much better in the snow than the Malibu did. All wheel drive is superior in every way to the front wheel drive the Malibu had. 

Wednesday we had a really good lesson with the Sarmientos. Our last visit Daniel said he wasn't ready to ask God whether it was true or not, but he consistently reads and really is fun to teach. We teach something and we obviously do our best but he'll check his understanding by making analogies that teach the same principle that on the spot are better than the stuff we to bring to lessons. It's pretty impressive and really helps our teaching skills. The lesson was really spiritually powerful and I think he now is way better equipped to get an answer from God. In that same lesson his wife, who normally is really quiet and seems to focus more on the care of their two year old, opened up and talked about how she had been reading and asked God and immediately got a really strong answer of the truthfulness of the BoM. We talked about baptism but couldn't set a date quite yet. I suspect they'll be on a solid date pretty soon.