September 4, 2017

fam,

I think we turned the tide on the Aguilars. It didn't feel right to extend a baptismal invitation but we had a really really good lesson. One thing that is hard to do but so worth it is to have lessons in members homes with investigators. 

Members homes often have a really good spirit about them that helps our lessons. We need as much help as we can get. We invited the Aguilars to the Westons home and watched the 20 minute restoration video and read some really good scriptures. The spirit was really strong as we read through some of the parts we did. We focused on repentance and receiving answers to our questions. Part of the lesson we read through 2 Nephi 26:23-30. 

23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness.

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden.

29 He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfareof Zion.

30 Behold, the Lord hath forbidden this thing; wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. Wherefore, if they should have charity they would not suffer the laborer in Zion to perish.

For the first time in a little time I think something actually touched Gilda during the lesson. After we shared our testimonies on Jesus Christ and the gift of repentance we offered a kneeling prayer where we invited Natividad to offer the prayer and to ask if the BoM is true. As we knelt and Natividad offered an amazingly sincere prayer you could just feel the love of the savior as he humbly asked. In church the next Sunday Gilda had Natividad bring Leo to Primary which seemed like an attempt to remove distractions from church time. Leo who is 5 would normally stay with his mom.  

On Tuesday we had a really funny lesson with a member. We are teaching her sister and we visited with her so that we could tell her what we wanted to do with the lesson later that week so that she would be ready. After we covered what we planned for that later lesson we read through the Joseph Smith Testimony that is right before where the BoM actually starts. About mid way through she stops and kind of solemnly say "Elders I have a question." She then unfolds this huge story about how when she was living in one place and then just completely leaves all of her possessions because she was bored. She said she loaded some things she liked into her car and drove to another city leaving a house and a car to see if she would like the new city. She left everything because obviously if she didn't like it she could just come back. About a month later she decided her old home was too far away so didn't bother with anything there. Fast forward another few years the same thing happened again and she just picked up a few things and moves to Michigan. She told us nothing has ever happened to her and it's been like 50 years and she is a little embarrassed and a little scared to go back and see what has happened to the two houses she left. Some people ha ha. With a chuckle she asked if she was right with God. We told her we didn't have any authority to say anything on that and directed her to the branch president. 

In our zone conference last week we heard that Elder Snow of the quorum of the Seventy is coming to our mission for a few days which will be fun. President Brennan has been getting us really ready. As assignment we have been told to do a good amount of things in preparation including listening to each talk he has given at the various General Conferences he has spoken at.

 We also had a really good Family home evening a returning less active family that just moved to our side. The Westons were with us and we had a pretty good lesson. 

At the end we were eating some arroz con leche and we were talking with the wife about their goals. She mentioned she wanted to get sealed to her husband who is also returning less active, so hopefully we can jump start this goal with them! The only problem is that they have a kid and both work and their work schedule like so many Hispanics here which is that one parent watches the kids until the other gets out of work and the other goes in and they switch. We'll make it work.

We had a lot of success street contacting this week. Our area has like one consistently Spanish populated area and we spent like 5 hours walking around and talking with people. We picked up more people in one day with return appointments than anything I've done before. Hopefully something comes out of all that work. Street contacting is better in every way than door knocking, but there isn't a whole lot in this area where we can actually do that well. The only true good way to contact is through the members.

29 July 2017 Service, Soup, Sabbath, Supplemental Food, and Several types of conversion

fam,

Not a whole lot has happened since Monday. It's the end of the transfer so the usual Saturday P day.

The week started off on bikes. Our P day afternoon we biked around a lot and did an hour of unplanned service for this couple we met. They were shoveling dirt so we jumped off our bikes and asked if they wanted help. They kind of laughed at us a little and told us "this won't be one of your victories we are (insert religion) and you won't convert us," so we offered service and they pointed out our white shits, but we persisted and they agreed. It was pretty great, they were a little nervous at first but after a few minutes we were all good. We came back the next day and shoveled dirt for two hours. Their lawn has these weird dips and holes so we had a lot of work to do. We moved around 5 square yards of dirt to contour their lawn. It felt really good to do some less typical missionary work for a few hours. 

Wednesday Elder Rencher woke up sick so we took a slow day. We had a few hours of finding mid day that we just cut out and he took a nap the whole time. Our apartment is small so there isn't much I could have done. I basically read through the scriptures until I got bored and took a nap as well. Later that night we went to a member's home for dinner. They gave us a soup consisting of beans, eggs, green bananas, and pig skin. It wasn't very appetizing.  

We had a good lesson with a less active part member family. We talked about the Sabbath day. Somehow the whole Seventh-Day Adventist doctrine stuff went over my head when we planned for the lesson. He has never said he was an Adventist but has mentioned Ellen White a few times and I just totally forgot. We walked in had a good chat and we brought up the Sabbath day after the opening prayer and he went on a huge spiel about preparing for the Sabbath on Friday and doing nothing on Sunday.  Adventists are often some of the most devout people when it comes to keeping the Sabbath day holy. We spent the whole lesson on why we worship on Sunday. It went well, and we finished with the fact that all of his questions rely on the question of if Joseph Smith truly was a prophet. The introduction to the Book of Mormon is really good, specifically the last two paragraphs. All objections to our church rest on whether he was or wasn't a prophet, the proof of that is the BoM. If you gain that witness of the Holy Ghost that the BoM is true then you learn a few things, including that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer and that Joseph Smith was the first prophet of this dispensation. Reading, pondering, and praying are key to that process. Pedro has started to read, which an important step in the right direction. 

Carmen is doing really well. She said she is coming this Sunday. We had two really good lessons the last few days with her. At the most recent lesson, we had a great member come out with us. It's sometimes a little nervous bringing new people out who we have never taken out but it turned out really well. The member teaches the gospel doctrine class and like most of the members in our branch is a convert, and better yet around the same age as Carmen. We also taught her the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. We focused on the sacrament and taught out of 3 Nephi 18. She said she wants to come to church and asked if we ever fast. We obviously said yes and explained a little about what is and she asked us to fast with her to help her find a way to stop working on Sundays. It was pretty awesome. The member talked about how her job didn't let her come to church and after a few weeks of praying, looking, and fasting she found a way. 

On the topic of bringing new members out to lessons. We brought someone to one of our lessons with the Aguilar family who doesn't speak Spanish because we wanted to focus a little more with Aldo and the BoM. It was a good lesson but at the end it got slightly side-tracked. We talked about some of the BoM stories and she went off telling about Nephi cutting Laban's head off, Ammon cutting people's arms off which devolved into various Spongebob stories. 

We pulled it back into prayer somehow but only after a significant detour. 

The Aguilars are very interesting. They have definitely become socially converted and aren't nearly as solidly spiritually converted to the church. Someone told me for someone to join our church they need at least 2 of the 3 different types of conversions, which includes spiritual, social, and secular. They are at the moment loving church, love the people, living all the commandments, reading their scriptures everyday but struggle to recognize the spirit's influence in their lives. Our plan is to set them up with dinners with specific members so that they can go and the members can share their conversion stories. So far we have one dinner set up. 

Today we are going on a bike ride to some Indian graves and that's about it, we have like no money for the rest of the month. 

Also, I almost forgot. Our ward had a picnic last week as well as the English ward so our church's freezer was filled with food. They were like, "just give it to the missionaries." So much free food. That is how to make missionaries happy, outside of solid referrals and good lessons. 

5/1/17

Last week I left off that we were about to have pupusas, they were great. The members here are always giving us great food, and we are getting fed really well. Based on our branch's small size we get fed by the same people almost every week or ever other week, which I'd imagine is a pretty big burden for some but we are so grateful. We had a lesson on trade offs with one of the recent converts who was talking about the many miracles that have come because of what she does for us. 

I found a true hobby shop near our apartment. We stopped by on P-day and just looked around. Didn't really do much there, but bought some materials to build a blowgun and some darts.

On exchanges we taught a lesson with some of the investigators in the district leader's zone. One of the lessons was with a young couple who are planning on getting baptized pretty soon but are living together out of wedlock. We talked with them on the Word of Wisdom, but about half way through the lesson we started talking about their plans on baptism and living the law of chastity. Turns out they decided on getting married which is super cool.

Natividad and his family are still doing well. We set a new date and committed them to continue reading the scriptures and praying to figure out what they should do. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, and a bunch of people shared testimonies on receiving answers to prayers and how much their life has been blessed by the gospel. It's so cool that people are being led by the spirit to share certain things that directly answer the questions of our investigators. 

Last week we had three really powerful lessons with the Agelar family. The Westons were able to come out to two of them, and are such a big help. As of right now my language skills are at the level that I can teach and not a whole lot more. Sustained small talk is really hard, so it's really nice to have the Westons with us because while they help teach they connect really well with everyone. In those three lessons the family expressed that they weren't quite ready to be baptized but are doing what they can to be ready. In those lessons we could see that they were feeling the soft comfort of the spirit as we taught and discussed the things we were talking about, which was super rewarding to see. Jose their son is really opening up to us and stays in the lessons. Aldo is tough though because he just wants to play with his 3 year old brother. The mother-in-law isn't on date, but she is a much tougher nut to crack. She will just leave lessons and not come back.  I'm not sure what's going on there, but we always invite her back. Our branch is kind of awesome. Their family, like I said, came to church and were early and I talked with them for a little bit. They sat down and a few members all swarmed them. This is their third week in a row and the members are so excited. They are being welcomed in so well.

We had two other investigators at church: German, and Tony. German is a boss and like I said last week is really sensitive to the spirit. He was really enjoying church, but I could see he was slightly uncomfortable. There is a good talk by Gordon B Hinckley in which he talks about how new members need three things, one of them being a friend because they need someone they can ask questions and have guidance because Mormons are weird (paraphrasing). This is so true. German has said that he feels slightly out of place because there aren't that many people his age. He is so awesome though and already has a strong Christian foundation of Christ, the power of repentance, the bible, and has even told us that he really believes the Book of Mormon truly is scripture and that Joseph Smith was a prophet called by God. The spirit has testified these things in his heart and he knows they are true, but he just needs to be socially converted. Members are vital to this stage for all people who are looking at our church honestly and openly.

One thing I love about all the scriptures is that one of the most repeated ideas is that we can receive answers from God. James 1:5 is pretty clear and that's what we really try to emphasize with people. Think, ponder, pray. Anyone can receive guidance when they ask for it. We had a lesson with an English speaking women we knocked into, where she told us a story that she was about to be evicted and lost all governmental support and that everything was about to come down on her. She told us that she prayed all night for help and in the morning she opened up the Bible and the verse she opened up to said something about "trust in the lord and he will protect you". The spirit told her and testified to her heart that everything was going to be okay, so she trusted the Lord. She said she sees people struggle and she watches as they turn to everyone else except God, and they really lose out of the support they could have if they humbled themselves and asked. We had a great lesson with her, and it was one of those times when you wish you didn't have to pass her off to the English elders. 

Bienvenido is doing alright. We had a lesson with him on Sunday. We talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy and what that means. We shared the 10 commandments and a scripture in Isaiah that I can't really remember the location. He committed to go to church, but shared how tough it is at home. Apparently he is getting a lot of anti there and doesn't feel like he can do much in that apartment because of that, but also said that he has been sneaking in reading the Book of Mormon when they sleep though. We got some great news though that he might be getting a new apartment at the end of this month so he is going to be much more able to meet with us which will be great. 

Lastly the other elders are teaching an interesting guy we found knocking outside a member's trailer. Jose told us he had a dream where he saw three levels of heaven and saw his wife in the highest one, saw Jesus talking with his wife about him, and was led around by an angel in a white robe. Turns out he had another dream and told the other elders about it. He was talking with an angel in his dream and the angel told him that the Elders were telling him the truth and that it was the true church. Elder Rencher, Waters, and Barrows were pretty excited and then Jose said the Mormon church is the true church, but then he said that there are more than one true church out there. His reasoning was that if there was only one true church there wouldn't be space for everyone. I love that that is his reasoning haha. You meet a bunch of interesting people when you spend time knocking doors and trying to actually talk with them.