Hi Everyone,
This week has been trying, but what are a few trials in the life of a servant of God? Right?
On p-days I love to write letters to my mission buddies and members and menos activos (less actives) and converts of mine that I can send through the mission mail system. I love cleaning, especially in this house, because there are projects I can undertake and I'm finding all kinds of useful things and I feel all accomplished after I finish. It's great. I also wash and mend clothes and I love reading and working on some writing projects that I've undertaken during my time in this nation. Basically productive things that I never would have dreamt of doing before the mission. Today I deposited tithing money, paid the rent, bought a new mattress for me, (pictures next week.) and went out to eat at a nifty little restaurant called "Up the stairs", (almost like being in the states again. It was great. The food was so-so...great for the mission though ) and did WORK in our work-out room. Really it's the spare room we have but I've been cleaning the snot out of it today (not literally that would just be gross....)
Alright, so winter here is a lot more mild than in Montevideo
and in the states. I really feel like I'm in spring. It's been raining
for the past couple of days so it's been nippy but really not that cold
at all. It was certainly colder in Montevideo because of the ocean
effects.
Yes, elder Xavier and I balance each other really well. Everyone says so and we agree so it works nicely. And almost this entire zone has bikes. The areas are pretty big and spread out so we all bike around. In actuality, I think ours is the only area that uses bikes. Granted they're already pretty hammered because the other missionaries have NOT taken care of them which is obnoxious. I had to replace one of the tubes already and the brakes are nearly shot. If I have any more problems, we may just give up on them and store them in the house because I don't have the money to put into them. It would suck though because I love being able to get across town in 5 minutes instead of a half hour. I even ride around in my trench coat (it was rainy for a couple of days) I felt so british.
The work is going. The branch is going. We're actually doing pretty
well. The attendance these last 3 weeks are some of the highest in a
while and we're sitting around a solid 20 to 25 members each time. It's
great to see things getting better. It was actually what I fasted about.
The Lord told me during sacrament meeting that things were going well
and that I just needed to be patient and keep working. It was rather
reassuring. My calling is going great. My comp does not really have a
calling. He just runs back up and helps me teach everything. His last
comp did all of the teaching before, but I said heck no. You're teaching Sunday school with me. We do have a ward clerk but he works in a town
that's about 100 km away and so he only comes in for the weekends which
means we get as much done during that time as we can. I have no idea how
long the Crawfords have been making the drive but something like 2 or 3
months. That should be ending here pretty soon. And yes, the couple is
from cerro in Montevideo and they will be moving up here if they get
assigned to our mission. That's president Heaton's plan for them.
We've had two notable finds this last week. The first involves the Arruè family....yea...... the dad is an absolute control freak and cuts us off all the time which makes teaching hard. He's a less active member of about 15 years but still thinks he knows more about everything than us. Granted, he's a very loving father and only wants the very best for his children. I think he's a little disappointed with his lot in life because 3 of his 6 children have learning disabilities but I freakin love them all. We're teaching them and trying to get them to understand the importance of what we do. Luis, who is 15, loves to read and is super intelligent but his dad demands a lot of him and you can see that it irritates him. As such, he becomes embarrassed with him. Just family things I guess. They'll work it out.
Anyways, dad was a little surprised when we gave a baptismal date in the first lesson. We've been instructed to do so by my mission president since the day I've been in the mission. As such, I didn't take any crap and just asked him if he believed that the men we work with and receive instruction from are called of God, including the prophet... we'll see what happens.
After that, we have Marcelo and Tito. Marcelo has been in prison once but has great faith in God and has interest in what we have to share. They were a reference from a less active family. Tito, 8, just wants to get baptized already. He's been to church a number of times with the family that gave the reference but the dad works a lot so we're still trying to figure out how to meet with them consistently. There are a lot of things in the works that have the potential to be miracles and I'm just excited to see what we can do with the Lord's time.
I spent three days studying all of Romans 8 and I really enjoyed it. Elder V recommended it in actuality. I just love studying the scriptures! You should check out Romans 8:38-39 and 2 Nephi 1:15.
We had a great lesson yesterday. We found a family of girls that is
completely inactive about my 4th or 5th day here and they really haven't
been showing progress....well they showed up to church yesterday with
their mom who is from out of town. I bore my testimony yesterday BTW and
it rocked. I realized that I'm gonna hit a year soon and it made me
sad. I really do love being a missionary and testifying and teaching and
seeing the gospel change the lives of people that I've grown to love.
Anyway, we passed by later to talk with them and I shared Romans
8:14-17. And we started talking about eternal life and natalia (30 and
living with her boyfriend) made some wise crack about her not going to
be able to find her family in heaven. and then I asked if she thought
she could live with them forever and began to testify of the importance
of the temple and the priesthood and it got very quite in the room and I
realized that I love them all like my sisters and that one of my tasks
in this area is to assure that they all go to the temple to become
sealed. I commited them right then and there to do it and the spirit was
so strong it was unbelievable. The words are doing this no justice at
all beause I'm short on time, but we're gonna do it. I saw it in their
eyes and I felt it in my heart. The Lord wants them in the temple and I
want them in eternal families. I love this work. I love this gospel. I
get trunky and tired sometimes but I'll be damned before I deny my love
for this work and for the savior. (NO mom, that was not swearing. I'm a
preacher AND I'm talking about salvation here. :D) I hope the spirit can
relay to you what I felt because these words have short changed it. I
am weak unto words, like unto those who have gone before me.
Elder Ender Simpson
Leveler, make level the way for the righteous!
No comments:
Post a Comment