We started our week on wednesday with a zone meeting in "cruz del eje". Me and my comp call it "cruz de lejos" (lejos means far) because it takes almost 3 hours to get there. Not fun for us or our wallets, but the zone meetings are always fun because we get to see a lot of old friends. We also have made a new tradition of tie trading with Elder Taylor from Arizona after every zone meeting. We go to his apartment after every zone meeting and it gets intense, but he usually gives us sweet offers that we cannot refuse. The tie collection has gotten really good lately. That night, when we got back we went straight to a "family home evening" that we had with claudio and fátima. Just in case you don't remember claudio is the one who is a member and he loves the church and goes almost every week but fátima still isn't baptized because they aren´t married. We had another real good lesson with them, fàtima feels the spirit a lot every time, she cried again and said she would come to church but she didn't come this sunday...its hard sometimes because the lessons are always so good with them but the progress is slow.
4/20 was a crazy day..we got slightly in trouble with the law. To provide background information, on tuesday night we had no appointments, so we decided to take advantage of the time and go pay the rent for our pension. It was our first time trying to do this because our mission president had just signed the new contract with the lady and given me a huge envelope with her name and address and told me to take it to her. I didn't know her and I had never been to her street before but I didn't think it would be a big deal. It was raining that night so me and my comp both had big black coats on, and he had a beanie. It was dark already so I guess I understand how we may have appeared kind of sketchy. Anyway we arrived at the house, clapped a few times and nobody came out. We were about to leave when a car rolled up with 2 little kids and a lady, I tried to explain to the lady that I wanted to pay for the apartment and she acted like she had no idea what I was talking about. She said she wasn´t the mother of the kids but that the mom would be there in the morning. So I said Okay thanks, left, and forgot all about it.
Now on thursday morning we decided to go back and try and pay for it again. We were just wearing our regular white shirts and tie, looked like completely normal missionaries. We get to the house and I clap and a different lady sticks her head out and says "wait a second im changing" so we waited about 5 to 10 mins, and the next thing we know there is a police officer standing next to us. He starts asking us a ton of questions, and the lady comes out to talk to us too. The officer said that he got a call tuesday night from this lady saying that there were two foreigners hanging out in front of her house with a suspicious envelope, and that she thinks we want to kidnap her children. She said her kids were up all tuesday night crying because they were so scared. I was like look lady all im trying to do is give you 2000 pesos and leave, but she wouldn't take the money. She said we would have to wait till her mom gets back from vacation in a different country. The whole situation was so ridiculous I was actually getting kind of angry because they made a whole huge deal out of nothing. I did feel a bit bad that her kids were crying all night though, if thats even true. Everything turned out alright I guess, But I think its safe to say that that lady won't be getting baptized anytime soon.
Thursday night was actually quite good. I was super annoyed about the experience we had that morning, but I tried to focus because we had a lesson with Kenti, the girl who was supposed to be getting baptized this sunday. She has been pretty excited about the church, she likes it, but she saw us in the street the other day and said that she had a dream. In the dream she was "in church, and all the members of the church were laying eggs out of their mouths into their hands, and then that one sister was trying to kill kentis daughter emma saying that she needs to be with God." Not a good dream. She told us that she wasn't sure anymore about the church. Well when preparing for the lesson the first thing I thought of was the Joseph Smith history, the part where he prays for the first time and first satan attacks him, and tries to stop him praying. We read that with Kenti, and I told her that satan knew joseph smith was going to be a really important person because he was going to restore the church. I told Kenti that satan also knows that she is an important person, thats why he sent you that dream and is trying so hard to stop you joining the true church. She could relate really well to that story. I also read her one in 2 Timothy 1: which says: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
So I said "how did that dream make you feel?" she said bad. I said that spirit doesn't come from God, but from the devil. And I said "how do you feel when you are with us, or when you are at church"? She said she felt peace. That sounds like a sound mind to me, and that is a test that we can use always to tell if something comes from God or not. If we don't feel peace, it probably isn't right. If we are scared, it probably comes from the devil.
Also I think we can all apply the experience of Joseph Smith in our own lives. For example we had a terrible morning on thursday, because satan wanted to distract me from having a good lesson that night. Also I remember almost 100% when I was younger getting up and going to church on sunday mornings was always really hard, because my shoes would be lost, or me and my brothers would fight or we would all get mad at each other in the car on the way there for dumb stuff. That always happens because satan wants to stop us from having good experiences....but when Joseph was attacked by satan, he didn't give up, he kept praying, and he trusted in God. And look what happened.
Lets not give up when the trials come our way...if we can carry on a little further, following the spirit, we will get to the blessings. If you can't feel the spirit, just ask for it and do the things you know invite it.
Anyways, Friday was a good day. We got invited to do some service for Gimenas mom (investigator who speaks english). She had this big tree stump she wanted out, all she had were two pick axes put we hewed it down in no time. The roots were the hard part, there were a ton of them buried deep under the dirt, so we just pounded the ground with the pick axes for a while, then dug the roots out with our hands. It was kinda fun actually, I felt like I was harvesting beets or something. That night we also decided to visit some people who were old investigators. Old because we taught them a long time ago and they didn't progress (although they did go to church one time) and old because they are 83 and 82. Oscar and Eulogia are their names, we passed by just to invite them to church and suprisingly they said yes. We hadn't visited them in over a month because they didn't seem to interested in changing. But sometimes people just need time, we will see what happens.
Saturday was a normal day, a lot of door knocking but I can report that we had perhaps the biggest lunch of my mission, it was with some less active members that our branch president had us visit. We had done a family night with them on monday, they really had a good time and we did too and we were invited to have lunch with them on saturday. They made a huge "Asado", there was unlimited steaks and sausages and potato salads plus a couple other types of salad. It was so good I haven't eaten that much in a long time. That night we also had ward council, and bought some chlorine to throw in the baptismal font. It supposed clears up the water, which we really need because it comes from the river and is always dark green.
Sunday was pretty good in church we had 3 investigators, mauricio and oscar and eulogia. (they are mauricios grandparents) so it was kinda cool having a little family there. We had to pick up oscar and his wife in a taxi because he can't walk. It takes him several minutes just to rise from his chair. They seemed like they had a good time. There was no baptism in the end, kenti couldn´t make it to church but we are confident that it will be next sunday. That night we were quite frustrated with the missed baptism and all, we weren't feeling too excited to go knock doors on a sunday night but we did, and found some really interesting/prepared people. One guy who has had a book of mormon on his bedside table for the past 12 years, he said he reads it now and then and really likes it, but has never been to church. His name is victor.
Monday we decided to visit some more old investigators from the area book...I also found a guy named franco in there who had been baptized a few months ago. We decided to visit him, and when we got there his 2 sisters were waiting outside because they were locked out and they were waiting for franco to get home. They said it was francos birthday. When he arrived we wished him happy birthday, he was really surprised that we had shown up on his birthday and he asked how we knew. I said we didn't, we just saw your name in our book and thought you needed a visit. He let us in and told us the reason he hasn't been coming to church lately is because a member told him he should come with a white shirt and tie to church, and franco said he doesn't have one. I told him that its not true, that we can go to church in whatever clothing as long as it is our best. We just use our best to show respect for God, and that if we don't have a tie it doesn't matter because God looks on the heart. He agreed with that and said he would come to church this Sunday. We also talked a lot with his sister and ended up leaving a book of mormon with her, she isn't a member it was really good.
Today we haven't done much because its raining and cold! We were gonna go hike a mountain in a city that is a 30 min bus ride away, but the weather ruined that plan so we have just been hanging out here.
Thats it! Love you all, hope all is well.
Elder Christensen
The tree before it was cut out.
Us with one of the pickaxes
Oscar, his wife, and mauri.
Tie trades with elder Taylor.
No comments:
Post a Comment