Week 87: Apostles and Miracles...‏

The weeks just seem to be going by faster and faster....I can't even start to believe that this week has already ended....and yet, here we are! The good news is that I recovered quickly from my previously mentioned illness. It was nothing a good nap and some Cup Noodles couldn’t fix. By the next day I was back into action and ready to go and conquer the world.

And...in a way, we did just that.

On Tuesday we had a companionship study with the assistants, which was very interesting. We talked about the state of the zone and what we were going to do to make sure that everyone stayed excited and happy...because of everyone in our zone 3 people go home this change and 2 next change. 

So...that's fun. After that we went out to the district meetings that we had in the Stake Center. I stuck with "Distrito Utatlan" and we talked about retention, and what we would do to strengthen the recent converts that hadn't been coming to church in every area. We were actually able to see a lot of good feedback to that, as the retention in the Zone jumped up 30%. This last week they baptized 4 in that district, Hermana Rosio and her two children in Utatlan, and Amarillis in Monte Verde...which was two families!

We are seeing some great miracles in our zone.

Another highlight was that on Wednesday we had a conference with Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the 12 apostles. It was truly a blessing to be able to hear his voice and be able to know what his revelation was for the missionary work here in Guatemala. He talked a lot about how the majority of people here have faith in Jesus Christ already...but they don’t understand the importance of the Atonement, and the key points in the doctrine of Christ's earthly ministry. How the people here need to know that they are descendants of the house of Israel and the literal seed of Joseph, Ephriam and Manasses. He expressed to us the importance of memorizing 10 scriptures in the Book of Mormon and 10 in the New Testament in Spanish to be able to quote in lessons. How the Book of Mormon  teaches about the atonement of Christ better than any other book.

I felt so much power when he, himself started to quote scriptures and the very words of Christ, "I am the resurrection and the life," and how studied he truly was in the scriptures.

It was a fantastic multi-mission conference, and I really felt the effect during the whole week. On divisions with Elder Warth and Elder Vijil I also saw a lot of miracles in my area and also in theirs. We have been focusing a lot more on trying to testify as much as we can.... explaining doctrinal topics with as much clarity as possible.

In doing so I have just felt liberated....I love to testify to everyone that I know that this is the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth. I feel that the more that I say it to people the better I feel and the more progress I have seen personally.

So that was fun. Things are great here I love you all and hope you have a great week!