We are just that much closer to the
end ladies and gentlemen...and I'm still not sure on how I truly feel about it.
I've just sort of slipped into a sense of casual neglect, a passive-aggressive shout
out to the way I felt when I was going off to the mission: neither nervous or
excited, convinced that the future was more of an idea than a reality.
Then...boom! It hit me.
..that was two years ago, now I'm
just waiting for it to sink in...but it's like trying to put a cookie-cutter on
a piece of memory-foam, it leaves a mark but never lasts.
I guess you could say that's a good
thing though, I have a built in anti-baggy-defense-system.
We should call ADT Security
Systems, this could be a huge breakthrough...
This week that just passed by was
especially good because so many things happened that seemed to be out of the
ordinary in my life and in the lives of my investigators.
As far as they go, here's the
update:
Dayna: She's ready to be baptized
on Saturday! She's 18 years old and is studying at a certain "underground
association of English Teachers" (the very same that I got lost looking
for with Elder Alvarez a year and a half ago) called Fumbal. We have been
teaching her in the house of the Gordillo Family, who have been helping her a
lot. She told us that ever since the death of her father she had been an
Atheist....but her Mother had always encouraged her to go to a church and draw
nearer to God. She lives currently with her Aunt who is SUPER catholic...but on
Wednesday we had an awesome lesson with her about baptism and the need to have
someone holding the proper priesthood authority. Dayna then told us at the end
of the lesson that she had received the answer that the church is true. She
said that she could feel that it was.
That, in and of itself brightened
my day more than anything.
On Sunday she came to church with
her mother, who we later found out is an inactive member of our church....and
she was thrilled that her daughter was going to be baptized too.
Jorge and Evelyn: they are making
plans to be able to be married in July so that Evelyn and her 8 year-old son
will be baptized together later next month. They are doing great and were
engaged yesterday.
Marlon and Andrea: they are about
the same too, they didn't come to church on Sunday but they are progressing
(slowly but surely!) Andrea has been reading and praying every day since we
started teaching them.
That's where we are at right now
with our investigators.
Life is doing great.
We also had an awesome conference
with Elder Jose Alonzo of the 70. He did a tour of our mission and pumped
everyone up to be able to go and baptize every last person in their areas. He
talked about the "desire to baptize" that it wasn't just something
that we had to think about...but that we had to want more than anything else in
the whole world. That we should ask for referrals from EVERYONE, and that as we
help invite people to come unto Christ, that that desire and that light will
help them to resolve their own errors and repent for their sins on their own.
The next day he was with us in our
Mission Council with all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. he
helped us to have the vision to plan to baptize WEEKLY (or even, daily). I
loved all the stuff he talked about, and the saddest thing to me was that I
won't be in the mission long enough to see all of the results of the
conference...
Oh well, that's life.
Have a great week everyone, I love
you all!
-Elder Monson
A thought I liked from Personal
Study: "The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as
President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is
not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out
of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of
men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty. (Sixty-first Semiannual
General Conference of the Church, Monday, October 6, 1890, Salt Lake City,
Utah. Reported in Deseret Evening News, October 11, 1890, p. 2.)
It matters not who lives or who
dies, or who is called to lead this Church, they have got to lead it by the
inspiration of Almighty God. If they do not do it that way, they cannot do it
at all. …" -Wilford Woodruf, Offical
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