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| Sun over Popocatépetl |
April 8, 2013
Soooooo much has happened this week!!! So we really need to dive right
in if we don't want to be at this computer all day....and trust me i got
stuffff ta dooooz.
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| Some gorgeous but sketchy path we walked down on a 30 minute "shortcut" |
So like i have been saying we really teach a lot of less active
members in our ward and we don't have a lot of investigators. So this
week Elder P. and i made it a goal to mention that in our prayers,
more that we would be able to find the people that God has prepared to
hear the Gospel.....soooooo we have about 8 new investigators this week
with 3 of them being families and more coming!! God has totally blessed
us this week in that regard and we found out that we have so many new
investigators we can't even meet with all of them this week so we have
to plan appointments in 2 weeks, thus where the title of this post comes
from. We were also able to help a family who is struggling with the
passing of a close friend and boyfriend of one of the daughters. They
were catholic and went to their church trying to find some kind of
comfort but the minister just told them that the boyfriend was stuck in
limbo and he was lost. They have a cousin who is an older lady in our
ward and she invited them to an activity where we talked with the family
and taught them about the plan of salvation, life after death, and how God knows each of us personally
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| Elder Hamm and his club |
and wants us to return. Then we were
able to give them all blessings...here's the interesting part. haha. So
there are 4 members of the family and it was Elder P. and i, the
bishop, and the first counselor. Elder P. blessed the daughter,
then the first councilor stepped in and my mind started
calculating......now we all know how absolutely awful i am at math so it
took me a bit but i realized that there were 4 of us and 4 of them so
either someone was going to be blessing twice....or i was gonna have to
put on some big boy pants. The dad was last and i didn't even know if he
was going to get a blessing, i was thinking hey he is tough he doesn't
need one....but then he stood up and sat in the chair. The bishop looked
at me and motioned with his hand in my direction. I turned around and
kindly informed him that the woman behind me was indeed a woman and
therefore couldn't give blessings. But he of course was motioning to me.
I stepped over and looked at Elder P. who gave me a look of
confidence...mixed with the emotion a parent has sending their child off
on a bike with two wheels for the first time knowing they are going to
fall. He told me what to say but i couldn't repeat it now if i wanted
to. The dad's name was very hispanic and very long the likes of which i
can also not recall. But as i approached this brother and placed my
hands upon his head the words began to flow. I was able to say what the
spirit wanted and i didn't know half the things i was saying. The spirit
was truly speaking through me and i gained a testimony of the gift of
tongues for sureee. Then later that week i also had the opportunity to
do divisions which means my companion goes with a brother from the ward
and i do the same, meaning i have to teach a lesson by myself. it was a
little bit hard at first but sure enough the spirit came to the rescue
and i was able to teach a lesson filled with the spirit. This week we
alsooo had General Conference!!....oh i know, so did everyone else, but i
bet you watched it in English! No i'm kidding, luckily there was the
stake technical guy and he hooked all the americans up with English
conference for 2 sessions on Saturday and the 2 sessions on Sunday. That
being said, priesthood session is another story. We tried and tried to
get the session in English but it just wasn't gonna happen so we had to
watch it in Spanish.....yah that was nottt enlightening haha but luckily
halfway through we found the urim and thummim in the form of English
subtitles and we finished conference understanding what the heck was
going on. Fun fact the translators are translating directly from the
words but not with the same emotion. When people with emotion speak the
translator doesn't change haha and then at one point he was getting
choked up with the spirit while the speaker remained calm. Just
interesting.
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| Elder Hamm and Elder P with a lion cub |
So this
Pday we got to go on an Africam Safari which was actually really cool.
it was like 20 dollars a person and we got to see all kinds of crazy
animals, the likes of which i will include with pictures. But it was a
really fun day today.
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| The Crew |
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| Flamingos |
Lastly,
the spiritual thought for the week. This week's spiritual thought comes
from conference which i'm sure you all watched but whether you did or did
not, just hear me out. When i was coming out on the mission, to be
honest i didn't know what the heck i was doing. i didn't really WANT to
go, but i really knew it was what god wanted and what i SHOULD do. I
would at this time like to speak to anyone who is facing a similar
situation in their life. Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about belief in his
talk and mentioned the story of a young man. This young man said to him
Elder Holland, i don't KNOW that the things in the gospel are true, i
just believe them and WANT them to be true. He went on to say that this
is not a problem, in fact this is one of the greatest starting places
you could ask for. he says "Even if you can no more desire to believe,
let thy desire work in you until it is belief." When i came out on the
mission, i didn't know it was the right thing, i didn't beliveeee that
it was the right thing...but i had the desire to follow the commandments
of God and like the story of the man with the seizing child, said
"Lord, help thou my unbelief." We don't know why we do some things in
the church or in life, we only know that we have been asked by righteous
prophets of God and church leaders and if we can just have the desire
to believe, we will be able to come to a knowledge. He finishes saying
"Fan the flame of your faith. All things are possible to those who
believe." Hold fast to what you know and pray that more knowledge will
come with experience through walking in the light. I know this is a true
concept because i have seen it work in my life. I know it, and you can
know it too. You only needs desire.
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