August 19, 2013
Hey family,
Well this week has been pretty normal,
as usual. We have just been working with our investigators, and helping out the
ward here.
So here is a cool lesson that we had
with one of the families that we´re still teaching. Their names are H and K,
and I think that I’ve mentioned them to you. So we had a lesson with them on
Wednesday. They have now been to church 9 times, and are progressing slowly
towards the baptism. So we were teaching them, and we watched the 1-hour Joseph
Smith movie, which was pretty cool; almost like a little FHE. But anyway, after
the movie, we started talking to them, and I got the impression to ask them,
¨Do you really have the desire to know that the things that we´ve taught are
true?” It was a pretty straightforward question, but I felt like I should have
asked it. They responded with something like ¨Yeah... but it’s hard to believe,
because the doctrine in the LDS church is so different from the doctrine in the
other churches that we´ve visited. But yes, we have the DESIRE to believe.” So
this was the prefect moment, and I just opened up my Book of Mormon to Alma 32
where it says ¨even if you can no more than desire to believe, let this desire
work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion
of my words.” You know, the verse in Alma 32:27.
Anyways, their response kind of shocked
me. They just sat there for a while, and finally said, "Wow, it seems like
that’s talking directly to me.” Kind of a cool moment. That opened the door to
a cool lesson about faith. It was a really cool lesson, and although they
haven’t said exactly that they want to be baptized, I can see that they are
progressing.
So the next day, we had a big meeting
with President Collado. He talked a little to my companion and I, and we talked
about this family with him. He said something like, "Just be patient. And
imagine what a great family they will be when they finally make the decision to
be baptized.” Then he went on to say "Think about the families that you
convince in a week to be baptized. That means that they have a weak character.
If you can convince them in a week, what is there to say that some evangelical
pastor isn’t going to come and convince them a week later to leave the church?
A family that takes a long time to convince will be even harder to convince to
leave the Church.” So yeah, it was kind of cool to hear that. A lot of times
its hard to be patient, but we're progressing with this family. Like for
example, there are missionaries here that have baptized 40+ families in their
mission, but the conversion of these families never really took place. They
just convinced them by "sweet-talking" them. The way that you say
that in Spanish is "echar la ca-sa-ca". So yeah, maybe Elder C
and I haven’t baptized a ton of people this change, but our converts are going
to be the future bishops and stuff like that. Good stuff.
Oh, so I’ve been thinking, but how are Bailey’s
mission preparations coming along? Have you even begun to start getting him
ready, or is he just relaxing while he's got the time? Just wondering. By the
way, I’m super excited for him to start his mission. It will be really awesome
for us to be in the field at the same time, and to exchange emails about our
adventures. Does Bailey even know Spanish? Or what language did he take in High
school? For some reason, I think he took German. In Spanish, the way to say
"German" is "Alaman". It will be really fun when we get
done, and we can understand/speak Spanish. You know, I was talking to some of
the Latino elders last night, and I kind of had an epiphany. I was all of the
sudden like "Wow, I’ve been talking for over an hour with this guy, and I
understand EXACTLY 100% of everything that he said.” Like, I think that
everybody just at some time or another just reaches the point where it becomes
very easy to speak Spanish, think in Spanish, etc. Cool stuff.
But anyway, it was fun reading about
your adventures in the land of the McGregor’s. I’m really jealous that you all
got to shoot guns. I would love to do that. I see guns all of the time.
Sometimes, you would think that we were in the 1800´s, Joseph Smith times,
because many times I will just see people walking around with some shotgun
strapped over their shoulder. But yeah, it sounds like it was a fun trip.
So nothing too much has been happening
here. We brought 5 investigators to church, and it was pretty cool. I was
praying that the sacrament talks/lessons would apply well to the investigators,
and it seemed that they did. So that was nice.
And yeah, it’s really crazy that I’m at
the one-year mark. I feel like the time has flown by, but at the same time, I
can barely remember what it was like at home. It just kind of feels like this
place has become my home. It’s hard to describe, and I know that another year
down the road, I’ll be even more attached to this place. I don’t know how I’ll
ever be able to leave. But anyways, I’m glad that you're all happy at home.
Things are going well here, and we're working and teaching. I hope that your
next week goes well, and that you're all safe. Thanks for everything. I really
liked the pictures.
Con amor,
Elder Stark
No comments:
Post a Comment