Hola todos personas!!
This week has been
really interesting and full of miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. On
Tuesday my companion and I had the wonderful blessing and opportunity of going
up the '70 and having a noche de hogar con la familia Gallegos who are an awesome
less active part member family. We watched the Testaments with them and the
Spirit was so strong in the room, it was truly incredible! After the movie many
of them were in tears and I was too because of the Savior coming down to the
Americas as described in 3rd Nephi 11 and the Atonement in our lives is truly a
powerful and wonderful privilege and an ultimate gift.
After that movie I
pondered about all of the people whom I serve whether they are other
missionaries, investigators, ward members, part-member families, or less active
members how they might come closer to the Savior throughout anything life
throws at them. I had a special experience in a lesson with Ricardo Malduno. I
told him that he was a miracle in my mission, because he had the faith to stop
smoking and to start reading the Book of Mormon and he will be baptized in
mid-July sometime which is truly a blessing and tender mercy from our Father in
Heaven.
This week was full of
excitement, because my companion had his "golden" or his twentieth
birthday and we celebrated the best way we knew how to. As a district we went
to Sonic because of their 1/2 off shakes and celebrated. Later that night the
Orduno family (the dad is a recent convert of 3 weeks ago) Cesar, Roxanna,
Jonathan, Julissa, and their whole entire family had us over for dinner and
threw my companion una fiesta! Earlier that day, we decided to weekly plan for
nearly three hours in 108 degree weather and I came into our trailer really red
and burned. At the party they served enchiladas verdes, but in New Mexico they
put all kinds of hot peppers and spicy seasonings on everything they make so my
companion and I were turning red and sweating. Green chiles here range on the
spicy scale and we had been given some of the hottest ones.
We were given Tres
Leches right after that, and I was so full, but my sunburn helped me to not
worry about the pain from eating too much. We took lots of pictures and there
were so many words just shooting by in the air that I did not understand. Here,
they use a lot of slang and do not think anything of it. However, my companion
warned me about the words that I shouldn't say and pointed them out. Mama
Cantana the mom of Roxanna and Nayelli is very into gifts on birthdays, but not
only did my companion get a gift bag I got one too and what better to give
missionaries than a Hershey's bar and a tie!
The sunburn has been
painful, but it has taught me to think of the atonement and although we are all
going to fall short, we can better ourselves through leaning on the Savior and
praying to find an answer!! No dog bites this week, but the dog that bit me
sadly ran away and the investigator Ricardo was pretty upset, but he has shown
such an amazing increase of faith lately and it is miraculous the way the Lord
works!!
Saturday, we took a
map and marked all of the less actives in our ward, which is about 3/4 of the
ward and we started making visits and being constantly productive. Saturday we
did not see much success, but I had a wonderful opportunity. The same investigator
Ricardo that night we told him about the priesthood a little bit and then he
asked for a blessing. This was in Spanish and it was my first annointing in
Spanish, but my companion helped me out and it went just fine.
Yesterday, my
companion conferred upon Cesar Orduno the Aaronic Priesthood and he is going to
baptize his son and daughter Jonathan and Julissa hopefully in two weeks!! The
last speaker Hermana Garcia spoke about George F. Richards and she pointed me
out to the congregation and it was incredible. We had the blessing of doing
service for her last Thursday and we got to help out so much, and it was really
fun!!
We had a worldwide
missionary leadership broadcast yesterday and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
and President Monson shared messages on how missionary work is changing in this
"digital age" and progressing in a way that it hasn't ever before!! I
am really excited to see how much that will increase productivity, instead of
just tracting and wasting time.
Hasta proxima semana,
Con Amor,
-Elder Richards
No comments:
Post a Comment