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| a sign they found |
The T trips start this Saturday. Elder V is going to stay with a member in the ward. And boy am I excited. I'm not sure if it's fattening but I think it's a little watered down... (quote from 3 Amigos about T)
The conference with Elder Johnson went really well. He talked about a lot of things that we really needed to hear. He talked about planning with love, improving our relationships with the members, and serving for the right reasons. One thing that stuck out to me was when he read Mark 12 28-31, which talks about the two greatest commandments: Love God and love thy neighbor as thyself. He explained why the phrase "as thyself" is part of that scripture. If we really love ourselves, we will do everything to gain our own salvation and exaltation. And the way to gain our own salvation and exaltation is by loving God enough to keep His commandments and losing ourselves in the service of others. Kind of cool, huh?
We found a few new investigators this week, but they aren't really interested and we aren't planning on going back. C told us he would be busy all week so we haven't been able to teach him, but we did stop by a few times to see how he was doing and looks like everything's going well. He's reading his Book of Mormon and saying his prayers. He still doesn't know when he'll have his operation, but we're going over in a second to see him so we'll see if there's more news.
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| Current companion |
We have made plans in district class to gain the confidence of the local leaders by visiting them and teaching them short, powerful lessons. Wednesday, Elder Johnson's wife shared an experience that also gave us ideas. She said that the missionaries called her one day to ask if they could stop by that night. She was annoyed all day thinking "they're going to come asking for referrals, and I don't have any to give them." But when the missionaries got there, they opened up to the "Attribute Activity" in Preach My Gospel, told her and Elder Johnson to pick one attribute they would like to study as a couple, and then did the evaluation and read all the scriptures that went along with that attribute. She said it was such a great experience that she felt a new desire to give referrals to those missionaries. So we've tried it a couple times and it's worked really well. One leader told us he has had troubles finding work and that they are short on money, so he decided to study patience. We went through the evaluation and read all the scriptures about patience, then invited him to say the closing prayer. He asked God for patience and started crying and thanked him for sending the missionaries to his home. It was really great.
Also, this Sunday the Bishop got up in sacrament meeting and spoke about how missionary work is the member's responsibility, not the missionary's. After church he thanked us for all that we do, told us he loves us and that he is ready to support us in our work. He also asked us to help the members feel the importance of doing missionary work. I was about to cry with joy when that happened. We may not be teaching investigators or baptizing anyone right now, but if we can get this ward more involved in missionary work so that the next missionaries can have success, we've done our job. Also, L and S are still active and come to church every Sunday, rain or shine, so that always makes me happy.
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| His area, which he said that he loves |
Speaking of rain, you may have heard there are hurricanes around here. Even though Guadalajara is about 5 hours away from the coast, we have had nonstop rainstorms and hurricane winds for about a week now. Last year it stopped raining at about this time, but now it's still going strong. I have been very wet.
Friday we had a stake activity--a Mexican Independence party. It went SUPER well! We visited a member from our area the day before and asked him about a referral he had given us that we still hadn't contacted. He said he would invite his friend to the activity, and when we got there there he was with his whole family! The guy's name is S, he has a wife and 2 or three kids. He told us he is interested in receiving the lessons and gave us his number so that we could call him this week. Yes!
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| Little boy from last weeks letter |
Today, to celebrate Independance day, we went to the Centro (Half of it is part of our zone) and found the most glorious place on earth. It's a Taco Buffet and it only costs 75 pesos (about 6 dollars)! I ate 8 tacos and a Torta Ahogada, along with horchata. Someday I'll take you all there...
That's about it for this week. Go Cougars! Cheer extra loud for me. I'll probably have forgotten about it by tomorrow, but I'll be excited to hear the news next Monday. Have a great week! I love you all!
Elder Pew
