June 22, 2015

Some pictures of my district! I was also a shepherd today because a bunch of goats decided to follow me, so I almost made Euros. The last picture is me and Elder Escobar fighting for Ice cream with Elder Effio in the background! :) This week has been the hardest of my mission. I have been very sick with a parasite for about 10 days now with nonstop diarrhea, high fever, lung inflammation, body fatigue, and lack of desire to eat. So I haven't eaten in about 3 days now, and I went down from 154 pounds to 144. A member gave me a crazy dose of Ibuprofen, and I slept the whole day, and haven't had any symptoms! I think the parasite finally got starved out, because I haven't eaten in like 4 days, and now I am super hungry so we ate Ice Cream as a district! I wrote a talk for church this Sunday, and never returned to finish it. This Sunday, I went up to the pulpit and was about to start the talk with the paper, but I felt the need to rip it up and throw it in the little garbage near the pulpit, and I gave a talk on the same topic as I was going to but, I did it ALL relying only on the spirit. It was on the Sabbath day and keeping it Holy, which I got to choose, because many of the members don't do it. It went great! I had 2 members of the congregation start to film me (which we had to tell them that they actually cant do that after), and afterwards the Bishop (who isn't usually very friendly with us)starting to congratulate me and we talked like good friends after, and a sister who has been a convert of 15 years told me it was one of the most inspirational talks that she had heard ever in Arjona! Wow! I know that Heavenly Father really does love us and we can be a part of his miracles! We have a baptism this Saturday! His name is Antonio Herrera, he is a single dad who is a poor vegetable seller in the street, but he is a very dignified person who loves his children very much and sacrifices a lot for them. He was hesitating on getting baptized, but recently decided to take this step, and he is very ready! As for Wilminton he has a few doubts that we are trying to get taken care of: 1. God has a body of flesh and blood 2. Tithing should be paid 3. Man can see God or has ever seen God 4. That he should be baptized only in the name of Christ (not father, Son, Holy Ghost) 5. That it is sin for a man to have relations with his OWN wife if it is just to show love and not to have kids. 6. That the Book of Mormon is real 7. That there is real need for a church (that he can be saved without a religious sect) 8. His family is spewing lies about the church. But they live in other parts of Colombia and Madrid Spain so we cant help them out. So yeah, we are really working hard to just get him a testimony of the Book of Mormon because if its true the rest is true. I want to show you guys a trick to teach the Book of Mormon that I developed recently working with some less actives and this is how it goes: 1.)Draw 7 circles that interconnect and make a chain lengthwise. 2.)First fill circle 1 with the names of everyone in the family 3.)Fill the last circle with the words "Eternal Life" (share John 17:3) 4.)(Share John 3:5) Only way to get to God is by getting baptized, but not in just any church. 4.)(Share Ephesians 4:5) one lord, ONE faith (or church), and one baptism. Now we have the one lord (eternal life), one baptism. What's missing? See Below 5.)One faith! (Share Ephesians 2:20 and 4:11-12) The Church that Jesus made had one Prophet and 12 Apostles 6.)(Share Hebrews 13:8) If He is the same yesterday today and forever...his church too? Of course! 7.)Now when Jesus and his Apostles died, the world fell into apostasy. 8.) But God called a new Prophet after 1820 years: Who could it possibly be? 9.)The Restored Church is the same church that Jesus had 2015 years ago. 10.)The proof that Joseph Smith is a Prophet is that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. If its true the rest is too. ...We are only missing one link in our chain now: and its our personal testimony of The Book of Mormon. (Share the second to last paragraph of the Introduction) those who read the book, meditate in the hearts, and afterwards ask God specifically in a prayer if its true will know of its truth. And we will know afterwards that Joseph was a Prophet, that this is the only true church on the earth, that it is the same church as a long time ago, and that by baptizing ourselves and enduring to the end in this church we will have eternal life the Celestial Kingdom as a family. Literally, our Salvation ultimately comes down to our testimony of an object that fits in our own two hands! I will send a picture of how it should turn out!