Sunday, May 4, 2014

Awesome week!


Good afternoon,
What a wonderful week it has been, full of joy and success after a dry season. The week before we worked harder than ever and we saw success but not like we wanted to but we didn´t let it slow us down but kept moving foward enduring to the end, and teaching by the spirit.
One spiritual expierence that Elder Taylor and I had this past week was friday. These past few weeks president collado along side his assistentes have been going throughout the mission to each zone to help work and work one on one with each missionary and area. And as we were on divisions president collado called us up to meet up with us and help work in our area.
When he arrived we were on our way to a appiontment with a new family that we had found the night before while walking home, and we found that they lived right next to the house of the bishop. So we divided up and I went with president collado to the bishops house to invite him to accompany us for the lesson, as my companion went with the asistentes to contact another family with the son of the bishop.
As we went forth towards the appointment I began to pray in my heart that the family would be home and that the spirit would help me know what to say and teach. As we arrived we found that the family was waiting for us and we entered in. Before we began to teach president collado invited the young couple to bring there two young girls to listen, and then asked them if there was anyone else in the home that would like to listen. We then found that there mom and dad were home and we invited them to come sit in and listen and by time we had began our lesson we had a crowed of 10 people sitting humbly and ready to listen.
The lesson was outstanding as the spirit guided what we should say and do. We taught them about the restoration and how the lord had established once again his church upon the earth. we asked the family if they had questions about the pphamplet that we had left them with the night before, and to my astonshiment they had read it all and had looked up the defination of atonement becuase they did not know what it meant.
 The key part of the lesson was the testimony of the bishop who shared a powerful testimony of how the gospel has blessed him and his family life. At the end of the lesson we gave them a book of mormon and a commit to read 2 nefi 31 and to come to church to see for themselves. They accepted. I learned this day the power of the holy ghost that it has when we share the gospel of jesus christ.
The thing I rediscovered is that we are not alone in his work, that this is his church and we should never be ashamed to share our testimony and invite others to come unto christ through small commits, such as will you attend church this sunday with us? will you pray to know the truth of this message? and then share sincere testimony of what you know to be true and the spirit will testify to them such as this wonderful bishop did in this lesson. I saw as he spoke the love that he had for them and how he wanted them to have the same blessings that he had recieved in his family.
At the end of the lesson before the prayer president collado asked the family again if there was anyone else in the house to join us for the closing prayer. and they said yes and invited 5 more people to listen to the closing prayer. As we left we set a appiontment for the following day and then as we were walking back to the bishops house we asked the bishop if he knew anyone else that would benefit from hearing the message of the restored gospel. He responded si! and in this same time we went with him to present us to his friends.
This past sunday we had a astonding 7 people 2 families that came to church. These two families were the lesson we had and the reference that the bishop presented us to. I know that this is his work and we are not alone. We all have a small part in his work and the bishop was the key to our success this past week. He didn´t have to do much other than share his testimony, invite them to church and invite his other friends to listen to the missionaries.
The following day when we returned to the family we had visited, we had found that the husband had read all of 2 nefi 31 and the beginning of the book of mormon up to chapter 10 of 1 nephi. He explained to us the purpose of baptism and how it is the first step to begin on our journey to life eternal, the tree of life. We were blown away. The lord knows who our prepared to hear and many times the lord works through youth or childern of a family to get to the parents.
I love you all and I am grateful for your letters and great examples to me. Thank you james so much for your wonderful letter and funny jokes...Haha! Oh how I liked the cookies joke, and man how much I miss cookies. This past friday I realized that I hit my two year mark in the mission but it still seems that I year and half left. And dad loved the derby photos. Haha!! Almost there till you have to make the grandkids derbies to...haha!! You are great and I always will remember the fun time I had with dad make all of my derby for me.. haha! It was the coolest.  And thanks for all the fun photos.

Keep up the great work with sharing the gospel and better than anything is inviting them over for a family home evening where the missionaries can share a small message and they can be free to ask any questions they have about the gospel without commitment. or talk to the missionaries about sending a couple of missionaries to knock on there door where they live and talk with them.  In preach my gospel there are some great ways on how to Invite them to pray and to come to church with you guys, and invite his childern to mutual maybe down where they live. Or send them through email a video from Lds.org like dad did for me. Thanks dad for the link it was great. I love the small little mormon messages that the church has come out with. They really help people have interest to learn more about the church and in mormon.org there is a section where frecuent questions are asked.
The lord is moving foward his work in these last days and we are apart of it. Its the greatest. Love all of you so much and will talk soon. OH YA I almost forgot the president has told us that we should make phone calls on monday or tuesday  the 11 or 12 of may and for 30-45mins so that we can get back to work and continue the work. So which ever day works best for you guys..haha! its going to be funny to call and then see you a few days later but anyhow, I haven´t found anywhere here where I can skpe so I probably will do it by call. Let me know what you would like to do. Thanks be clean-be true-be grateful in the name of jesus christ amen.