That baptism we were planning on having didn't happen because Pilar, the investigator, says that she's not ready, even though she has acknowledged that she felt the spirit reading the Book of Mormon and going to church. Freaking CATHOLICS! She says that she can't be baptized because she doesn't know that much about the church even though we've taught her almost all of the lessons. So I think that were just gonna teach her the lessons that she has left and then tell her, "okay, we don't have anymore lessons. You already know everything" and see were she ends up.
Brayan, my recent convert, is going to receive the Melchizedek priesthood this weekend! AND might go on a mission! (He's 25, so to be able to go on a mission, he needs special permission, that he might get!) AND introduced us to one of his friends named Francisco, or Frank.
Frank is 17, and he has some problems, like, gay problems, also word of wisdom problems, and pornography problems. When I talked to him the first time he told me that all that stuff he's doing is natural and that we should be doing it because it's scientifically proven that it's good for us or whatever. But that was like 15 days ago, and now that he has gone to church twice, he says that he thinks that knowing the church and the missionaries was probably one of the best things that has ever happened to him, and he wants to get baptized! Which I think is really cool, because the truth is, we haven't even really taught him the Restoration yet (just law of chastity, since, its kinda a big problem) and he says that he noticed that the people who go to church seem happier than anyone else he knows. So he's willing to make a huge change and leave all that other stuff behind (and the first time we talked he said, "I would happily be Mormon with no problems, but you can't take that stuff away from me) which I think is really cool how someone can change that drastically in 2 weeks, just by feeling the spirit! I hope he can be baptized this transfer, but he might not be able to because of the gay stuff, which requires a long repentance process...
Scripture to think about:
1 Samuel 15:22
22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight inburnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice...
My companion, is like always wanting to break rules, and tells me that we HAVE to do certain things to help our investigators, and always tells me (and everyone he comes in contact with) that "obedience brings blessings, but sacrifice brings miracles..." What he tries to say by quoting that is that we have to sacrifice obeying all of the rules to be able to have even MORE blessings (in other words, disobeying is okay, if its to help someone) I honestly have no idea who said that, but a Prophet of the lord said that obedience is greater than sacrifice, so I always tell him that and he gets really upset with me.
We can apply this scripture in a non mission rule sense. A lot of people tell me that they can't go to church because they have to sacrifice Sundays to go to work, and that God will understand because God knows how much they need extra money. But going to church is a commandment so, Hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? No. There's probably a lot more of these examples that you can think of, but people in Colombia are trying to use "sacrifice" as an excuse to not obey the commandments.
Also, I traded my Captain Moroni statue for some dragonballs that Elder Alcorta bought, not because I actually wanted to trade, but because I saw that Elder Alcorta REALLY wanted that Moroni, and he'll be happier with it that I am, so bye Moroni! 🤗ðŸ˜
We also played Jeopardy with the Yate family in our weekly family home evening! The topics were: The Bible, The Book of Mormon, The Commandments, and The Restoration. I've never seen grown men and women yelling and crying and jumping out of their seat yelling, "I know this! I know this!" like 4 year-olds. It was pretty entertaining. Not everyone who was there is in the pictures we took at the end, but yeah.
Since I pretty much didn't write anything last week, here's a really long letter this week! love you
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