I was trying to think of a movie quote but I just couldn´t quite pull one out. My mind is falting me. I must be from Argentina now. This week was awesome. But first, UNCLE CARL!! I put that in caps so that you pay attention. Did you ever teach a family Redondo? Specifically a Nilda Redondo? Because her daughter came up to me in church today and asked me if my dad served in Argentina, because about 22 ish years ago, a tall, gringo Elder Reed baptized her mom and some of her sisters. Her mom has the picture, so she´s going to try to bring it to church. It´s in the Zarate area. Super campo, I think it was a branch at this time…. I´ve always had a secret dream to meet someone who knew you. Check! I love life.
Anyways, so I´ve gotten to the point where I don´t remember what I have told you and what I haven´t told you, so if I repreat myself. (that´s like a mixture of repeat and repitir, aka can´t spell) my bad. I was trying to think of fun/funny stories to tell, but I couldn´t really think of any. Nothing incredibly ridiculous happened this week. Which, now that I´m thinking about it is kind of lame. But we did have a lot of success this week. We´ve found quite a few people who are super interested in listening to us, and we had at a máximum 6 baptismal dates. But then some of them didn´t come to church, and one of them we learned she needs to get divorced so she can get married so she can get baptized. So, we´re down to 3. You just need to come to church!
But I´ll give you a scoop on some of them. The coolest and most fun is Yamila, she´s 9 years old and is the neice of some of our recent converts. She started living with her grandman and this family and one of the cousins gave her his Book of Mormon to read. She started Reading it like crazy with Noemí who also lives in this house and is getting baptized this weekend. CRAZYNESS!! I love baptisms. Anyways, so she was Reading, and then we stopped by one night when she was there and she comes up to us and says “I want to be baptized…” Welp, okay! And we taught the Plan of Salvation this week using the “Vamos de paseo Beep beep beep” song. And now every time we pass by she wants to play the game where we “go on a road trip” and the road trip always leads to Jesus´ House. (we draw a road map and there are “obstacles” in the road. I.e. rivers/physical and spiritual death, and we need bridges – resurrección and expiación – to help us get back home). I think she understands well. If nothing else, she knows she´s going home to her HEavenly Father.
And then, okay, this is kind of sad. We´ve had the unfortunate opportunity to watch as some faithful members of the church are beginning to lose their testimonies. It starts out small, but we can see the consequences of it nearly instantly. First they stop Reading, then they stop praying, and then they stop coming to church. And “all of the sudden”, life is a lot harder then it used to be. There´s this one member, who is trying really hard to do things right, to have a “good life”, he wants to get married in the temple (he has a girlfriend, check), he wants to complete his calling, he´s trying to finish up school, and he recently found a job. But with all the stresses of completing EVERYTHING he slowly dropped Reading, and then he stopped praying. And last Sunday he didn´t come to church. The week before, he came to sacrament meeting and the booked it outta there before the final hymn. And he just doesn´t feel like he has the strength to keep going. He feels like he needs help….but from the Ward. And he´s not receiving it. I´m torn between wanting to slap him in the back of the head (don´t worry, I won´t. Inappropriate touching to the max) and just crying. Oh, did I mention he´s our Ward misión leader? Yeah, I´m cursed, I´ve never been able to keep a Ward misión leader for more then 2 weeks before something happens. I´ve gone pretty much my whole misión without our called connection to the Ward. Whatever. Pray for him.
But the point is there is this other member as well, he´s very sick. He was diabetes – which caused him to go blind and lose his leg. He really is very sick. And we were talking to him one day and he said that he wanted to go to church the next day, but it all depends on if he feels good the next day (it was a Saturday). Then he confessed to us, that sometimes he wakes up in the morning and really doesn´t feel good, but then later in the day he realices it wasn´t as bad as he thought it was, and he feels bad because he knows that in hindsight, he really could have gone to church. This is what he said “But each time I don´t go to church, it becomes a Little bit harder. But I know it´s a question of willpower. And I´m scared that with time, I´m not going to have the willpower to go to church anymore.” It´s so much easier to ask for help in the begining, then to let it go to long.
Just so you know, I really am very happy, that´s just what has happened this week that stuck out to me. It starts out small, and then slowly but surely you are separated from your God who wants to help you, who has the power to help you, but can´t because we are not doing our part. This was something, in our Ward council last week, I don´t even remember what we were talking about, but it made me think of when Jesus was lifted on the cross. And there´s the scripture that talks about when he diez. It says and “He gave up the ghost.” I have no idea why that thought came so vivently to my mind (it came in english, and i was thinking in spanish) but it did. This thought that Jesus Christ was not killed. He allowed himself to be taken, to be whipped, beaten, bruised, spat on, mocked, and eventually lifted up on the cross. And when he had completed with his Father´s plan, he WILLINGLY left his physical body behind. However, the power that He had as a literal Son of God meant that He had total control. He had the control to leave His body and then to take up His body once again after three days time. He knew that it was God´s plan and he knew that he had completed his part.
If Jesus Christ has this kind of power, he can help those who are having hard times. But we need to really know who He is. And the only way to do that is by talking to him and listening to his words. I.E. Reading and praying. And he has promised us time after time that if we do this, we will receive eternal life, we will receive earthly and celestial happiness. We will receive the blessings of eternity. But we have to ask for it. And we won´t know how unless we know him. What else more is there to do? I´m going to go read my scriptures.
Love you all,
Hermana Reed
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