What a week! I can't believe how truly busy this week has been. I've had busy weeks on my mission, weeks in Napa where it was lesson after lesson, weeks in Woodland where it was meeting after meeting, but for some reason this week has been so packed and full of stuff that now that it's P Day all that I can do is breath out a sigh of relief.
On Monday Sharon S was successfully baptized. With her full and correct named, and in the same meeting she was confirmed. That is a relief, she is doing wonderful! She has home and visiting teachers and is progressing right along. In church on Sunday she looked so happy, and I don't believe that I have ever seen her look so full of light! It has been pretty miraculous to see her change, even if I only taught her for a month before she was baptized.
Everything went well on Tuesday. We actually picked up two new investigators. Their names are Joey and Kylie. They are engaged and living together. They are both 20. We met them tracting awhile back and he seemed pretty interested. So on Tuesday we went and we had planned on teaching them the plan of salvation. As we were doing some of the points of how to begin teaching we told him that we would ask him to do certain things like read the scriptures and pray in order to feel the Spirit, and that we would help him understand those feelings as well. That led him to ask us about why is it in every church when people go they say they feel the Spirit, and how shouldn't there only be one true church? And so of course when a question like that gets asked you can't start teaching the Plan of Salvation. We taught them the restoration, and they both ate it up. We finished the lesson, and before we could even ask them for a return appointment he said "you know guys, I have every Tuesday off. Could you come over around 1 next Tuesday for lunch and we could have another lesson?" It was SWEET!!!
And that brings us to Wednesday. I'm trying to think of how I can describe it to you... Well first off, we don't live in our area. And our area does not contain the "city" part of crescent city. We cover the outskirts dirt roads along Lake Earl Dr, Parkway Dr, and the 101. We also live about 3 miles away from the first residential home in our area. We have been asked to share the car once a week, and so on Wednesday we were lucky enough to bike! Wednesday was a cold, rainy, foggy, miserable day! And I did the calculations, we rode 15 miles to get to a lesson, and 15 miles back. That was before dinner. For dinner a member dropped off Pizza Hut and hot buffalo wings. It was so nice to dry off and not worry about pleasing the members! After that our post-dinner lesson cancelled, and so we did a necessary trip to Instacare for my Advair prescription to get it refilled. The doctor said my lungs sound healthy and that when I get home I should consider taking an asthma medicine that is like Advair but not quite. Like how Advair is "fluticasone propionate" one of those two words is a steroid and to get the steroid part taken out since it's not necessary for me. Anyway, you don't have to put all of this doctor stuff in the blog. It's just easier than having to send it twice, once for each of you two. And then we went to Rite Aid and picked it up, and while picking up the prescription we met a less active lady and we set up an appointment! That was neat. And that killed Wednesday night.
On Thursday we went to the temple! And thus making me the first Spanish Elder to have travelled to all three temples in the mission! We went to Medford Oregon. Let me say, it is a small temple. It is in the parking lot of a church, there is no distribution center, and it's in the middle of a corn field! But anyway, it was beautiful. The drive and such. Who knows? Maybe I'll end up in Portland one day. Be a Portland punk. But it was especially cool because the endowment room was filled! And it was a great experience in the temple as well. I learned SOOOO much stuff this time around, and the spirit was strong from start to finish. It is just really cool because each time you go you learn something new, either about doctrine or personal revelation for your life. I'm excited to do some sessions in Spanish, especially when the Diaz family gets sealed! Are you guys excited for that? It's like the only thing I'm looking forward to about finishing my mission. Well, and you guys. And music. You know. But that's #1!
Friday. Oh Friday, where do I begin? Normally, Friday is a day for weekly planning, which takes from 12-5. This last Friday one set of the Elders from 1st Ward called us to ask if we could help them with some service with an investigator family. The family was moving from their wars boundaries into ours. They said it would take from 10-12, but it ended up taking from 10-4 and by the time we were done we had to shower and then head to dinner. That lead us to a dilemma. Would we weekly plan that night, or the next morning? Through prayer, we decided that it would have to wait until Saturday. We went out and worked Friday night.
Normally on Saturday we do correlation with Brother Tinsley from 7-9 every Saturday, but he texted us Saturday during studies and asked if we could do correlation from 12-1:30. We said that that would be ok, assuming that we would be able to plan at night during the time that we had set aside for correlation. We went to correlation, and then at 2 we drove out to Hiouchi to teach a part member family. Brother S is a slightly less active man born into the church, he plays soccer with the Hispanics, but he is white. His wife is Mexican, her name is Nena S, and she was born Seventh Day Adventist. She speaks really good English, she moved here when she was 18. She made us tostadas for lunch, and then we taught her the Restoration. She was very receptive and that was very cool to see.
So after lunch and the lesson, that brought us to dinner time with the Kelley's. I love the Kelleys, they are like my grandparents in Crescent City. It was a good dinner, from 5:30-630, after that we went to the church to weekly plan. We got to about 7:20, everything was going great, and then boom! Out of nowhere we get a call from the 1st Ward Elders saying that they are still helping and all that they need is a ride from the family's old house into their new house. I immediately thought back to all those times I was on bike in Vallejo, Napa, and Woodland when we got rides, and we decided to help them out. Well that quick trip took until about 830, leaving us only enough time to make a progress record for Brother Tinsley and that was our weekly planning. A full 45 minutes. So this week we are hoping that God understands and we our putting our week entirely in his hands as we tried the very hardest that we good to make good plans.
This email is getting long because I feel like there is so much to explain. It is going to take a little longer, because there is one more story that it way cool. Every Sunday night we go to visit the R family. Now this family is pretty crazy, it's a grandma and Grandpa, two of their daughters, all of those daughters' kids, and some of those kids' kids. Well one of the grandkids is Kenneth. He is 16, and at first he was really friendly with us, but he wasn't interested in the Gospel. A few weeks ago we ate with them and blessed and dedicated their home, and during the prayer he cried because he felt the Spirit. So the next time we visited them he said that since that blessing he had been feeling the need to come to church and read the scriptures, and even serve a mission. He read the Restoration pamphlet, and he is just eating everything up. He came to church yesterday. Last night we taught them, and his mom's non member boyfriend was there and Kenneth told him that if he wanted to know if it was true he just had to read, pray, and ask and if he felt good it would mean that it was true! He bore a powerful testimony and he has made a complete 180 and is coming around! It's really cool to see how just being his friend has helped him start to change.
If you haven't checked out the CES Devotional by D Todd Christofferson, check it out! It's called Saving Your Life. It's way good. And good prep for general conference!
One of the cool things that I read today is from the book of 3rd Nephi, I think it applies really well. Nephi, and many other Prophets and missionaries went out to preach about Jesus Christ, but of course the Nephites didn't want anything to do with them, so like it says in 3rd Nephi 6:20-23:
"20 And there began to be men inspired from heaven and sent forth, standing among the people in all the land, preaching and testifying boldly of the sins and iniquities of the people, and testifying unto them concerning the redemption which the Lord would make for his people, or in other words, the resurrection of Christ; and they did testify boldly of his death and sufferings.
21 Now there were many of the people who were exceedingly angry because of those who testified of these things; and those who were angry were chiefly the chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers; yea, all those who were lawyers were angry with those who testified of these things.
22 Now there was no lawyer nor judge nor high priest that could have power to condemn any one to death save their condemnation was signed by the governor of the land.
23 Now there were many of those who testified of the things pertaining to Christ who testified boldly, who were taken and put to death secretly by the judges, that the knowledge of their death came not unto the governor of the land until after their death."
So basically they despreciaron the prophets. I don't really know how to say that in English. Because of this, when Jesus Christ died, all the wicked people in the Americas got killed. However, they had many warnings. And like it says in Chapter 10 of the same book
"11 And thus far were the scriptures fulfilled which had been spoken by the prophets.
12 And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared--
13 And they were spared and were not sunk and buried up in the earth; and they were not drowned in the depths of the sea; and they were not burned by fire, neither were they fallen upon and crushed to death; and they were not carried away in the whirlwind; neither were they overpowered by the vapor of smoke and of darkness
14 And now, whoso readeth, let him understand; he that hath the scriptures, let him search them, and see and behold if all these deaths and destructions by fire, and by smoke, and by tempests, and by whirlwinds, and by the opening of the earth to receive them, and all these things are not unto the fulfilling of the prophecies of many of the holy prophets.
15 Behold, I say unto you, Yea, many have testified of these things at the coming of Christ, and were slain because they testified of these things.
16 Yea, the prophet Zenos did testify of these things, and also Zenock spake concerning these things, because they testified particularly concerning us, who are the remnant of their seed."
It is the same for us, except for we probably won't die from crazy earthquakes and floods and fires, but if we don't have listen to the Prophets and the Apostles, in a way that is so easy for us through tv and Internet, we will Spiritually die. So watch conference!
I love you guys a ton! Sorry this was long, but I hope that you guys have a great week.
Elder Mufosta
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