Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Week 12 in La Candelaria

Week #35
8/25/14
This week went well, it had its challenges, like these last few weeks have, but I am hopeful we are going to have success. 
So last Monday night we didn't really have any lessons planned, and our ideas fell thru. We ended up just walking around a lot, and I felt terrible I didn't do anything. I have decided I am going to work harder, because I know when I work hard I am happy. I also want to talk with more families in the street, we need to find families to teach, and its tough to get references from the members. 
This week went pretty normal, we visited the recent converts in our area a lot. One night we were going to visit Zully, who was baptized 2 weeks ago, and we saw a family go in the house where she lives. We asked her about them, and they live on the second floor, but she did NOT want to introduce us to them. I'm not sure how to explain it in English, but here we say "se dio pena" or it gave her embarrassment/shyness. Its hard to explain, but she didn't want to introduce us. After insisting for about 15 minutes, we got her to introduce us to the family, and it was pretty great teaching someone new. The dad had a lot of doubts about why there are so many churches and why they all want to confuse him. It was understandable, and we did our best to explain to him why that was. We still don't think he fully understands, but we have an appt tonight with them and we are going to review the restoration. 
Saturday the sisters had the baptisms of the Silva couple. The mom asked me to baptize her. Id rather a member do the ordinance, but she didn't really want any of the priests to baptize her. It was great to baptize, and I love the experience when I can. 
After the baptismal service, we went up to our area to meet a man we contacted to go meet his family. We waited at the bus stop for him, but he didn't show. It was kinda sad because we had a lot of hope with him. So then we decided to go contact some people, and went to a more commercial part of our area. I tried contacting a man that was with his family, but when I first said hello to him he showed no interest, and told me no at the first chance he got. I was a little sad, but decided not to get discouraged.
So then we were walking and I saw a family about 50 yards away. I crossed the street to talk to them. When I began talking to them, they seemed really receptive, but things turned bad, and the contact went even worse. In the end I asked if there was no time when we could come share a message, and the dad invited us to his church. 
I was feeling a little down, and we started to head home because it was getting late. We were walking down some stairs when a man stopped and asked us if we were from Colombia. We told him no, and he recognized us as missionaries from the church. He is from Mexico, and has been all around the country. He even said he knew San Juanico! So that was pretty cool to hear. After about 10 minutes of talking to him, he asked when we were going to take his name and number, which was pretty funny. We placed an appt for this Sunday, and I felt a lot better after that. I know the Lord was watching out for us, and it was great to find hope. 
Oh- there are exchanges tomorrow in the mission, and I'm staying here with Elder Martinez. I'm really glad I get to serve in this area another 6 weeks, and feel like we are going to be able to grow and learn a lot. Its great being with a good companion that has the same vision as you. 
I spoke in church this Sunday, and I shared a message about the duty every member had to share the gospel and the story of Hugo Torres(my first convert) and how the members helped us out. After the sacrament meeting ended, a member told me my Spanish has improved a lot, and it was really great to hear. 
I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I am so glad to be the Lord´s servant, and work for Him. I love what I get to do, and time is really starting to fly. 
Thanks so much for reading!
Elder Beck

Pictures:
we made burgers this week, and the Silva´s baptism





Scriptures I liked:
DC138:31-35,54

No comments:

Post a Comment