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| Happy St Patrick's Day! |
Hey there! This week's been a week of laughs, learning, and stupid
Elder Paddock Moments :) But first off, Happy Saint Patrick's day!
Elder Juan celbrated it today with our fancy new socks and some
fantastic green ties, and a whole lot of Lucky Charms. (Thanks for
all of those by the way :) )
We're really starting to make progress with Jose! Everytime we've
invited him to be baptised he always says, "I don't know enough yet to
commit myself to anything." We've grown tired of this answer over the
past 3 months that we've taught him, so last night we decided to read
all of Alma 32 with him, which talks about the importance of Faith.
When we read verse 21, which says,
"And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect
knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things
which are not seen, which are true."
He just kind of sat back and thought. Over the rest of the chapter,
Elder Juan and I made sure to go back and touch on that thought over
and over again so we made sure he understood. At the end of the
lesson, we again extended the invitation to show his faith in Jesus
Christ by following His example by being baptized by someone who holds
the authority of the Priesthood of God. This time his answer was,
"Well what do I have to do?"
Words can't really explain how happy I was to hear that. When all we
said was "You need to come to Church." He said, "That's it? "
"That's it." We said. Great things are happening for this man, he
just doesn't recognize it sometimes.
As for the stupid Elder Paddock Moment of the week:
We've been meeting with a crazy, old, less-active couple who have been
going though a hard time. We promised them that if they read their
Book of Mormon everyday that God will bless them with the Strength
they need, which is true. Elder Paddock, wanting to give them a
little extra help, decided to open his mouth and what he meant to say
was "We can come by every now and then and read with you, if you'd
like." But what he actually said was, "We can come by EVERY DAY and
read with you, if you'd like." Either my Spanish got confused or my
words were changed by the Spirit, I don't know. What I do know is now
we're meeting with the craziest, old, Spanish, less-active couple that
I've ever met EVERY DAY. Wish us luck.
Elder Paddock Moments :) But first off, Happy Saint Patrick's day!
Elder Juan celbrated it today with our fancy new socks and some
fantastic green ties, and a whole lot of Lucky Charms. (Thanks for
all of those by the way :) )
We're really starting to make progress with Jose! Everytime we've
invited him to be baptised he always says, "I don't know enough yet to
commit myself to anything." We've grown tired of this answer over the
past 3 months that we've taught him, so last night we decided to read
all of Alma 32 with him, which talks about the importance of Faith.
When we read verse 21, which says,
"And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect
knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things
which are not seen, which are true."
He just kind of sat back and thought. Over the rest of the chapter,
Elder Juan and I made sure to go back and touch on that thought over
and over again so we made sure he understood. At the end of the
lesson, we again extended the invitation to show his faith in Jesus
Christ by following His example by being baptized by someone who holds
the authority of the Priesthood of God. This time his answer was,
"Well what do I have to do?"
Words can't really explain how happy I was to hear that. When all we
said was "You need to come to Church." He said, "That's it? "
"That's it." We said. Great things are happening for this man, he
just doesn't recognize it sometimes.
As for the stupid Elder Paddock Moment of the week:
We've been meeting with a crazy, old, less-active couple who have been
going though a hard time. We promised them that if they read their
Book of Mormon everyday that God will bless them with the Strength
they need, which is true. Elder Paddock, wanting to give them a
little extra help, decided to open his mouth and what he meant to say
was "We can come by every now and then and read with you, if you'd
like." But what he actually said was, "We can come by EVERY DAY and
read with you, if you'd like." Either my Spanish got confused or my
words were changed by the Spirit, I don't know. What I do know is now
we're meeting with the craziest, old, Spanish, less-active couple that
I've ever met EVERY DAY. Wish us luck.
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| Us and Tia |
The highlight of my week was yesterday and it taught me a really big
lesson that I needed to learn. Yesterday we heard that the 1st Ward
was going to have a baptism so Elder Juan and I decided to go and
watch and try to bring some investigators (none of whom showed up...).
When we walked in to the Relief Society room where it was going to
start and saw who it was, I immediately recognized the lady being
baptized! Her name is Tia and we knocked on her door my very first
transfer on a freezing December night! We were the missionaries who
found her! I went up to her afterwards and said, "I don't know if
you remember us, but we're the missionaries who knocked on your door."
and she said," I do remember you, and if it hadn't been for you, I
probably wouldn't be here today." That taught me a big lesson.
Lately I've been bummed because tracting, or knocking doors, hardly
ever works. Rarely, if ever, do we find a solid investigator by
knocking, but every now and then you find someone (whether its for us
or the English Missionaries) thats been prepared by the Lord to accept
the invitation to hear the Gospel when someone knocks on their door.
I'm eternally grateful that we were guided by the Spirit to knock on
Tia's door that night. I felt such joy watching her be baptized and
I'm so happy the Lord allowed us to be a part of her conversion. I
can only imagine how I'll feel when one of our Investigators whom
we've been teaching gets baptized..
I love this work. I know its real. I know the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true church, and I say this in the
name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
lesson that I needed to learn. Yesterday we heard that the 1st Ward
was going to have a baptism so Elder Juan and I decided to go and
watch and try to bring some investigators (none of whom showed up...).
When we walked in to the Relief Society room where it was going to
start and saw who it was, I immediately recognized the lady being
baptized! Her name is Tia and we knocked on her door my very first
transfer on a freezing December night! We were the missionaries who
found her! I went up to her afterwards and said, "I don't know if
you remember us, but we're the missionaries who knocked on your door."
and she said," I do remember you, and if it hadn't been for you, I
probably wouldn't be here today." That taught me a big lesson.
Lately I've been bummed because tracting, or knocking doors, hardly
ever works. Rarely, if ever, do we find a solid investigator by
knocking, but every now and then you find someone (whether its for us
or the English Missionaries) thats been prepared by the Lord to accept
the invitation to hear the Gospel when someone knocks on their door.
I'm eternally grateful that we were guided by the Spirit to knock on
Tia's door that night. I felt such joy watching her be baptized and
I'm so happy the Lord allowed us to be a part of her conversion. I
can only imagine how I'll feel when one of our Investigators whom
we've been teaching gets baptized..
I love this work. I know its real. I know the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true church, and I say this in the
name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 |
| The gorgeous Iowan sunset from a few days ago |
I love you. Thank you for your love and support. You're the best
family an Elder could ask for.
Lots of love,
Elder Zack
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