This was such an amazing
week here in Mulchen. First thing first, we had Ward Conference this week, so everyone
knows what that means: activities every day in church!
This was so good
for me, because I was able to go to these activities and get to know the
members and really get to gain their trust. I was able to get to know the
members who I am going to work with and really have a good time with them. It
was also really successful because we were able to bring a lot of investigators
to these activities and the members here were so good with our new investigators.
The investigators had a great experience and were able to overcome their fear
of not fitting in, or being a little weird.
On Tuesday I went on a mini- transfer and I went to Santa
Barbara, a little town outside of Los Angeles. I got to work with Elder
Montecinos from Santiago. We had a lot of spiritual lessons. I went there to
get to know my district a little better and to know their investigators. I was
blown away by the spirituality of the investigators they have. They are all so
good and so ready for baptism. One lesson we had was seriously amazing. We walked
into this one house and Elder Montecinos tells me that we are visiting a recent
convert, but also we wanted to talk to her mom about baptism, because she is
scared and has never accepted a baptismal date because she is Catholic. We went
in there and began to teach the daughter. They daughter was a little unfocused,
so then we turned our attention to the mom. The good thing about inter-cambios
are that as the new guy you can ask a bunch of questions and really get to know
the investigators needs. That is exactly what we were able to do. Me being the
new guy, I went in there and just started to ask questions. She really opened
up to us. She told us that she was scared to change her religion because all
her family is Catholic and that she just wants to live and die catholic. We
were able to share really powerful scriptures with her. We were definitely
guided by the spirit in this lesson. We were able to explain to her that if she
puts her Faith in Jesus Christ, she will be able to find her answer, and that
Christ says COME UNTO ME. We were all overcome by this overwhelming feeling. At
the same moment my companion and I looked at each other and we both had the
same idea. In that exact moment we challenged her to be baptized. She looked at
us for a second with a look that was like Elders, I have already told you no
many times. But then she began to talk. She at the end accepted the invitation.
She is now going to prepare and really give it her all in finding an answer. It
was such a great day!
The rest of the week we had great activities. Wednesday we
had Karaoke night, Thursday we had a Talent Show, Friday we had a night of
food, and on Saturday the best of all we had a baptism. We finished off the
week with the best thing possible. We had 3 baptisms this week. It was
definitely a gift to me. I recently just got to this sector and these people
were ready. THANKS TO ELDER ZACHARY NELSON; (all girls that are 19-23… he will
be returning home from his mission here in 4 weeks. He will be returning to
Holiday Utah, so be on the lookout for this incredible missionary.)
No, but for real, this family is so awesome. When I first
met this family they were amazing. But in my time here they did go through a
few trials. The mom and the daughter decided not to get baptized because when
the daughter was a baby she was on the verge of dying and them being catholic
took the daughter to the Virgin Mary and she was saved. Now they are scared
that if she is baptized that she will be going against the virgin and the
virgin will take away this contract and that she will die. So it was a really
big challenge for the Dad to hear this, it had a really big effect on him. On
Thursday we went to his house to make sure he still wanted to get baptized. In
this lesson, he told us why he wanted to get baptized. He began to get emotional
and told us all the changes her has made in his life. He went from a drunk that
never loved his family to a person that spends all his time with his family. I
have never heard such a powerful testimony. Even though he doesn’t
understand much and it is difficult for him to read, he has changed so much and
really has the desires to grow and follow Christ.
This weekend with a lot of prayer and fasting we were able
to overcome all the doubts and we were able to baptize him, and his 2 sons of
12 and 14. Alejandro, Alejandro and Ricardo. It was so awesome to see how happy
they were after their baptisms. Then on Sunday at their conformation they were able
to be confirmed in our Ward Conference. There were so many people there loving
and supporting them. I was able to confirm Alejandro the dad, during the middle
of the confirmation I was hit by the spirit and knew that he was going to stay
in the church for a long time. It was a great end to a great week!!
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