Week #42: ¡Hay que aprender a comprender el espiritu!

fa, como anda buen gente!? como le va? espero que todo esté bien en sus casas. La obra aquí en Tacuarembo anda bien de bien!! Things are good here. We are finding people, and were teaching them. I am pretty happy with how things are going here, although we are not satisfied one bit! 

Elder Cruz and I are learning how to work harder, and more effectively here. We had a stake conference this past week here, and we had a member of the 70 here, and also President Olsen! They both gave awesome talks. The member of the 70 (i think its Elder Levrino, or something close to that) gave a talk that really left me thinking. He's a very powerful speaker...and can explain the doctrine extremely simple.

 He talked about the verse in 3rd Nephi 11, verse 3. We learn here that the people were having an experience like none other. Christ was descending and visiting them. It says, they heard a voice that pierced them to their soul, but still, they didn't understand the voice. Sometimes I think we might think "wow howd they not understand if it was so powerful?" But, we often forget the exact same thing happens to us sometimes. 

Elder Levrino asked the audience, who were mostly all converts to the church, how many of them understood the missionaries the first time they met them. Every convert said they didn't understand one bit. Claudia, the woman we are teaching was sitting next to me and told me, "yeah I didn't understand one thing" Haha that was actually funny to hear...but, it made me realize it happens often to all of us. 

We might feel the Spirit super strong after a talk, or a lesson, or a meeting...and we think, Man that was awesome! Then later you might think about it and maybe you realize that you can't even remember anything exactly about what was said. I think a common example of this is General Conference. We always leave thinking it was so great, until someone asks us what we learned and then we are scrambling to even remember. 

The Spirit is a powerful thing, but we don't always understand it. It takes so much focus, time, and patience to understand what we are actually learning. If we can really focus in on what were learning day to day, our knowledge will grow so much faster. We are really seeing this effect Claudia right now. A while back, she didn't understand a single thing we said...but now she is reading, praying, and understanding the concepts of the Gospel. In all things (not just the gospel) we learn with TIME. I've learned this especially with Spanish. I've learned to not ask God to just give me the knowledge so that I can speak the language...but rather, I've learned to ask him for guidance in my studies, and patience with myself for when I make mistakes. 

I really have grown to understandthe role of the Spirit in our lives better. We may not always understand it at first, but with time and persistence, the mysteries of God will be unfolded unto us. Que podamos aprender a seguir los susurros del Espiritu en cada aspecto de nuestras vidas. 

Missionary Zone

Missionary District 

Impromptu 'photo shoot' on the way home
one night with Elder Cruz 

Braxton and Elder Cruz! Happy to get to work
together for another transfer! 

 

Braxton and Elder Cruz teaching a lesson
 to some investigators at the church 

Apparently the head of a hog...Braxton said they met an
 awesome guy that had a ton of meat and animals...?..;) 

Spilts with Braxton's good buddy, Elder Weed.

Week #41: El milagroso plan de Dios

Wow! How is it going everyone?! What a great week we've had here in Tacuarembo Baby! I want to quickly share two things that happened this week that have increased my testimony greatly, in the fact that God is always watching out for us and is doing all He possibly can to help us. 

A few weeks ago, a couple, Pablo and Claudia, came to church. We had been teaching them for a little while, and they finally came to church, and we were so happy. But, about a week later, they broke up. They had many problems and Pablo moved to a different neighborhood. We were told (by Pablo) that Claudia wanted nothing more to do with the church. We had thoughts of visiting her, but at the same time were a little hesitant because the last thing we wanted to do was argue, but we had told ourselves that in a few weeks when things calmed down, we would pass by her house and see. 

Well, God did us a favor and let her find us before we could find her again! She just found us in the street last Monday and asked us why we weren't visiting her anymore. We said we were told she didn't want us to anymore, but come to find out, that wasn't true at all...and she has actually gained more of a desire now to go to church! Wow!! What a blessing it was to hear that. Needless to say, we began teaching her again, and also 2 of her kids. The three of them came to church yesterday and they honestly enjoyed themselves. 

I learned many things from this. 1) Dont have fear!! 2) God has a plan and His timing for everything. Before, Claudia wasn't able to be baptized because she was living with her partner, but they werent married. But now, she is single and is ready for baptism!! She is still a little nervous about baptism, but we are helping her understand it a lot better. I know within the coming weeks, si Dios quiere, her and her kids will be baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ. It is an amazing thing to see a family, accept the gospel and truly have desires to just follow our Saviors example. 

Another miracle happened this week!! We had been visiting 2 inactive members for a little while now, trying to encourage them to come back to church. They had been very angry with the church for years, Im talking 5-10 years, and hadn't entered the church building since. Well, after a lot of work and help with the members, both of them came to church yesterday, for their first time in years. I had the privilege of passing the sacrament to them. I watched them take that bread and water for the first time in a long while. They both were so happy and they were just smiling like they had never smilied before!!

 I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has a specific plan for you and for me. And He is always waiting with arms open wide. Whether it be for the first time we get to know Him, or if we wandered from the path and finally find our way back. He is there, and is calling us. There is not one person in this universe hoping that someone accepts our message more so then God. He truly is doing all he can to help each child of His, follow His ways, and find the happiness that He has in store for us. Im thankful that I was able to be a front row spectator in so many miracles this week!!

Braxton Saves the Day!! & catches a frog in the bathroom before church! ;)

Lesson with Claudia and her kids this week!

Week #40: El amor puro de Cristo

What is up everyone! Hope everyones week was good and you are all enjoying the weather getting warmer! I'm out here happy that the weather is finally getting cold here in Uruguay!!!

 This past week was awesome honestly though. We had some awesome things this week happen. First, we had a fireside as a zone with President Olsen and all the people were are teaching, including recent converts to the church. We just talked about some basic stuff at our Stake Center, but it was so awesome to hear President Olsen speak to the people we are teaching here in TBO. It was super fun to see the people get to know our President and take pictures with them and everything! 

Later that night, and the next morning, we got to do splits with one of the APs, Elder Pupunu. Hes an awesome guy from Draper, Utah. Also, later that day we got to have interviews with Pres. Olsen! Always so awesome to talk to him. We only get one more interview with our Mission President here before he gets released in July. We are all extremely sad to have to say goodbye to him, but wer'e also excited to have another President and get to know him, and learn from him. 

Elder Cruz and I are doing awesome together. He's learning super fast and is learning to love the mission. He hass reminded me a lot about my first weeks in the mission field, and it's been a good reminder for me, of just how far I've come now as a missionary. Pretty crazy I'll be coming up on one year in the mission soon. 

Lots of good things happening right now that Id love to tell you all, but there just isn't enough time. But, I wanted to share a thought I had this week. I think I finally figured out the real reason why we missionaries are constantly hearing the phrase, "Love the people". 

We learn in Moroni 7 that charity is the most important, crucial thing we can develop in this life. We learn in that chapter that if we can develop love in our hearts, we will learn charity. If we learn charity, we will learn to be meek and humble. If we can become meek and humble in our lives, we can gain hope in Christ. If we can gain hope in Christ, we will develop faith. And...if we, as missionaries, have sufficient faith, we will have the power in our words to convince the people that our message is true. So, if we do not first love the people we serve with our entire hearts, we can never develop the faith necessary to convince them of the truthfulness of this Gospel. 

Maybe it seems simple to you, but I spent quite a while one morning thinking about all this and finally realizing, and understanding, why it is so dang important that we LOVE the people. I know these things are for more then just missionaries. If we learn to love our neighbors, we can gain these Christ-like attributes of Christ. So the great and 2nd commandment is, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." I know if we achieve this, we can achieve anything in this life. 

Week #39: Porque El vencìo la muerte, podemos ver a nuestras familias otra vez

               How is every doing back home?! I hope you are all doing well! This week has been good, but we received some very sad news this morning. Our bishop, Obsipo Bulmini has been in the hospital for the last 2 months or so now, and we just heard this morning that he has passed away.

 

He originally went into the hospital for a surgery, but was expected to leave just a week later. Me and my last comp visited him twice since he's been in the hospital. He had good energy and was excited. He told us that weekend (about a month and a half ago) that he was supposed to be allowed to go back to home very soon. Well, that weekend things went downhill. His health was not in good condition, and they discovered he was developing cancer.. Bishop Bulmini was about 80 years old. We will have his funeral tomorrow.

I've been thinking a lot about the plan of salvation recently actually because we've ran into several people who have had loved ones die recently. The thing we tell every person is that we can learn about God's plan for us in the Book of Mormon and that this book really can answer all our questions if we would just study it and pray about it. I can't imagine how much more sad his death would be if we didn't have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. We may not ever see our loved ones who have passed away while we are in this life, but I can testify with my entire soul that we will see our family and friends after this life.

Alma 11:42-44 teaches us that because Christ broke the bands of death, we can too. He overcame the grave, and because of Him we all will have the chance to live with our families for eternity. I truly have no doubt in my soul, that I will see Bishop Bulmini again after this life. It still isn't easy when someone passes on from this life, but because we have a Savior in Jesus Christ, we will see our families again. 

When I think of what Christ has given us, all I desire to do is serve Him by doing His will. If we truly understand that He suffered for us, and because of Him we can have eternal life, we will have every desire to just try to repay Him. If it weren't for His love for us, we could never see our loved ones again and we would live in an eternal despair. 

Im thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ...for what He did for you, and for me, so that we can live again with the ones that we love. Death is a very hard thing, but how much harder would it be if we didn't have The Plan of Salvation. I hope we can remember that life is temporary and there is so much more after this life...but man if we can just appreciate the people we have right now while we got them!