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! 

Week #38: ¡El poder del Espìritu!

Wow what is going on everybody?!! Another good week down here in TBO! It was pouring rain all day everyday, but we still managed to find a couple awesome people to teach this week. 

I'd like to share an experience that Elder Cruz and I had this past Saturday. We were walking along in our area, just chatting with some people in the street and we were just about to go visit this woman that we had contacted a few days before. We started walking to her house, and Elder Cruz told me that he felt like we should go visit this woman named Yaquelin (who lived a good 30 mins away). Yaquelin was a referral from another ward about 2 months ago. We were told her son and husband had recently passed away and that she was in a really tough spot in life. We tried for weeks to find her but we never could...until on last Tuesday when we decided to pass by one more time to try to find her, and we DID! She told us to come back another day, so we did, but once again we couldn't find her. Then Elder Cruz all of a sudden felt like we should go pass by again, so I told him 'lets get going!!' So, we sped-walked to her house. 

Ive had a few experiences like this before, and they don't always turn out to be the person you were inspired to go visit, but rather someone else that you run into along the way. So I was very attentive of the people around us. We got to Yaquelin's neighborhood and I saw a house that I felt extremely impressed to contact. So we went, talked to this one guy for a minute, but he said he was busy so we left. I was a little confused, because I had felt so strongly to contact this persons house...but we continued and got to Yaquelin's house. We clapped out front, and a kid comes out and tells us that Yaquelin wasn't home. We were  about to leave, but then I found myself chatting with the kid a little about futbol. Just then, Yaquelin shows up on her bike and tells us we can come in to chat. In that moment, I already knew without a doubt that we were sent from God above to talk with this woman in that very moment. She quickly broke down in tears to us about her son and husband and says that she's been extremely religious her whole life, but now that these events had happened, she was questioning her faith...and questioning God. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon, and how it explains the Plan of Happiness that God has prepared for us. We told her she would see and live with her family once again for eternity. She finally calmed down and Elder Cruz and I bore the strongest testimonies that we could to help this woman feel the truthfulness of our message. 

Now I don't know if Yaquelin will go on to get baptized, or if she will even believe our message is true...but I know without a doubt, that Elder Cruz and I accomplished what we were sent to do in that moment. We felt very satisfied that God saw us worthy, to send us to one of His daugther's who was in a lot of pain, and needed comfort. I really can't always explain my feelings through email, but I hope all of you know that this Plan that God has for us is real. That we really will live with our families again, and we will live in a state of peace and happiness. 

I can testify of the power that the Spirit has in us. If we just listen to that voice, we can be the cause for so much good in this world. I love what I do every day as a missionary, to truly be a tool in the hands of God to save the souls of His children. Have a good week everybody!!

Braxton and his new trainee Elder Cruz

Dinner after Zone Conference in Rivera

Rooftop view in Rivera 

The Zone in TBO

Taco Sauce loving Elder Cruz enjoying a good meal! 

Braxton is having a great time with his  new companion Elder Cruz

Add caption

City street view

Week 37: Im training a mexicano!

What is up everybody?! Wow! Its been a crazy week. Been a lot of traveling, and not much sleep for a couple nights, but, aquì estamos! I went down to Montevideo to pick up my ORO (translated to gold, means new missionary), and he's a beast! 

I seriously got one of the best missionaries out there! Elder Cruz is from southern Mexico, from a state called Tabasco. Pretty spicy name, I know. He really came into the mission the way you should...full of energy and ready to share what you believe. Ive honestly probably already learned more things from him, than he has from me. This guy is just ready to talk with people! He loves to tell all the people how much he loves tacos and spicy sauce, its pretty dang hilarious honestly. Although, he's a little depressed that there isn't spicy stuff here in this country whatsoever, but he´ll survive.. hopefully haha!

His attitude and tenacity to share the gospel has been what's impressed me most about him. He has plenty to learn about being a missionary and effective teaching, but that really isn't what is important at the end of the day. The Lord says, "Give me everything you have, and I will turn you into something that you could've never imagined you could be." Elder Cruz will turn into an amazing missionary, because he's just giving everything he's got!

Each of us has this same potential in our lives, whether it be in our jobs, studies, spiritual life, families, sports, whatever it may be...God will truly turn us into something we can't even imagine. I love the story found in Moses 6. It talks about Enoch. He was called to preach to the people, but in verse 31 he said to God "Why hast thou chosen me? For I am but a lad, and the people hate me for my slow speech." The Lord responded and told Enoch to go and do what He had commanded him, and nothing will be able to stop him from fulfilling his calling. In verse 47 we learn that the Enoch became so powerful in speaking that the people could not bear his words, for they were just too powerful! 

I truly can testify of the power that we can receive when we simply just trust God, and give Him our all. I hope you all had a great Easter Weekend, and were able to take a moment to think of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for you. That he truly felt everything you've felt, and that he truly understands you. He is waiting with open arms to receive us, and give us power in the things we never thought could be strong in our lives. I love you all, have a good one!

Braxton, as a new trainer, with his companion,
brand new to the mission field from Mexico, Elder Cruz!! 

Braxton ran into his first convert Sebastian when he was in Montevideo this week!
He is doing awesome and still going strong in the gospel! 

Braxton also rand into Elder Evans this week! He was his comp
in the MTC...and one of his 'best buds' in the mission so far! 

Selfie with Maicol ( a convert they baptized a few months ago)! 

Braxton's District! They are all training right now! 

Braxton and Elder Cruz before going to the temple this week. 

Group selfie of all the new TRAINERS!! 

Week 36: ¡Cambios!

Wow it was a crazy week! I am finishing off my time with my Chileano comp, Elder Seguel, and now Ill get to train a brand new missionary! I'm extremely excited to train an ORO BABY! But at the same time, I am a little nervous, as I will be this guys first impression of the mission haha! Its a good feeling though. It will be awesome to see my new comp grow into the mission and see his adjustment. I will find out who my oro is tomorrow at the Montevideo temple! Its going to be an amazing day for sure!

 Every new missionary goes through a certain phase at the beginning of their mission, Ive thought about this a lot. Some can take it better than others, but I would guess that its a rough change for just about every single missionary. One thing that will be rained down upon you is just HUMILITY. God really enjoys humbling His missionaries as much as possible, is what I've learned as a missionary. In every aspect possible, He will humble you, and especially if you are learning a new language. While its not always fun to get humbled...I really think humility is something so crucial to have, if you want to be even a decent servant of Christ. 

I have a personal belief that no "Christ-like attribute" is more necessary than humility, with exception to charity/love as number 1 on the list. When we humble ourselves, we submit ourselves entirely unto the Lord. We don't tell ourselves that what we think is gonna be the better way, we follow the Spirit in EVERY prompting that we receive. No task, no job, is too low for someone that is humble. 

Christ was the ultimate example of humility. Never once, did Christ put his own will or desire above that of the Fathers. He truly suffered the pains and sins of the world, so that Gods perfect plan could be fulfilled. I am truly coming to understand that without humility, we will never learn what Gods needs us to learn, and therefore we will never reach the potential that God has planned for us. I know that the attribute of humility is a God-like attribute that we must have, if we want to have any chance of becoming like Him. So, we might as well start today. Humbling ourselves in all things, both spiritually and temporally.

 I truly am thankful that God loves me enough, to humble me. Que podamos pedir al Padre el atributo de humildad. Les amo. Que pasen lindo!

A picture from President & Sister Olsen's Facebook page today!
Braxton with his new trainee and companion at the Montevideo Temple

Braxton and Elder Seguel taking in the sites of the Tacuarembo
one last time before the transfer.

Pday service activity!