The temperature is rising.....
But oh man this week one of our investigators invited us to go play
soccer with him and his Nigerian friends. They play every week, and we
were expecting to have a nice chill game of futbol. Well, these old
Spanish dudes showed up with their Spanish national team jerseys on.
They divided the teams. Old Spanish dudes versus Nigerians and
Americans. This was going to be the easiest match I had ever played
in. Oh man, these 65-75 year old Spanish dudes were legit. They were physical,
they were fast, they were smart, and they totally humbled me. This was
100 times more intense than church ball too. They did not mess around
for 1 minute. It was sooo crazy.
Other than that we met a crazy cool kid on the way to our piso a
couple nights ago. He practically stopped us in the streets to start
talking to him. We invited him to listen to more and he gave us his
number. We met with him the next day. He then set up three
appointments with us this week with him his girlfriend and his sister
in law. We will see what happens but man he loves us.
This week I learned a few lessons. One thing, that the heat can really
make things complicated here. I have never been so tired in my mission
before. Seriously there are times where I have to fight so hard to
keep moving forward and I actually have to fight my body and force
myself to talk to people. NEVER LET THE BODY RULE THE SPIRIT.
We had a really good week to be honest though. We were able to have a
lot of lessons with some new people and had a lot of less actives at
church, including a woman who left the church just because the JW's
helped her when she needed it. Let's hope things continue forward from
here.
We had a really good zone conference this week with president Pack. He
and the APs gave us a bunch of really good things to encourage us to
keep going forward and encouraged us to talk to more people each and
every day. I found a scripture I loved while studying before the
conference.
Mosiah 4:17-21
17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his
misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of
my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer,
for his punishments are just--
18 But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great
cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he
perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God.
19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the
same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both
food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches
which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name,
and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye
have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and
has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused
that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance,
so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for
your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you
whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall
receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have
one to another.
This scripture is one that helps me a lot as a missionary. Kinda like
I mentioned last week, it can be hard to have the motivation to keep
talking to everyone in the streets. Sometimes we even get to the point
where we look at people and we just assume they don't want anything.
Yet this scripture helped me want to make some changes. First off, it
taught me that I have no right to judge others by the first glance, or
even after they reject me. I don't know their situation, I don't know
their lives. Who knows, I might even do the same thing if I didn't
have the knowledge I have of the gospel. The Lord does know them
though and he can help them. He Loves them, and he can't help them
unless I open my mouth and try. That's the second thing i felt reading
this scripture. It's hard to not give up on these people until I think
about all the Lord has given me through this gospel. I owe him all
I've got, and These people need this so so bad. That's my goal this
week, to remember that really, I owe the lord all I've got, and that's
what I need to do, share the gospel with all I've got to show him I'm
grateful
Hey, if you have a hard week this week, there's always next week.
Inspirational quote of the day.
Elder Baron
No comments:
Post a Comment