Week 94: Testify of Christ
What's going on everyone? I hope you've all had an amazing week!
On Tuesday after lunch we taught hermana Carmen about temples. Our lesson with Mirian sadly fell through but we went over to hermano James and had a great lesson with him. We're still helping him receive his answer if the church is true. He's keeping his commitments. After that we passed by a small store and felt the spirit that we should talk with the lady working there. We started to talk to her and learned that her name's Verónica and that she's from Venezuela. She's a little scared about getting closer to God because she has some things she needs to drop, but it felt good to know we were in the right place where God wanted us to be in a specific time. We then had a lesson with Verónica after a long time! (The wife of Kike) We talked about baptism and got a bit more familiarized with her doubts and fears. Her husband Kike really wants his wife to be able to be baptized. We talked a lot about how to receive spiritual confirmations and how to recognize them. We used D&C 9 to explain that and I felt prompted to tell her that listening to the spirit may be a difficulty right now for her, but that in the future it will be one of her greatest strengths. I felt the spirit strongly to tell her that and I feel that she will become someone who will follow the Spirit very well. We left them with the invitation to read 3 Nefi 27. We had to skip visiting hermano Jose that night because we were running a little late. We went straight to hermana Isabel's house where we were able to talk about hermano Mathias' experience during the youth testimony night. He said when it was his turn to speak that words came out he hadn't planned on saying. We were able to help him recognize that that was the Holy Ghost putring into his mouth the words which he should say. It was so cool being able to explain that to him. We then shared with Alejandro and Isabel Elder Christofferson's talk from the last conference. We explained the importance of the sealing power and eternal marriage, using things they had learned to week before when we listened to Elder Godoy's talk. We told them that we know their situation is very difficult, but that the Lord would multiply their efforts if they could give an active effort to follow the Lord's commandments. They have to change a lot things, many of which aren't fully in their control, but if they actively try with the little they can, I know that God will bless them and open the way.
On Wednesday we had District Council and then had exchanges with Central 2 which started a little too late, again! The Elders changed apartments so they're not in the same apartment anymore that I was in when I was there almost a year and a half ago. I took Elder Erickson with me back to Chan Chan. We first had a lesson with Magaly and she's understanding the Restoration very well! Although she does have to work on Sundays. but we'll see what we can do. Many of our other lessons fell and we spent most of the day using the ward member lisr to find. But man Elder Erickson has no fear! That dude'll talk with anyone! It was actually quite a big inspiration to me and I know that he'll accomplish great things here in the mission! That night we taught hermano Jose and there were a lot of distractions. There were noises and Valentina wasn't being the best help. Hermana Andrea actually pulled out some scripture references to help him which was so awesome to see. But I felt kind of lost in that lesson. I kept asking him questions to try and understand his needs, but he wasn't answering in very detailed ways. He's not a very open person. So that was tough and I decided that I need to pray a bit more specifically for him so I can receive inspiration. We then taught Jhonatan, Kiara, and Estefano about the gift of the Holy Ghost again! Man I love visiting them since they're all so anxious to learn!
On Thursday we finished the exchange and sent Elder Erickson and Elder Estebes off with some warer barrels for their apartment. We had a small videocall with our DLs and then with the APs. After lunch we did weekly planning and started planning our training for the multizone conference. Our topic is kind of weird but we're figuring something out. We then had a lesson with hermana Mirian. We explained the entrie process of repentance, baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how we can always retain the remission of our sins. We wanted her to understand what will be required of her after her baptism and that the remission of sins doesn't come from being baptized. She understood it quite well and her son Angel also showed a bit more interest than usual so we'll see if we can teach him too! We talked eith hermano Jose's mom in the park for a second to see how we can better teach her son. We had a small lesson with hermano Wiliam too. He definitely has a lot of influences from different churches in his beliefs. I'm not sure if he'll progress, but we'll give him a shot. We passed by hermana Verónica, (the venezuelan from the store), and got to know her a bit better. She still has a fear of getting closer to God, but she said she wanted to come to church with us so we think there's a lot of hope! We had a small lesson about prophets with hermano Luis afterwards. Then we were invited by hermana Marily to go to her house and pick up some food from her birthday party. We couldn't spend a lot of time their because the hermanas of Chan Chan were also there and there's a rule in mission that we can't be together in lessons or member's houses. At first they didn't here our knocks so I resorted to violent measures because I wanted my food! I folded up a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and threw it through the window! I hope I didn't hit anyone. Then hermano Victor, my pensión from Central opened the door! He and his wife are good friends, (or maybe family?), of Marily and Marcelo, so it was fun talking with him. He and his wife are going to have another baby! We got some food from hermana Marily and took a photo and then left. We had some good fried food.
On Friday for breakfast we had chocolate cake and piononos which were leftovers from hermana Marily's birthday. We then had exchanges with Buenos Aires 1. I went there with Elder Cárdenas. We had some lessons and then that night we had a baptismal interview for hermano Isidro. He passed! That night we had some chicken taquitos. We played some Monopoly deal and I helped Elder Hadfield out with his Spanish.
On Saturday I had a conversation with Elder Ochoa about his district and offered some advice. After lunch we did some more planning for our training and then had a lesson with hermana Rosmery. We read the rest of 3 Nefi 11 and talked about the authority of the Priesthood and baptism. I invited her to prepare to be baptized, but she responded how I thought she would. She said she wants to learn and prepare more, which is exactly what I wanted because I just wanted to see if she'd be willing to prepare to get to that point. She's not married, so it might take a while. We visited hermano Santiago, James' dad. That night we taught hermana Verónica again. We had a powerful lesson. We had left 3 Nefi 27 for them to read but they read 26 instead. We made it work to our advantage and we were able to explain that once we accept the small and simple things God will give us better things, things that we can't understand now. After that we read some verses from chapter 27 and explained how all of this, the church, the Gospel, baptism, etc., is all thanks to Jesús. As hermano Kike gave his testimony I felt prompted to open up to Moroni 10. We read verses 32 and 33. We felt prompted to invite her to baptism again but focus on Jesús Christ and His Atonement. The spirit was so strong as we testified of Christ and how he died to give us the opportunity to use His Atonement and be forgiven of our sins. We invited her to be baptized on November 11th as a goal. She accepted! She still has doubts, but we're going to work with faith. That was a strong testimony to me that the Holy Ghoat will always be present and strong when we testify of Christ. The answer is always Jesus Christ. That night we had a small noche de hogar with hermana Patricia, Jhonatan, and Estefano. Kiara was at a stake activity. We talked about perservering to the end. That night for dinner we had pizza!
On Sunday we went to church and saw hermana Isabel, hermano James, hermano Jose, and hermana Verónica come! The majority of our recent converts also came and hermano Jhonatan passed the sacrament for the first time! Hermano Andy also presented hermana Jeidy to us. She's a pf who's never been baptized and decided to come to church! We'll see what we can do there. We fixed up the baptismal forms of Jhonatan, Kiara, and Estefano afterwards and printed off their certificates. We planned more of our training after lunch and had a pretty uneventful afternoon in the streets. We had the weekly mission zoom call to finish out the night.
For pday we went to the mission home and played some games and ate some pizza and brownies.
That's my week! It was pretty great and I'm ready to see what the next one brings! Have a great week!
Elder Jensen
1. Cumpleaños de hna Marily!
2. Pday en la casa de la misión!
3. Foto de hna Merly
4. Yo y Elder Erickson
5. Torta y pionono para el desayuno
6. Actividad de pday de la semana pasada
7. Elder Eskeleto
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