Week 95: Always Retaining a Remission of Our Sins
Hello everyone! Happy Halloween!
On Monday after pday we went to the offices for the mission leadership meeting. We had pizza for dinner, (which is what we had had for lunch, too), and then had a great council with President. We're focusing a lot on how we can help elevate the expectations and faith of the missionaries to baptize more converts. I got to talk a bit to Elder Agostinelli again about how the work's going in Chan Chan.
On Tuesday (Halloween!!!) we spent a part of the day planning our training for the multizone conference on Thursday. That night we had a lesson with Jose. He had come to church the Sunday before and loved the feelings of peace and tranquility that he felt. We used the opportunity to teach him about baptism, the gift of the Hoky Ghost, and the sacrament. He understood it really well, which was surprising to me because before it was very hard for us to see if he was understanding what we were teaching him. We invited him to be prepared to be baptized on Devember 2nd, and he accepted! He needs to be able to show his commitment of coming to church and really understanding what we're teaching him. He's told us he also wants to be a missionary one day, so we're going to help him with his goal.
On Wednesday we finished preparing our training for the multizone conference. In the afternoon we used the ward member list and taught hermana Mirian about the sabbath day. We invited her to the noche hogar we were planning in the house of hermano Marcelo and hermana Marily, but it was her granddaughter's birthday so she wasn't able to. We rushed over to visit the Mejía familia for a moment and they shared some interesting ideas about how to work with members. Then we few over to the house of Marcelo and Marily and prepared for the noche hogar. Hermano Irving and hermana Joanna, two less active members, also came. Hermano Kike and Verónica came and we focused our message on the sacrament to help Verónica understand the need to keep coming to church and to understand the process of always retaining the remission of our sins. Hermana Marily prepared some bread with him for a snack!
On Thrusday we wolfed down our breakfast really fast to make it to the offices for the multizone conference. We listened to President, Hermana Hiatt, and the APs. They focused on finding joy in the work, raising our expectations and faith to baptize more converts, seeing with God's eyes, the Holy Ghost, and finding families. I learned so much I with I would have know earlier! But as President Hiatt has told me, I was working as well as I knew how and that's what the Lord wanted me to be doing. We gave our training before lunch. Our topic was on helping the missionaries to have more desire to support the members in loving, sharing, and inviting through a ward mission plan. It was kind of a weird topic but we made it work by focusing on if we're being a blessing or a drag for our wards and how even as missionaries who do a lot of good things, we need to work with the wards if we don't want to be a drag. We used the story of Abish to represent a missionary who has good intentions but not everything goes according to plan and it actually causes some problems, like it initially did in her place. It was kind of a weird example bit it was fun. We had to apologize to all the Abish fangirls afterwards because there aren't very many named women in the BoM. I saw Elder Lopez and got him to sign my BoM since this is his last transfer. For lunch we had café río Perú again with cake and brownies and ice cream for dessert. My bday is in November so I got sang too. At the end we heard the testimonies of Elder Lopez, Elder Pizarro, Elder Solano, Elder Beizaga, and Elder Goates. It was so fun to see Elder Lopez with such a strong testimony. I looked back on our 3 months together and I can really see how far he's come. I with the best for him. Also hearing Elder Beizaga's testimony hit me, since in a way he was my trainer, even if it only was 3 weeks. After the conference we delivered the money for the almuerzo and had interviews with President. After the interviews we went to hermana Evelyn and gave her a blessing of health. She was someone that Elder Beizaga taught when he was here who looks to be having interest again. We then taught hermano Jose about baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament a little bit more in depth and I was amazed at his understanding! He's come a long way. That night we also taught hermano Luis and then visited Patricia and her kids. We talked a little bit about temples and their baptismal covenant. We also gave them their baptismal certificates!
On Friday we went on exchanges with Vista Alegre. I stayed in Chan Chan with Elder Chorrez. Most of our lessons fell through that day, but we did by surprise run into hermana Elena and hermano Walter, the parents of Miclok. I asked them if there was anything we could do for them and they said we could come over to teach them again. We went over at 6 and had a good lesson with them about faith and change. I think they always knew what they needed to do they just needed an invitation. They both believe the church is true, so we invited them to start reading again in the BoM and come to church. They still have to get married, but I know it was by the spirit that we were in the right place at the right time. That night we taught hermana Andrea a little bit. We answered her questions bout the RLDS and baptisms for the dead, dipping into the Millenium to answer her questions. That night we also taught hermana Carol, a woman who saya she's in the middle between God and Satan. Kinda interesting. That night we played card games with Gabriel and Alizon while we waited for dinner, which was pollo la brasa! I hadn't had it in a long time.
On Sunday at church we saw hermano James, hermana Elena, hermano Walter, and hermana Jeidy! Sadly we didn't see Verónica, Jose, or Mirian. We'll see what the spirit can do to help them this week. We got a lesson planned with Jeidy, who has told everyone she wants to be baptized! We broke our fast and had a small ministudy with Elder Ochoa and Elder Hadfield. After that we went to a few lessons that fell through. We talked with Rosangela a bit in the park and then had a good lesson with Elena and Walter. Their son Miclok also helped us. We felt that we should teach them about the Plan of Salvation so we can put in context why the Church is important and what they'll need to do to prepare to meet God. Our lesson with Verónica then canceled because they didn't answer. We tried looking for them but we were guided by the spirit to the house of the familia Mozombite. They're an elderly couple who are great missionaries and have helped lots of their friends come into the church. We talked with them a bit and then watched a video as part of a small lesson. I won't go into it, but the video we watched matched up perfectly with what I needed to hear at that moment. It's a video I had seen many times before, but it really resonated with me this time. It made me understand what I think God wants me to understand right now based on the trials that are going on. So that unexpectedly changed my day. It was a rather disappointing day and that video combined with spiritual impressions helped me understand something I think God's been trying to get me to understand for a long time. We had the mission zoom call and we called it a night.
For pday today we went shopping! I always said that at the end of my mission I'll go souvenir shopping so I don't have to haul that all around, but here I am! So I went souvenir shopping.
That's all for me! Your prayers really do help! Have an absolutely fantastic week!
Elder Jensen
1. Elder Solano
2,5,6,7. Multizona
3. Conferencia de Líderes
4. Casa de Presidente!
Comments
Post a Comment