Hola Familia! Elder Lewis aqui en Bucaramanga,
I have a feeling that next week I will be headed for Bogota.
I don’t know, I could be staying here, or going somewhere else, but that’s just
my hunch. Today, the 13th of February, is my 5 month mark, today, 5
months ago, I left you all to come out on this amazing hard mission and
journey, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Surely its been the best thing I
have ever done. (A note from Jessica: by our week counter on this blog, which started
on the day that Elder Lewis went to the MTC, he is actually almost 6 months
in!)
This week has gone by crazy fast. We are still working with
these muchachos en la calle (boys in the street) they are between the ages of
14 and 19 and half of them smoke but they are super cool. They are more
receptive than most of the adults that we teach. I am super excited about them.
We had a lesson with them on Saturday and they just could not contain their…
how do you say… sorry Spanish I can’t think of the word in English…. They were shocked.
they were in awe. There we go. They were in awe that there is a prophet and the
12 apostles on the earth again. They just couldn’t wrap their minds around
that. These guys understand how cool that is. The other people, sometimes, they
are so caught up in their traditions that they don’t realize what we are saying
to them. A lot of people here are content with Psalms and Proverbs in the
Bible, and maybe a little bit of Peter, but the rest of it is just fluff.
Basically that means that they know the parts of the Bible that are nice and
flowery, but lack a foundation of doctrine, they don’t know much. Now this
isn’t the case with everyone, but it is with maybe half the people. These boys,
they caught on to how cool that is that there is a prophet and 12 apostles on
the earth again! So, they were wondering: “what do they do? What do they say?”
I said that we hear form them every 6 months. They said: “No Way!” So I showed
them Gospel Library. They are more or less poor, one of them had a cell phone
with internet, so I opened up Google Play, and opened up Gospel Library, and
they thought that was super cool. So with luck, we are going to start making
some progress with them and start teaching some English classes with them, and
their parents are super excited about that. We have talked to them this week
about smoking and all of this, it’s kind of funny, the ones that don’t smoke
make fun of the ones that do smoke! They say that after 10 minutes the ones
that do smoke are breathing like dogs haha. It’s kinda funny because it’s just
like “being with the guys”. They are very attentive, but rough around the
edges. Hopefully we will be able to do some good.
Anyway, Entonces…. Its been a rough week as far as
investigators go. We didn’t have one at the church on Sunday, which was not
what we were expecting. Familia Reyes, the ones with the baptismal date for 25th
of February, they are having some problems. She (Mile) is having some health
problems, but also her familia is not supporting her. Please PLEASE pray for her.
Her name is Mile. Spelled like the word mile. His name is John. They need your
prayers. That’s my request this week for prayer. But really, honestly, I am
worried for them. Their testimony is really starting to blossom, but I don’t
know what’s going on with them. Hermana Blanco, Angelina Blanco called us today
and is worried about them too. She gave us the reference. So we will see what
happens. Christian y Miladys are still very strong. Miladys got a calling this
week, and Christian received the Aaronic Priesthood. They gave me a “coratorio”
or something for us to remember them by with a Scripture on it that says “how
beautiful are the feet upon the mountains that proclaim peace and say to Israel
Thy God reigneth.”. I almost teared up a bit. I really love them.
This week, I don’t know, tomorrow we are going to go on
intercambios, Elder Orr, my zone leader, is going to come here and my companion
will go over there. Not much to report this week. We have been working hard as
usual. I have really started to gain a strong foundation in my testimony, and I
would that everyone could have this opportunity to serve. Its kinda backwards,
when you spend all your time serving other people and forget yourself, it took
me 5 months to finally start this process of forgetting about me and just
really serving the people. It took me 5 months. But that is why missionary work
is really happy.
So I want to share a little bit of something with you all.
Its in Jacob 5:71. Not sure what it is in English, but I will translate it. It
says: “go and work in the vineyard with your might. For behold, this is the
last time that I will nurture my vineyard because the end soon cometh and the
season comes quickly. And if you all work with me, with your power, with your
might, you will rejoice in the fruit that you bring in for me for the time that
soon cometh. And it came to pass that the servants went and worked with all
their might and the Lord of their vineyard also worked with them. And they all
obeyed the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard.” Sorry, rough translation,
but basically this is the last time that he will call is servants to work in
the vineyard. He is calling us to come and work with him. And it is really cool
when he says that the Lord of the vineyard came and worked with them. We have
the opportunity to work with the Lord, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ for
the last time. This is the last time that he will send his servants into the
vineyard. How blessed are we to have this opportunity. So now is the time. Now
is the time to work in the vineyard, which means bringing souls unto him. So
something that I found while giving a talk this Sunday in church, (they do it
different here, they don’t give you a topic they give you a talk to go off of)
So in this talk by Gifford Millsap in conference 2013, he said that we should
pray for the missionaries by name in our area, and pray for the people that they
are teaching. The only way that we can do that is if we greet them, look at
their plaque, and ask them who they are teaching. So if you have the
opportunity to see the missionaries, talk to them. Ask them about their
investigators so that that part of the vineyard can grow and bear fruit. I
promise you that you will be blessed. More, the Lord promises you that you will
rejoice in the fruit that you will bring in for them. This is the work of the
Lord. Also, If we seek to strengthen our testimony of the Gospel, we will have
the desire to share it. If we are timid, we should seek to read the scriptures
and have a spiritual experience. This will give us the strength to go forth and
proclaim the word. We can do it. We can do it if we work together, members and
missionaries, we can do it. We can bring this gospel to the 4 corners of this
earth.
That’s my message for this week. I want you to know that I
am doing well, I am healthy, I have been eating a lot of Oatmeal because its
cheap, I made spaghetti the other night… but I am healthy and doing fine,
seeking to lose myself in the work more and more each day. I wish that I had
the time to talk to you about all our contacts, but time doesn’t permit. I love
you all and I am praying for you all. I hope that you feel my prayers because I
definitely feel yours. Keep praying for me. I need it, and for our
investigators as well. Love you all. Chao!
-Elder Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment