Buenos Tardes Familia!
So this week has been pretty good, it’s been busy as heck…
Well, basically what’s been happening is that on Thursday we left for Bogotá to
Tierra Linda, one of the richest parts of Bogotá to do intercambios with the
Assistants. That was really cool, we were contacting in a park, me and Elder
Wood from South Carolina, and we found a guy who was wearing a Slipknot shirt
(Slipknot is a heavy metal band) and I walked up to him and said “hey do you
like Slipknot?” and he said “Heck ya I do!” then we started talking about the
gospel and then we asked him “Hey could we pass by your house one day to share
a message with you?” and he said “you guys don’t have time right now do you?”
and we were like “wait, are you for real?” and he said “ya, I have 40 minutes.”
So we went in this park, which is a beautiful park, and we went and sat down
and told him about the Book of Mormon. It wasn’t the right moment to do a first
lesson about the restoration, but we did tell him about the Book of Mormon and
he was super, super interested. He was a guy of 17 years. It was really really
cool to see the power of the Book of Mormon, especially teaching with Elder
Wood. The spirit was very strong. You would be surprised how many people love
that we teach that Jesus Christ came to the Americas. That’s something that’s
very special for people here.
Then after that, we went to correlation with their Ward
Mission Leader, that was Nefi. That’s the Spanish version of Nephi. Nefi is a
magician. He does some SWEET card tricks. I think I might be able to send a
video to you about one of the tricks that he does. They will blow your mind. He
always does them at correlation because there are always missionaries visiting
with the intercambios with the assistants. That was fun. After that, on Friday
night, we went to Carlos y Diana, who are investigators of the Assistants over
in Bogotá. It was great, the lesson, we went there and had planned to teach
lesson 2, The Plan of Salvation, but I looked over at Elder Wood, and we were kinda
short on time because their area, Tierra Linda, is super super far from their
house. It’s like ½ an hour in taxi. They have the temple in their area too
which is cool, but anyway, we went to Carlos and Diana and we switched to
talking about baptism with them. The spirit was very strong again as we
explained to them the doctrine of Christ concerning baptism. I felt really good
teaching there and we invited them to be baptized, and they had a couple of
questions and we answered their questions and then the wife said “you know, I
think we are going to need a little bit of time.” And then her husband chimed
in and said “Why? I’m ready.” And he said “no, I’m serious, I’m ready to be
baptized. You’re right, the Catholic Church does not have the authority to do
that. I want to be baptized.” And she looked at him and said “OK. Let’s do it.”
And so they are going to be baptized in a few weeks when they can finally
attend church. But ya, that was cool experience. When you speak the doctrine
very clearly and you explain it, it’s so powerful. We taught them with The Book
of Mormon and 2 Nephi 31, which talks about baptism and the doctrine of Christ.
I have learned to know how powerful that book really is. My conviction of the
Book of Mormon is true, the word of God is very very solid. I don’t know, maybe
I am not to the point where Russell M. Nelson said that we need to be, that we
should feel like that we need that every day, that we should not just know that
it’s true, but that there is something missing if we haven’t read it in the
day, maybe I am not to that point but I know that I can get there. I know the
Book of Mormon is true, and I love the Book of Mormon.
In our area, we had a couple of good things happen
yesterday, we had a investigator named Rodrigo, his family is members, and
before he was just not in the lesson, didn’t even want to pay attention.
Nothing interested him. We said “hey Rodrigo, how do you feel about this
passage of the Book of Mormon?’ and he said “ya good good…” he was just waiting
for this thing to end. But last night, we did something called “my life
mirrored” where me and my companion open up the scriptures and show them that
Methuselah lived for 1,000 years and we asked them “what would you do in 1,000
years of life?” then we move to the mismo….the
same Genesis is Noah, that “my spirit wont fight with men continually” and that
his years will be trabajar…. That his
years would be lessened to 120 years. Then we asked him “what would you do with
120 years?” THEN we say that that average life span in Colombia is like 80
years, so we take 80 and then we show them the scripture in 2 Peter that says
that God’s time is that 1day for him is 1,000 years here in the earth. SO we do
that math with him and find that 80 years, for God, is 2 hours, more or less.
1.95 hours. Then we say: “what would you do if you only had 2 hours left to
live?” and that’s when they really think. Then we share a message with them
that life is very short. And we end with Alma 34:32 that says that this is the
time for men to prepare to meet God. That really made him think. Then he said:
“What should I do? What do I do if I die and I am not ready?” At that point my
companion said: “Look, we would like to explain that. We are going to leave
this pamphlet with you and let you find the answer and we are gonna come back.”
And it was just so cool, because it was finally like he had a connection, like
he had a need and we were able to push the Gospel in to fill that need.
Hopefully, he will be reading. We will see. That was cool. Then next week we
are going to baptize Jefredy. Just trying to get him a testimony. He just
doesn’t have that strong of a testimony. But all things are looking up and a
growing ward here in the area. I am very optimistic and very happy about what’s
going on, so ya!
Alverson, our recent convert, has been flourishing in the
Gospel. He is just on fire. He has been accompanying us to lessons and doing
very well. He has been taking self reliance classes at the church, he has been
taking institute, he got into school… He’s just on fire. He’s just so awesome.
He is recognizing the blessings of the Lord in his life. He wore the tie I gave
him to church yesterday. It was awesome. I like seeing him with that tie.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any anchor ties anymore, I have given them to
people haha.
So ya, that was my week. This recording has been not too
long, I’m trying to think of anything else that might have happened…Oh ya, on a
funny note, we were in the house of familia Medina, and it’s the most humble
house that I have actually taught in. Sometimes it’s kinda sad. There are a
couple of recent converts in that house, we went in the room of one of them and
to cover up holes on the wall there are some close to pornographic things on
the wall. He said that he would take them down when he could fix the wall,
which doesn’t make sense, but we are going to buy him some church pictures and
put them up in…. lugar de… crap. In
place of those pictures. But we were there and one of the recent converts is
really kinda crazy. I don’t think he is there all the way. But he is great and
he supports us a lot. But we had a lesson and he was teaching a little boy
named Julian to orar, to pray, and
it was really interesting, this prayer. He was dictating to him so that Julian
could repeat it. The thing is, when Oscar doesn’t know the name of something or
someone, he just throws in whatever he thinks of. So he said “Please Heavenly
Father, bless J. J. Thompson that he can lead and direct this church.” And we
were like “J.J. Thompson, who the crap is that?” hahaha. My companion is
laughing. But he’s a great guy, he’s got a lot of heart. But there’s also a guy that
was baptized a little while ago, that before he had done a lot of drugs but he
quit them. His name is Fabian. And Fabian, I was on intercambios with Elder
Coop who is a new missionary a few weeks ago. We were walking through the
street and he said “Elderes!” so we stopped and he starts talking to us, and he
was really wigged out. I think he was on drugs again. Ya, he was pretty drugged.
But he was like “ya, ya I’m a member, I’m a member.” And we were walking
through the street on the sidewalk and he would see a car coming in the street
and he would push me out of the way and say “Elder, you just about got hit!”
and I said “Fabian, we’re on the sidewalk.” But ya, he was like, “Elders, I am
not doing well, I need you to come visit me.” He came to church the next day,
but after that and since then, he has had an affinity for Elder Coop. Elder
Coop is the one that I sent you a picture of him looking at the parrot. And the
other day I guess they were walking through the street, him and his companion,
and they found Fabian, and Fabian runs up to him: “Elder COOP!!! Tú eres la luz de mi vida!” or “You are
the light of my life!” and gives him a big hug. Hahaha. We have been laughing
about it ever since. But ya. Fabian. The interesting thing is that he has the
Doctrine and Covenants memorized. I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. He was the
thing freaking memorized. He will just go off quoting it word for word. We will
be in church and someone will be saying a scripture and he will get ahead of
them and just say the scripture before they finish without a triple in his
hands. It’s really interesting.
Well, I have told you guys a lot of things. I hope you guys
have a good week, I have been thinking about you guys and it sounds like the
Lord is blessing you guys so much. I am glad for Joe getting married and for
the success that you guys are having. Love you guys so much, and hope to talk
to you the next week. Gracias. Chao Chao!
-Elder Lewis
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