Hi Family!
This week is a little bit chaotic. I’m a little bit crazy.
As I told you on the chat, my companion had to go home for family reasons, and
that has left me a little bit stranded in my area. Thankfully, I have some
really good companions that are helping me out a lot. I am with Elder Gulla
from the Philippines, and Elder Prestwich from Utah. Well, my companion went on
a Wednesday, and coincidentally Elder Gulla and Elder Prestwich had exchanged
with the Zone Leaders that day. So I went with them on their exchanges and that
cut out Wednesday. So then we got back on Thursday and it took us a couple days
really honestly to get really organized. It’s been really hard. I have been
fighting the feeling this week that I have failed. That I have failed the Lord.
That’s hard. I don’t feel like Elder Arcos should have gone. He should have
stayed and that I didn’t do everything that I could have to make him stay. That
really weighs on my conscience. I hope the Lord can forgive me….
But anyway, enough of that. I wanted to tell you guys about
a really cool experience, the first one, we were contacting and we contacted a
house… wait back up… so we were walking by a house and Elder Gulla said: “hey,
theres a monkey in that house!” and we were like: “no way. Not true.” So he
said: “ok, lets go contact them!” so normally here in Cucuta, the doors are
open, so you just yell “Buenas!” and
people come to the door. So we yelled in and here comes the monkey up on the
door. He comes up and is kinda looking at us and we were like WHOA! There is a
monkey in here! Then the guy comes to the door, and we are like:” Hi! We’re
missionaries…” and we were looking at the monkey and were like speechless and
said: “wow cool monkey!” haha. It was really funny, we are going to go back and
visit him on Tuesday I think. But I got some pictures, I just don’t have my
camera with me today to send them to you guys, but I will send them next week.
It was super funny and it was funny because when we gave him a contact card,
the monkey took it and looked at it, and then gave it back to him haha. It was
climbing all over us and then it got back into his arms like a little baby
haha. But ya.
Then on Saturday we went to a family called the familia -?-
and Alberto, the father, was a person that I contacted awhile ago in front of
his house. It turns out that back in Venezuela he has a house and some nice
guitars and a nice microphone for recording, and he has a car, so like, he was
rich. By Venezuelan standards, anyway. He informed us, he told me (he actually
speaks English) he told me: “ I am from the Venezuelan Military. I was a 1st
Lieutenant. I thought that my country was not taking the right steps, and when
I got in an accident (he has a scarred eye) I got out as quick as I could and
then became a part of the movement against the government of Venezuela, part of
which was a guy named Oscar Perez (he showed me pictures of this guy who the
government actually took out about a month ago.)” it was just kinda crazy
listening to this guys ideas and knowing that I just contacted a rebel. He is
here in Cucuta because if he returns to Venezuela they will be looking for him
as well because Maduro is a dictator and anyway… so we finally got the
opportunity to teach Alberto and his family and we did a lesson on the Plan of
Salvation, and as he was commenting to me he said: “I know that my country…
that things are bad. Things are really really bad. I know it is a punishment
from God. But I am going to fight so that my country can come back to God.” It
was just really cool, I felt like I was in a Book of Mormon video. It’s
something real that’s going on and there’s a movement of people that have
realized that Venezuelans have turned away from God and they don’t want to see
that happen. (Note from Jessica: there is
a stretch of dialogue here that is very garbled but interesting from what I can
gather. I will ask Elder Lewis to clarify and post that next week please check
back!) Anyway,he recognized that we explained that to him and we taught him
about the Plan of Salvation and how we did not start here, and we taught him
about the role of Jesus Christ and that any family or individual needs, we can
come unto him. When we taught that lesson we testified with all our hearts of
the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it is powerful to save, if we obey the
first principles and ordinances of the Gospel which are: faith, repentance,
baptism, receiving of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. After we said
that he turned to us and said: “what do I have to do to be a disciple?” and he
turned to his family and said: “we need to do this. We need to do this.”
Pointing to the pamphlet, “We need to learn more.” It really was an awesome
moment for us. He is just becoming so interesting with the Gospel, just because
they have had so many hardships. They were really rich, they left a lot of
stuff behind even though they still have 1 or 2 things here, he said: “my
daughter (he has a daughter who is 9) doesn’t know what it’s like to live in a
house without water.” And their house, compared to others, is nice. “we are
starting over. But I have faith that one day I will return to my country.” It’s
amazing for him to have had these things and to have come down so far. It’s
real, what’s happened. {In Venezuela} But the Plan of Salvation will work, for
those who believe in Christ. I believe that. I know it. The Plan is real, and
we will preach it to anyone who will listen to us. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
does great things. I hope you guys realize that it is, and that through it many
nations will come unto Christ and be saved.
Alright, well I will look forward to talking to you guys
next week. Have a good week, Chao!
-Elder Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment