Week 84: Ministering 101 with Elder Ardila

Hi Family!

Well I want to start the recording this week with part of my letter to President this week. I recorded it in my journal and I was going to bring it here to make my recording with my journal entries, but I forgot it. So, I wrote it all down in detail to President, and I am going to read it right now.

President, this has been a week full of inspiration for me. I guess I know that God is really watching out for me this week because I have felt his love and his awareness of even me. Here’s why: we were walking on our way to the church from lunch when we received a phone call. My companion answered, looked confused, and handed it to me. “Hello, you’re speaking with Elder Lewis.” “hello Elder Lewis, you’re speaking with Elder Ardila. Here is the list of 8 new converts that should be attending institute and aren’t. Please get their addresses and we will see you in the house of the Bishop at 3:30.” I jotted down their names right there, knelt down in the street, cell phone pressed against my ear with my shoulder while I wrote the names in my planner. We walked around for the next hour collecting all the information and arrived at the Bishop’s house at 3. Miraculously, we had nothing planned on the agenda for that afternoon. Something that’s really unusual. I don’t believe in coincidence. Well, we arrived at the Bishop’s house and they greeted us and asked us what they could do to help. We told them “well, Elder Ardila will be getting here in a half an hour to speak about some recent converts.” I watched them go from surprised to incredulous and then grab their broom and start sweeping the patio.

I want all of you at home to know who Elder Ardila is. He is an Area Seventy, and he is in charge of the church education system here in Colombia, in Venezuela, in Bolivia, and in Peru. So, when he called my companion didn’t know who it was so he passed the cell phone to me. I was in a multi-zone conference two years ago during Christmas time. SO that really surprised me when he said “I’m Elder Ardila” you know, he’s an Area Seventy, so when he says “I’ll see you at the Bishops’ house at 3:30, please have the addresses ready” uh… ok… we’ll go. Haha. So we got there, and to my surprise he was very happy.

Backing up… I watched them go from surprised to incredulous and then grab their nearest broom and start sweeping the patio. We all sat down and waited. Then he arrived, walking into the house with a bright smile and a bag of Mr. Brown’s Brownies. After greeting everyone, he sat down, handed out brownies, and pulled out his laptop. To my surprise he was very cheerful, not like the strict Area Seventy that I had imagined. He first exchanged a pleasant conversation with the Bishop, whom he already knew. Then got to know my companion and I. Then he pulled out a laptop and we began to talk about the recent converts. We talked about each one, deciding who we should go visit. As we conversed, he remembered a member in Aeropuerto who had just lost a baby girl. He asked about her and expressed that he would like to go visit her. No sooner had the words left his mouth then the same member came walking down the street. Bishop waved her in, and after speaking with her for a few moments, Elder Ardila asked her if she knew who he was. She said no. He said: “I believe my wife was visiting you and your daughter in the hospital in Bucaramanga.” Her face lit up. Sister Ardila had visited her and her husband while they were in the hospital in Bucaramanga awaiting the heart operation of their daughter. She began to thank him for what they did. You could still note the deep pain in her face but the gratefulness for someone who is willing to minister. Then the Bishop made the announcement that “Sister Jesica, did you know that Elder Ardila is a seventy?” she looked surprised and said: “No! your wife didn’t mention that.” It just so happened that Elder Ardila was in Bolivia that week, where his duties as an Area Seventy took him. Jesica left and we started to talk about Javier, a recent convert. We decided to go visit him when… lo and behold, here comes Javier walking down the street! Bishop waved him in. After a few minutes, Elder Ardila invited him to institute and gave him a form to inscribe his name onto. He then turns to us while Javier wrote and tells us how we should visit the members and if we are looking for more people to teach, it didn’t matter where we were, or how they came, but that they would come. I felt the spirit in that promise. Elder Ardila ministered wherever he was, and to the one, not necessarily to a big group. What a good example that I have been reflecting on ever since. We then went to visit some people, Javier accompanying us, for he knew the only person that we didn’t have an address for, which was another miracle. We entered into the car and instantly felt such peace. General Conference was playing in the car. We then went to visit someone, and it was amazing how he introduced himself. He said: “Tell (?) that Elder Ardila of the Seventy came to visit her.” She wasn’t there, but it was amazing how he said that with authority, but with humility at the same time. Well, we didn’t have any more time to visit, and he had a training to attend, but he dropped us off to our 5:30 appointment and then took Javier to his house. After leaving, I asked my companion: “did you feel what I felt? I feel like I just got out of the temple.” That was true. The spirit lifted us, and we went to go SERVE, where earlier that day, we had simply planned to WORK. It was an experience that lifted us both.

Later the next day, we went to Bucaramanga, getting on the bus at 2 o’clock that Thursday, and then going 6 hours through twists and turns up to Bucaramanga. We got there to go to a conference with Elder Zivic whom you might recognize from his talk in General Conference. He was the General Authority Seventy whose voice was kind of shaky. So, we went to a conference with him and the moment that really stuck out to me was that he told us missionaries that if we wanted to have a greater desire to serve, that we should repent. Now that’s not to say: “if you don’t have a desire to serve, repent.” It’s more like if you want to have the desire to serve, you should feel the influence of the atonement in your life. That really struck me, and as I have tried to apply that and really try to get better at repenting, consciously, I have actually studied a couple General Conference talks about it and really tried to figure out how to repent. It has really blessed my life and I have been able to have more patience, I have been able to have more love for people. I have certainly felt lifted and the desire to serve. I still have a long way to go but I have seen a difference.

Last night, Sunday night, we saw the promise of Elder Ardila fulfilled when he said that if we would go visit the members, with the intention of finding someone to teach, that they would get there and that we would find them. It was true. We got there, and we found some of the family of the Patriarch. We went to the house of the patriarch, but we found some of his family who are Pentecostal. They are not my favorite people. Sometimes, here in Colombia, when you talk with Pentecostals, and the way that you talk to them, you feel like they are bullying you. When they listen to you and talk with you, they talk to you with… how do you say it… superiority? It’s just really hard to get to them. All of the Pentecostals that I have ever met have just wanted to fight. So, I was really hesitant about starting to try to teach them, but as I talked to them, I found that they were different than the others. We started talking about the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and she just started to talk about how she wants more spirituality in her life, how she wants more… She said “sometimes I pray to God and ask him what he wants me to do. Then I go, and I try to do it.” That really shocked us, because that’s not something that they teach, that’s something that WE teach! But it’s the workings of the Spirit of God in a person who is willing to listen. As we continued to talk to her, after that I showed her the scripture in Mosiah 2:17, and as we talked we started to share the scriptures in the Book of Mormon that described how she was feeling. She felt it connect. She said: “you know, I have always had these ideas and you expressed them perfect in these scriptures.” We gave her a Book of Mormon and asked her to read, and we are going to return on Thursday. I just felt the spirit so strongly and I felt so much happiness for her. What I learned from that experience is that the scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants is true, there are people among all religions that are looking for the truth, they just don’t know where to find it. It was a great experience.

Well, this has been a long recording I think, but It was a great week. Well, I love you all and I look forward to talking to you soon. Love you all. Chao Chao.

-Elder Lewis