This week has been a different kind of week and it seems like blessings are falling from the sky. We have been doing a lot of work to prepare the area for the new elder coming in (as you remember it is almost certain that Elder Goodman will be getting transferred) and really clean up and organize the paperwork that has been done in the area for the last several years here. As Elder goodman will be leaving the area we have been visiting all of the members and really trying to use the fact that he is leaving after so many months as incentive to get some of the less actives to come back to church by saying "but its my last sunday here kinda thing". It has worked on quite a few of the people and we had a pretty decent show for sacrament meeting this week.
We had a district meeting as we always do on Tuesday, this one we really focused on how to find new people to teach. By the end of the meeting we actually had a decent size list of new ideas that were somewhat out of the box. My personal favorite that I think I might do is put, in some kind of way, "Jesucristo es Mormon" on our sidebags or umbrellas to get some attention. Thinking that as people see it and and ask about it, it will open up a conversation. Putting that on the umbrella would make it pretty easy to tell the difference between us and the jehova witnesses - who are known down here for their umbrellas and one of the reasons we don't use umbrellas very often.
Things are going great and people are positive it seems where ever we go. It feels they just kinda know us now and are open to talking with us about just about whatever there may have on their mind. This is really amazing with the youth. I know how it feels to grow up in a ward with to few youth and so I do whatever I can to befriend them and create fun activities to do. This last week I have been working on getting them to come out and be little mini-missionaries with us. All of them are now animated to come out with us and teach lessons which is really cool and even better is those who I am helping to get their mission paperwork filled out. Right now there are three at the mission age, so I am walking them through all of the paperwork with them. The other day it was funny, because as I was challenging all of them to come out with us, there were several youth who are not members wanting to come out with us and teach.
On Saturday we had gotten a reference from the Zone Leaders to a part in our area called Las Vegas. We had not heard of this part of our area before and when Elder Goodman told me about the reference I honestly didn't know if he was talking about Las Vegas, Nevada. On Sunday, after church, we left in search of this place with the little information that we had. We walked for a good hour over rivers, through forests, and even fields of maize in order to get to the place. It is probably one of my favorite parts area. It is absolutely peaceful, beautiful and everything I imagined Guatemala to be.
Once over the river and through the woods and even past grandmas house we finally found the house. Nester is a pretty cool guy, he actually works as a security guard at the Guatemala City temple and is more or less ready to be baptised. The missionaries over in that area had been teaching him for a while and he had even gone to General conference. He needs to work a bit on his faith and testimony but is a wonderful man! He knows what he needs to do, but I kinda got the vibe that he didn't know how to receive his answers and how to recognize when an answer is being given.
A lot of the times when we pray we simply say all that we want to say and then end the prayer. But is that really how we are supposed to pray? If you called a friend and told them all about your day and everything that was bugging you, told him all that was good and some things you wish you could have a little bit of help with and then just hung up on them... how are you supposed to receive the other side of the conversation? We talked about this and a little bit about the holy ghost and how we receive answers through the thoughts and feelings it gives us and then challenged him to try and pray and listen. It ended up being very good lesson and I hope he and his family take this step.
This week has been pretty awesome and though so much more has happened I simply don't have the time or the ability to put a lot of it into words. Sometimes you just simply know you are in the right place and I have felt that a lot this week. I am excited, although a little nervous with the transfers happening in a couple of days. But I do know that as I serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength I will be led to those in need and strengthened and blessed by His hand.
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| This was not a monkey... |
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| Also not a monkey |
[Editor's Note: For those following along and interested he sent a picture of his lab tests. Entamoeba Histolytica. All you ever or never wanted to know can be found here ]
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