Anyways... back to last Monday... I don't think I mentioned this last week... but I found and bought a t-shirt that says "Are you gonna eat those tots?" I literally died laughing when I saw that shirt! Seriously, where in the world would you find a shirt that says "Are you gonna eat those tots?"... only in a Guatemalan Paca. Score. Q5.
Last Monday night we also had a lesson with a new investigator named Mario Hernandez. He's 50 years old and very catholic. Nice guy. As we explained the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and when He organized His church upon the earth he said "La Católica" (the catholic church). So we just avoided his comment and kept going on with the apostasy and the Restoration through Joseph Smith. As we explained the experience of Joseph Smith and the Restoration I could feel the Spirit testifying to me at least that we had said was true. Mario mentioned something that I think he strue for a lot of people - it's hard to accept the apostasy and the First Vision. I totally understand that. They are two principles that are foreign to a lot of people, even harder to accept when it means the religion you thought was the true church God established is not so... But it's possible to make the change when the Spirit testifies to you that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to a young man named Joseph Smith in 1820 and subsequently this man, 9 years later, received the authority of God.
Wednesday the 7th was a truly great blessing for us. A couple of weeks agao we contacted a man named Eddy, and finally on Wednesday we were able to teach him. He's a family man of about 45 years. We ended up talking about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon. He really liked the things we taught and said that it all made sense to him. He was also very interested in the Book of Mormon. Every time we read a verse from it he would ask about it to make sure he understood what it was saying. He says he loves reading and will have te Book of Mormon read in about a week. We'll see how that goes on Thursday of this week! Another awesome lesson we had was with a man named Estuardo Polanco. His wife is a member and the missionaries have been teaching him for a while... However we find out that in all the time the missionaries have taught him, they've never given him a Book of Mormon! It's no wonder he doesn't have a testimony and a true desire to get baptized! He has no idea if the keystone of our religion is true or not!
Friday and Saturday were kind of rough days, but Sunday definitely made up for it! Sunday was Stake Conference and we had with us President Watts and Elder Rivas of the Seventy. Now in this conference I had a new confirming witness of the divine call of Thomas S Monson. These are the words I used in my notebook to describe the experience, "While President Rivas announced the sustaining of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I could feel the Spirit testify to me that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet of God. It is the first time I felt such a testimony upon sustaining the presiding authorities. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the true and living prophet and that he, along with his counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostoles are prophets, seers, revelators, and especial witnesses of Jesus Christ". It's interesting... I remember years ago my mom saying to me how incredible it is that no matter where in the world we are we have the opportunity to know the prophet is called of God and then sustain him as such. I didn't fully understand the fullness of what my mother had taught me until yesterday.
The Stake President said something (quoting someone else) that I really enjoyed... "Cuando queremos hacer las cosas, buscamos los medios para lograrlo" or "When we want to do something, we search for the means to achieve it". He countered that with, When we don't want to do something, we justify it with excuses. I decided to focus on the first part.
As I've been here on my mission, I've learned more and more that taking notes in conferences is less about writing what the people say and more about writing the thoughts and feelings that come to your heart and mind. Half of what I wrote yesterday was no where CLOSE to being said verbally, but were the things that I needed to hear. Everyone mentions that with General Conference "So-and-so's talk was exactly what I needed to hear" or "That talk was for me"... but was it WHAT they said, or is it HOW you FELT? With conference coming up I would recommend that as you listen and "feast upon the words of Christ" that you write down the things you FEEL and YOUR thoughts, because you can read what so-and-so said in the Ensign, but you won't be able to read how it made you feel.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
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