April 16, 2012

I'm finally caught up!!

I spent a LOT of time this week getting caught up in my journal and I FINALLY made it to being caught up! Elder Hatch really helped give me the little extra motivation I needed to just do it! But, it feels really good!

So, last Monday night we had a nice chat with this guy named Cesar that a member introduced us too and he had some questions about why we do baptisms for the dead and so we spent like, 20 minutes explaining how it wasn't a practice unique to us, but that they were performed in Biblical times and that it allows others to receive the ordinance of baptism when they didn't have the chance on this earth life and that this baptism really has no impeding effect to their agency. He was appreciative of our discussion, but refused to accept a Book of Mormon and read it, but his loss.

On Tuesday we had our regular visit with Gloria accompanied by her friend Consuelo. Elder Hatch showed them his Family History binder which is quite remarkable and then after that I shared with them what I shared in my email last week about comparing the Atonement to an embrace. It was a great visit! And when we saw Gloria on Saturday she told us that the message and had an extremely profound effect on Consuelo(who is a member) that was an answer to her prayers. I don't know exactly what it was, but I love that the Spirit can work through us to help other people feel the love of Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. That evening we had a visit with familia Gramajo in which we really emphasized the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. We kind of ended up giving them cincho (which is like a verbal scolding), but it was very necessary because they just weren't reading, and there is NO WAY to know that our message is true if they don't pray and or read the Book of Mormon, and really you have to do both!

On Wednesday we studied something from our study program called "Teach People, Not Lessons" and there is a really great quote from Elder Holland that is something like, "As (we) listen sincerely to (our) investigators they will say something that will indicated to (us) of what truth (we) can teach and testify." I have seen that a lot in my mission. As I have tuned in to the Spirit and my investigators I have been prompted to say certain things that would have never occurred to me. We truly do teach people and not lessons. On Wednesday evening Elder Hatch and I had to go to another area so that I could do 3 baptismal interviews so that took up pretty much all of our time on Wednesday, but it was definitely worth it so that these people can receive baptism!

Friday was a good day for us. Thursday was just a lot of "normal" stuff. On Friday we had our return visit with Max, the man we contacted a couple weeks ago who claims no religion and whose wife is a sabbatical christian..I don't remember mentioning this, but he is in the military and his mother was listening to the missionaries when she was killed almost 30 years ago. He was very receptive to our message about the Plan of Salvation, Family History, and the importance of family. He had lots of great questions for us! I feel like he could be a really great possibility!

On Saturday I had another embarrassing experience about which you can all laugh before I move on to the "spiritual" bit. On Saturday around 6 p.m. we ran into Lirice, Eros and Jorge (the people we helped move a little over a week ago). As I went to say hi to Lirice she took my hand and I saw her start to lean in to kiss my cheek like most Guatemalans do and my stomach just lurched inside me and I didn't know what to do. I thought to myself (very quickly), "She's gonna kiss. What do I say? Oh crap!". It was a very WEIRD feeling in my stomach. Luckily, as she saw that I wasn't going to reciprocate she backed up to just shaking my hand, which was very relieving! Although, I don't think she was offended... Anywho, we set up a cita for next Sunday.

Now, on to the "spiritual matter". The other day, Saturday, I was thinking about this talk I had heard from John Bytheway called "Jesus Knows I'm a Christian" and I decided that would be my message for Gloria, but I wasn't able to share it there, and I would like to share it with you! I don't want you to all think that this all came out of my head... the scriptures come from the triple combination and the thoughts are a mix between John Bytheway and my own. But, here it goes.

"John Bytheway has a CD called 'Jesus Knows I'm a Christian' in which he discusses why we're believers in the same Jesus. It all starts with a christian preacher saying that we (as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) believe in the 'gap-filling Jesus'. John Bytheway was a bit shocked by this reaction and went to discover about this 'gap-filling Jesus'. So brother Bythweway went to his index and looked up 'merits' and found 7 scriptures in the triple combination about 'merits'.

"Now according to my spanish dictionary 'merit' means: 'action that makes a man worthy of a prize or esteem;' or 'put to test someone's attributes to achieve something'. Now, these scriptures start with 2 Nephi 2:8 which states that, '...no flesh... can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah...'. Later on in 2 Nephi 31:19 Nephi asks, "And now... after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ, with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.' And thus we begin to see with only two verses that were it not for Christ we would be no where, which brings us right into the teachings of Aaron in Alma 22:14, 'And since man had fallen he could not merit anything of himself; but the sufferings and death of Christ atone for their sins...' Interesting. Man cannot merit anything of himself.

"More and more we need Christ. The great missionary Ammon two chapters later in Alma 24:10 said, 'I thank my Good... that we might repent... and also that he hath forgiven us of those our many sins... and taken away the guilt from our hearts, through the merits of his Son.' I love that as we continue they tie together. We know that no unclean thing can dwell in God's presence and we are made clean after baptism as we repent. Now, I know there's a scripture that says something about how 'forgiveness (or repentance) is made possible through the Atonement' and so we see again that even though WE must repent, it is through Christ and HIS merits that we CAN repent.

"I love the scripture which comes from Samuel the Lamanite who taught us, 'And if ye believe on his name ye will repent of all your sins that thereby ye may have a remission of them through his merits' (Helaman 14:13). The remission only comes to us through his merits and the grace and mercy of the Father. Moroni 6:4 teaches, 'And after they had been received unto baptism... their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them... relying alone up the merits of Christ...' which parallels D&C 3:19-20, 'And for this very purpose are these plates preserved... that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ.2 I have a firm testimony that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and that it is through him that we are saved."

Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray