The first few English phrases that Elder Molina knows... 'The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and life is sweet lovin'!' and 'heads or tails? It's your choice.' We flip a coin to say the prayers haha. To be dead honest with you all, I have never had such a fun week in the entire mission. We have had a BALL this whole week.
To give a quick run down and then get to why it's been such a blast, Jipson is going to be baptized this Tuesday with a few others on the way. The most hopeful is Erica Garcia who is 16, she comes to church with her mom and wants to be baptized, just wants to feel more secure. She's reading el Libro de Mormón and always has lots of questions for us. We also have a 15 yr old Rubén who told us 'I love it when you guys come and teach me, when does your church meet?' and he came the next day right before his meeting at 10:30. The whole fam is listening to us and really interested. They live on the grounds of a Catholic Church and it's funny every time the Pastors open the gates to let the Mormon Missionaries enter and teach.
This whole entire week can be summed up in Saturday and I want all of you to read, feel, and act on the miracle of following the slightest impressions of the Spirit; we constantly receive, but do we constantly react? We tried that this week and I can tell you that this week has been the best ever.
We left lunch Saturday afternoon and a man invited us to sit down and have a drink. So we sat down and offered him a folleto of the Word of Wisdom. We straight up asked him why he drinks and Luis told us that it clears the stress in his life. We promised him the peace and assurance in life if he'd listen to our message and read the folleto. He even was about to toss out the beer he was drinking until a friend came and asked for some haha. Then he 'pulled a fast one' that made me realize that everything is in perfect harmony with the Lord. He asked me what Nebekenezar's (?) dream meant in the Bible with the great man of many materials and the big boulder. We boldly testified of the Restored Gospel, that God truly governs and blesses all, and the coincidence of Daniel who interpreted the dream by keeping what? THE WORD OF WISDOM! He offered us a drink, we offered a sip of the Living Waters.
We carried on our way and an old man called out to us in English. I said hello back as we passed. He called out again and we both stopped dead in our tracks and returned to another unplanned opportunity. I had my first (and probably last haha) contact in English, it was weird but so fun. Robert is having surgery this week. He lived in Florida for quite some time, studying in FIU. We simply sat on a street bench, ate peanuts, and blessed his life with a touch of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We're meeting up with him Wednesday after his surgery.
In heading to our first planned appointment, a man named Boris sitting on a scooter called out Eeeelders!' like everyone else does here haha, but we decided to stop and see what the fuss was. He had lots of simply questions, why we're called Elder, how long we're here, where we're from, what we teach. He opened up and told us he wants to change. We had a folleto of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and told him that Christ loves us so much, he put Repentance into the way to Eternal Life or... Change. He was touched and he and his wife gladly gave us their numbers to return and get to know them.
In one day we had 3 miracles that were not planned. That happened the entire week... 11 contacts just like that. We really changed the work for good. Yeah we have plans and appointments, but are we going to fill time or do we really stop to the people who yell out to us? Intentionally or not? The Lord puts people in our path, we took advantage of every single person that called us out (and maybe the people will stop calling out haha) but to the sheep who called the servants of the Shepherd, they truly felt a taste of the security and hope the Shepherd has in store.
We have a week full of work, a week full of fun, and I am SO glad that Elder Molina and I changed the work. People call, do we listen? If we hear, do we act? If only we would act, we would feel the love of the Lord assure us that we truly are called of Him to do just as He would. Sometimes we have 99 sheep in our agenda, in our daily plan, but how often do we pass by the one that even calls out to us? Read 2 Nephi 32. Don't doubt in your heart, don't stress out your mind, just worry to have the Spirit's influence in your life by reading the scriptures and praying always.
This is my testimony, this is my week. I wouldn't change this decision for anything in the world for the Lord truly blesses those that press forward in Faith and Hope. I have seen this change, I have felt His love, and I only wish that I were an angel and could change the entire world.
¡Les amo a todos!
Elder McGinn
And the pictures... so I was getting ready to Crunchatize myself when I bumped the bowl I had JUST put milk in. There went my cereal, but not my breakfast! Hence me eating out of the sink haha. And how do you like those huge carrots?!
No comments:
Post a Comment