Knocking
This was another GREAT week!! We finished with 3 fechas de bautismo. 1 on the 30th and 2 on the 1st of May. We will problably have another 2 because of the daughters of one of our investigators. They should be there for our next lesson tomorrow.
Erika is one of our investigadores and she is the one with the two girls. We found her KNOCKING!!!! Elder Garcia(my trainer) said that knocking was pointless because noone wants anything when you knock. HA!!!! But anyway, back to the whole "missionary" thing I´m doin here. We taught her the first discussion and she was just right there with us. As we were talking about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, her daughters come home and sit themselves down very quietly. I was impressed. We finish the lesson and invite her to "Seguir el ejemplo de Jesucristo y ser bautizado". She accepted. We then turned to her daughters and offered the same invitation. They also want to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptised. That was awesome! We are going to put a date for the girls this next time. Carla is 15 and Hime? is 10 I believe. She was really quite. I am very excited about this family. No father though. they live with Erika´s dad.
So here´s an interesting story. Liliana has been attending church EVERY Sunday for the past 3 years and is not baptized. Her two sons are. One holds the Priesthood. She and her husband are getting married this week or next week and she will be baptized on the 30th. We really have our work cut out for us on that one so that´s great. She already knows everything, we just have to go over the lessons to make sure there aren´t any misunderstandings. Her esposo doesn´t want to be baptized. We are going to work on changing that. We have an appointment with them right after this. WOOT!!!
I already told you about Brenda. She is the other baptism on the 1st. She had a question the other day about why she needs to be baptized again. We straightened that out. She is back on track. WOOHOO!!!
We are putting a date for Juel in our next visit with him but I´m not sure when that will be. He didn´t show up to church on account that his little boy is sick. CUTE BABY!!!! But we will make a tri to his house tomorrow and get things nailed down. With Juel, not the baby.
We have successfully done all we can to help reactivate a family in the church. They are awesome and helping with a few of our investigadores. We have more but they are kind of iffy and I don´t have a lot to say about their progress. But such is the life of a missionary.
Ok. Cool story. Saturday after comida, we begin our fast for someone to come to church. They promised to fast as well. It´s a menos activo. Sunday roles around and the time for church too. She doesn´t show. But 3 people that we had stopped teaching showed up and the boyfriend of one of them decided to join the ride. 4 new investigadores in the capilla. We(and I mean Elder Montero) taught a lesson about Honor. That was way awesome. Especially when he used a story about a conversation we had. And here is how the cookie crumbled:
We were walking home one night after a long day of work(because EVERY day is a long day of work). He had a habit of put his hand right next to the door bells of doors as he passed by as if he were going to ring it and keep walking, but I had warned him earlier in our companionship that I don´t think he should. Well, this night he did. And he was just laughing and laughing and my reaction of startled amazement that he had just done that. I told him again that doing that is immature and not Christlike. He responded be mentioning the picture of Christ knocking at the door and said that he was simply knocking. I responded to that ridiculous plight by pointing out that Christ knocks, and then waits for us to open the door. He is NOT running away.
That really hit me. What do I do every day? I knock doors and wait for people to open and listen to our message of love, forgiveness and eternity with your family, God and Savior. What does Christ do at every turn in our lives? He knocks and waits for us to open to hear what He has to say for our eternal salvation so that we can return to live with Him through His eternal atonement. I knew that I was called to be a representative of Christ but so literally? Yes. SO literally. So here is my question to all of you. What is your reaction to His knocking? Are you one to ignore it in hopes that He will leave eventually? Are one to open the door and say, "Oh gosh, I was actually just leaving so if you come back later maybe....... (not)." Or maybe you say, "I have my knowledge, my faith and my scripture. I don´t need anything else." Actually I bet we all do each of these at different points of our lives. But if we just open the door and hear what there is to be said with an open heart and an open mind searching always to become closer to Him and our Heavenly Father, we will have more time for everything we want to do, we will have more knowledge, faith and scripture and we won´t want him to go away no matter what hour of the day or night. He isn´t running away after He knocks. He is standing there without a door handle to open the door himself. How often will you open it? I hope every morning and night in prayer and every moment of your life as you glorify your Father in heaven through the very lives that you live.
I love you all so much. I hope that what I write here is of help to you. If you need anything more specific or just want to get some mail every now and then, write me!!! My address is on the blog. And yes, I do have time to reply.
Elder Heath
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