LOVE

So this week has basically been a bust. We have worked hard to tell the truth, but the only thing that we have to show for it is the pain in our backs. But that´s the interesting thing about it. We had NO success despite our efforts, but because I did all that I could, I don´t feel bad about it. Elder Montero and I talked about this feeling of success without literal success. We succeeded for ourselves. We did all that we could and turned to the Lord every day for help and guidance. I don´t know what the Lord has planned for us or for this area, but we know that we did what we could. Just because life doesn´t go the way that you planned it or it´s harder than you thought it would be, that doesn´t mean that you are a bad person in some aspect in your life. You just don´t comprehend all the blessings and plans that God has for you.

So Sunday was a great day. I was sitting in our second ward, Maravillas, and a youth was talking about the importance of scripture. I felt a powerful urge to look around at all the people in the ward. As I did, I was filled with an amazing sense of love. My eyes filled with tears. My breath caught in my lungs. I put my head down and thanked my Heavenly Father for this wonderful blessing of love that I have for these people. In that moment more than ever before, I could not look at anyone as a different race or culture. All I saw were my brothers and my sisters of an eternal Father and I could do nothing but weep with joy at there attendance in our Father´s house of worship. The chapel was almost full but my heart was overflowing. I couldn´t possibly describe the emotion with mere words, but it was the ultimate feeling to have for another person. I touched a small portion of the love that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost have for each one of us. Oh loved ones, I pray to feel that every day. I want that love and spirit with me every moment.

Have you ever seen a sunrise where the clouds are thick and rolling so that on the bottom you see the grades of red and pink stretching towards you across the entire sky of the east? Because I felt like the sun in that moment. Everything that I had inside of me was rolling out and touching every one in that sacrament meeting. I feel kind of like a broken record describing this again and again, but such is the power of love. Once you have felt it so deep in your heart, all you can do is try to share it with others. I can´t share it with you in any other way than these words so I have written many. Sadly, it is still not enough. So I have something better. I want you all to feel that too - to love every person not in spite of their faults, but with their faults, to see them as a son and daughter of the most high. To become so over come with the power of love that you weep with pure joy. That is my invitation to you. I hope that you will meet this invitation with prayer and sincerity of heart. Love is every action of God. Have that love and BE an action of God.

I love you. I don´t forget you because of the work that I have here. I love you more because of it. The distance is great but even greater is the spirit that connects us across the world.

Elder Heath

Almost Here

 Well.... it´s almost the end of this transfer.  I have 3.5 months here in this area.  I am almost sure to leave.  I am very spoiled in this area so I´m not entirely sure I want to leave, but at the same time, there aren´t doors that I haven´t knocked sooo.... I kinda need a change of scenery.  In the end it doesn´t matter a bit what I want to do or not because I´m in the hands of the Lord and I will be sent to whatever part I´m sent and I will go.  Such is my life and it is fantastic!  No sarcasm.

So we were supposed to have a baptism this Sunday, but her husband is whispering gossip about the church with his friends and she now has doubt about the law of tithing.  She isn’t sure if the Lord would ask her to pay something for blessings.  What are my thoughts on the matter?  When does He NOT ask something from us? We only recieve blessings after a test of our faith.  Not after we have found an easier way to live.  Besides that, He promises so many things if we only do one thing.  That´s one uneven trade that I am ALL for.  And He is too because of His unending love for us.  

What does she say when we ask her a direct question?  "Well what my husband and his friends are saying is that...."  WHAT THE DUCE!?!?!?!  WHO CARES WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY!?!?!  Is God saying that stuff?  No.  Then why does it matter?!  I am strongly pushing the whole Nephi and Laban story for her husband. As my Grandma says,  "Some people just need killin."  Now of course I don´t actually want him to come to any harm.  He takes care of his family.  He is just wrongly guided.  The teachings of Satan LOOK nice, but when you apply them, all you do is lose.  And that is what is happening. The whole family is losing blessings because one man allowed the words of Satan enter into his mind.  Then he thought on those words, and they entered his heart. 

The invitation in the introduction to the Book of Mormon is to read, meditate and pray to know if those things are true.  The problem is, people read and meditate the things of Satan too, and his teachings say NOT to pray to know if they are true.  And so people lose.  They lose big.

That´s about what sums up our week.  We are looking for new investigators but the work is hard and the hearts are harder.  Members here are great with food but terrible with teaching what they live and even worse at living what they are taught.  

Sunday morning, we got a call from the bishop of Maravillas asking us to speak in Sacrament. with 20 min before we took off to our first ward.  We prepared.  In prayer, I asked what I should speak about.  I then started thinking of certain points that had been in my head through the week and none seemed right.  So I picked up the Book of Mormon and started reading where I was in my reading, but it just wasn´t what the ward needed.  So I picked up my study journal and the Spirit gave an unquestionable, "Yes".  After a whole lot of reading and more prayers, I found where I had gone over Chapter 8 of Ether.  That was it.  I read the chapter and just couldn´t figure out what I was supposed to teach.  Then I read the last verse.  Bam.  That was it. I planned a talk but 5 min before I got up on the stand.   Something needed to change.  So I read the scripture again and thought about it.  I turned to Alma 48:13 and it hit me again.  

When I got up to talk, I hammered the entire ward for not reading the scriptures, for not living the gospel and for not sharing it with their friends.  I said some Spanish words that I didn´t know that I knew.  The power of revelation is real.  The gospel is true.  We are not perfect, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is. We can have that perfection in our lives every moment if we would just fill our hearts and minds with the teachings of the scriptures.  We can live that perfection with every action we make.  We can´t be perfect, but we have been given perfection.  Use it.  Live it.  Share it.  I love you all.  Remember the Lord in all your dealings.

This has been a rant by Elder Heath.

Not Much Time...

I DON´T HAVE MUCH TIME!!!! But here´s the update. We have no baptismal dates and no new baptisms. Hahaha. Yes I laughed at that. Satan is working awfully hard, but I know that my Father in Heaven is stronger. Erika said that her family won´t let her and her daughters be baptized. She really is sad about that. She will find strength in time to put more faith in the Lord. 

Liliana didn´t get married and only heaven knows why because after 3 years of attending church without being a member, she has stopped and she is suspiciously occupied EVERY time we try to talk to her. We only have contact with her through her esposo or her kids sooo..... yeah.

Irene has taken off to Mexico because her house lord has broken his leg. We don´t know when she will be back.

Juel didn´t attend church and decided to sleep for our last cita instead of show up. He then didn´t show for church.

We can´t visit a menos activo that we have been working with because her esposo thinks that we aren´t there to teach the word of Christ. He is a man with very very backward beliefs. The dad of the menos activo calls him El Diablo so that gives you a clue as to the kind of guy he is. We tried to teach him or at least open him up a little to hear a small part of our message but he just won´t budge. Well I´m done with that negative stuff. We have a member that lives close to her and they are already friends so we won´t lose contact easily.

Guadalupe Rodriguez came to church!!! I haven´t talked about her because she hasn´t made a lot of progress. But then her uncle stepped in and he is a member so we are very grateful for his help. She attended, liked it and wants to come back!!! WOOHOO!!!! We decided that Satan was working really hard on her because one her boys will be a fantastic missionary and bring many to the gospel of Christ. I´ll get pictures with them when I can. They are pretty cute but noise is thier favorite game. That makes lesson hard but we are moving forward. I am pretty excited for her. We have been teaching her more or less since the beginning of last transfer. But like I said, we are moving forward and she will begin to see blessings in her life.

That´s my time. I love you all so much!!! Until next week!!! Elder Heath.

Exito!!!

So this was an interesting week. It was Saint Week with each day a different way to keep the commandments of the Lord that no one keeps the rest of the year because there is a week assigned for such a thing. You know.... Because Christ was only an example for our lives one week of each year....... Como sea (anyway)......

Our success was actually great in the first of the week. We had 5 fechas bautismales in the first 3 days. We had some great lessons and we found Irene (Ee-reh-neh). She has family in Waco Texas. She was there with them for some time and she wanted to go to church. She tried "Todos de las iglesias en America y nada tuvo lo que quise. Pero, una amiga de mi hija nos invito a su iglesia. Nos fuimos y eso iglesia fue perfecto!! Pero, quando regresi a Mexico, yo no pude encontrar la iglesia." (My Spanish is still far from perfect so don´t be surprised if there are errors) Some other Elders found her in the street one day and referenced her for us. When she saw us she all but screamed with joy!! IT WAS GREAT!!! Ella me caye buen. She loves to talk and has something to say on every principle. It makes our lessons long but I love them. Elder Montero on the other hand gets somewhat frustrated with her until she starts bashing on other churches. She is fantastic. She is 62 and looks 45. All Puebla women look younger than they are and all the chikas look older than they are. But anyway, that´s Irene. There is more to know about her but I am short on time. Her fecha is the 8th of May. She loves church, the book of Mormon and she has reasons why the church is true but not a firm testimony yet. She has to pray for that. I think she will.

Our other fechas need to be changed. We are still looking into having Liliana´s on saturday but Erika and her daughters didn´t show up for church so they need a new day. Erika´s dad is VERY catholic and is her boss so he is changing her schedule every time we have a cita. But that´s ok. We just stop by randomly when she doesn´t work and teach anyway. Mwahahaha!!!!

Brenda didn´t show up for church either. Her parents are also very catholic and  Elder Montero says that as long as she lives with them, she won´t be baptized. I´m not sure what will happen there. I will just pray and work.

We have a total of 8 people that we are confident can be baptized in the month of May. It´s all up to them. I don´t have time to go through them all but I will eventually as their progress peaks to something noteworthy.

The subject to this blog is Exito. Exito means Success. Sunday, we were expecting quite a few investigators. We had 4.  I am very satisfied with that number. In our last ward, we sat next to a family that we had helped reactivate.  In front of us sat another family that we had a hand in. We had 3 investigators in that hour of sacrament. The talks were about missionary work, the atonement and a stake message about diesmo.  It was very good. Afterward we talked to the non-member "esposo" of the menos activo that sat in front of us and he went off on his beliefs.  I tell ya, Satan has some crazy ideas in the minds of man.  I won´t go into them because it just isn´t worth your time, but they are far and wide with twist deep doctrine and none of the teachings of Christ as their base.  

We planched him. That is to say, we ironed him like our white shirts. But we were gentle and he accepted us to come by and talk more.  MAS EXITO!!!!  We really don´t think that he will get baptized because he is just strange with his beliefs, but our goal is for him to accept the gospel enough to allow his daughter of 8 years to be baptized.  She wants it.  He just isn´t sure.  So we will work with diligence,  pray in faith and preach with the power of the Almighty guiding our words.  Good heavens I love this work. La Obra de Jesucristo.

Being the 5th person to hold this title in my family,

I am Elder Heath (the 5th). Les Amo!!!