Whew! (Aug 6)

Well this was an eventfull week! We had every day full of appointments and in the end..... 13 lessons. No one was home or they rescheduled. The good thing is that we had fun and we worked.

Tuesday morning, we were with some recent converts and we got a phone call. It was the assistants. They said that President Christensen wanted to come and work with us for a while. FANTASTIC! We had an appointment with one new investigator that is just awesome! His name is Alejandro and he just talks and talks and talks about his views of religion and why everyone is wrong. The thing is... he´s right. He told us that he listens to EVERYBODY that talks about God, but he only invites us back for round 2. He likes the gospel. We made some good headway with President there and we have another appointment for tomorrow. We have been talking to him on his doorstep so maybe this time we can go into his house. Haha.

After Alejandro, we went to other appointments that we had, but no one was there. In the end, President just told us that he liked what he was seeing and dropped us off (we were riding in style in his new minivan.... oh yeah). The rest of that day was fairly uneventful with the exception of my companion FREAKING out all day about President´s possible alterior motives. I told him to just calm down, but then he flipped out more. So I just let him go. Haha.

We have a baptism date with one Sandra for the 25th of August. She is really going well. Every time she has a change in her schedule, she CALLS us and puts a new appointment right there!!! You R.M.s know how great that is. Haha. She is opening a business for dog hair cuts and we are helping her paint. It will be a bigger project than she thought because we have to clean the walls and take all the old and peeling paint off. It´s kinda gross because that´s also where she sleeps and there is water damage all over her walls and turantulas under her couch..... not the cleanest person ever. She´s great though. I´ll send pics of the service project.

We have some other people going, but nothing special. I just hate when people say, "All the religions have the same god so we are all going to the same place. We are the same." No. We aren´t the same. We have the restored gospel. We believe in an ACTIVE god and not one that spoke in ancient times only. We believe in living what the Bible and the Book of Mormon teach and just reading it to get a short spiritual high. I believe that Christ lives and the talks to us today through modern day prophets and that there is ONE road and it is straight and narrow, not curving and broad. There is "One Lord, one faith and one baptism" (can´t for the life of me remember that reference in the Bible right now).

 

Now, do want to hear about our differences to see who is right? because we CAN´T both be right. I´m not saying that all other religions are bad and send people to condemnation. Other religions help people fortify their faith in Christ an learn some of His doctrine. The thing is, they don´t have it all. They still have questions that they can´t answer. Why can´t they answer them? Because they don´t have the power of revalation. Revalation is the "Rock" that Christ built His church on. Not Peter. Peter recieved revalation as to who Christ was and THAT is was Christ wanted to get across. We aren´t the same. Let us help you. "Time is running out." -Elder Holland.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the only true church upon the earth. I know that there is no other way by which we can return to heaven except by follow the principles contained in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of the Lord and he instructs us as the children of man through divine revalation. There is hope for all that come unto the Father with a broken heart and a contrite spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. We are different from other churches and religions because we have the truth. I know it. I teach it. I testify of it in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Heath

AMERICAN!!!!!

(a letter from July 30)

I am now serving in the area Aquiles Serdan, zone Libertad, mission Mexico Puebla North. My comp is.......(drum role)...... Elder Hanson. He’s from the "factory" (Utah) but grew up in Montana. He has 6 months in the mish and is SUPER OBEDIENT!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! Each morning at 6:30 on the dot, we BOTH hit our knees. 8:00, all quiet but the turning of pages. 11:00, out of the house and moving (We have another hour of studies for Spanish). 9:00, planning. Lots of English though. That’s bad. We have to talk more Spanish. He’s not bad in the language. He served in Idaho for 3 months before getting to Mexico for visa problems, so now he has 3 months here and he is doing really well with it. Still has problems, but I understand. I was there a bit more than a year ago. He is really counting on me to helping with his Spanish. I do my best.

I was reading in Helaman in my personal study, and I passed for the part where the people once again return to their belief in Christ and they put all of the secret combinations (sp) into the ground to hide them from the world. I’m not sure if that’s just symbolic or literal, but why not destroy them? Later, bad people are going to come, find them and use them to cause havoc among the people of God, so why did they not destroy them? I started applying that to my life. How many times do I do something that I know is wrong, and then just put that mistake in another part where I will probably find it again and return to those problems? I then applied it to my investigators. How many of them just put the wine on a high shelf promising to never drink it again, and then on a bad day, they just need a chair to reach it again. We recently applied this with an inactive:


We found an inactive member of the church that has started drinking and smoking. He hates his life and he is staring to hate himself for falling into those addictions again. The old bishop here told us to visit him and when we passed by on Sunday, he wasn’t there. We talked to the nice lady at the door who quickly turned us away saying that Thomas was the only one that had interest in our message. Turning to walk away, we heard behind us, "Elders!" Thinking that it was just another person trying to make fun of us, we kept going until we heard again, "Elders!". I turned round reluctantly when we see a young man RUNNING towards us. He was still a ways off so I wasn’t worried. I said to Elder Hanson, "I think it´s Thomas." "I think so too." It was.

He invited us in and explained to us how he had lost his wife and his two kids to alcohol and cigarettes and that he wanted them back, but more than anything, he wanted to talk to God again. We taught him about the atonement and repentance and at the end of the lesson, he told us that for the first time in years, he felt hope that he could be better and be happy. I shared with him about the Lamanites that buried their weapons of war to show their repentance. Their greatest sin was killing so they left themselves no way to return to it. I asked him how he could bury his greatest sin. He didn’t have an answer. We left him chapter 4 of Heleman to think it over (Elder Hanson is also reading Heleman).

We have to get rid of our sins. Not just move them to the side. I´m kinda rambling. I still have to organize my thoughts about this and really live it, but I just wanted to share with you all a bit of what’s going through my head these days.

I love you all! Have a good week and I hope you enjoyed reading this!!!

Elder Heath

Doubt

The circus was GREAT!!! I REALLY enjoyed it! There were some jokes that I still don’t understand because they are 100% Mexican, but I still laughed like crazy. Mostly for my comp. He has the weirdest laugh. All people around us were staring at him and probably wondering if he was high or drunk. That just made me laugh even more. It’s kind of a high pitched woody the woodpecker kind of sound.

As for the transfers, my comp and I are both leaving. And the whole district except for 1 which is a REALLY radical change since we are ALL pretty dern new. But what the Lord commands we do so here we go. I kinda wanted to finish my mission here, but I’m pretty excited to leave too. After the Elder Gonzalez Fiasco of this year, I think the Lord knows that this area needs a fresh start. I know I didn`t say that I was having problems with him, but that’s because I had faith that it would end about this time with the changes.

One of my best friends here in the mish is going home tomorrow and that just freaks me out. He served in New Mexico before coming here for visa problems so we actually got here to MX about the same time. We were almost always there in the same zone or something so it will be weird not being able to call him up and talk or something. On top of that, he has been my ZL for the past 2 changes so we got to hang out even more. We were talking about gaming one time and we found out that we had played many times together on the Warcraft Battle.net. We both hosted games a few times so we were on each other’s turf. That was just a cool little thing to find out. Haha.

(a letter from July 23)

In Sacrament Meeting yesterday, one of the YSA stood up and started talking about doubt. At least that’s what I got from it. It made me think about something that a member here said about the brain. The part of our brain that we can’t use is unlocked by the Priesthood and allows for man to do things beyond his normal capacity. Moses parted the sea for example. So what keeps us from being able to do things like? Doubt. I’m not saying that anyone can do what the Prophets can do. They are called to higher keys, but we can ALL do GREAT things. We just have to have perfect faith and confidence in the Lord. And that is shown in obedience.

I was thinking about it there in Sacrament Meeting, "Why do I disobey if I KNOW that it’s true?" There is a small bit of doubt somewhere in my heart and I don’t know what it is. What keeps us from seeing the hand of God like the brother of Jared? Doubt. We have to get rid of that doubt to be 100%. I don’t know what mine is, so I have to look for it. Prayer, study and fasting. Maybe one of those 3 holds my doubt, but by showing greater strength through my faith than my doubt can muster, I know that I will overcome that doubt.

I have seen miracles in my life and more in my mission. Neither is over. I DO want to finish strong because I know that if I finish strong then I will get home strong and it will just be easier to keep going. A lot of missionaries say, "Well I`m finishing up here so I can do what I want and it doesn’t matter because when I get home I’ll just kick it back up again." NO. That’s not how it works and everyone knows it. They just dis-illusion themselves for a time with doubt. I don’t want to be like that. It’s NOT an end, it’s just a check point. I plan on running in to that checkpoint, pick up some water, and just keep running the marathon. It’s a life marathon, not a 2 year sprint. I will get rid of my doubt.

I love you all sooo much! Thank you so much for the letters!!!

Elder Heath

CIRCUS!!!

(a letter from July 16)

HEY EVERYBODY!!! Quick note! Jose and Angelica invited us to the circus with them!

This was a decent week. We taught. We found. We had success. Nothing extraordinary to blow your mind. I am enjoying the work. Changes are coming up on the 24th and I am REALLY hoping to train. The only thing with that is that we don’t really get what we WANT until we don’t want it anymore. Haha. We´ll just see what happens.


My companion has been asking some crazy questions about Revelations and the angels that will come in the last days. Wondering who they are and when they will come. I said, "If you don’t know that right now, will you still be able to have salvation? Then it doesn’t matter. Focus on what will save people." I’m not saying that he is in the wrong, I just live by a different philosophy. If I don’t understand it, but I know that it is in the hands of God, then let it be until He sees fit to tell His children. We will know all things when it is time. Now is not that time. I guess what I’m saying is that when someone is so preoccupied with a problem that does nothing to solve the rest of the problems that they have in life, then they are only adding to the confusion that we all have. We must focus ourselves "with an eye single to the glory of God."

I love you all!!! I´d love to hear from you!!! Till next week!!

Elder Heath

New Comp!

(a letter from June 18)

So I have a new comp! His name is Elder Gonzalez and he is SHORT! He doesn’t even get to my shoulder. He is really cool though. We joke and have fun but we are working and he likes that since he just finished training with his dad and they hardly did anything. He is going for 4 months in the mish and he is already trunky. I’ll break him of that.

In the morning today, we were with a member to wash our clothes when we got a phone call. "Elders! I have a reference for you but you have to head out NOW!" "Umm.... Ok." I t turns out that a sister in our ward didn’t have our number and ended up calling the assistants about her sister who was at her house at THAT moment, We got there and the questions began about the Priesthood and the organization of the church and why we don’t use veils to pray and why the woman can dress so casually and just.... Huh.

Well we started with a prayer and we started at the beginning. God. And that was a HUGE subject. She knew that Jehovah was Christ and that’s what I didn’t understand about her questions. The problem was that she didn’t know that God the Father existed. She kept saying that we were like the Catholics because we believed in the Trinity and I was like, ".... Meh?" Then we talked about the fact that Christ is the Son of SOMEONE and she said, "Wait.... so IS a third person there?" And the heavens opened and light shown down from heaven to grace her with understanding!

To end the lesson, she said she couldn’t pray because she didn`t have her veil. Well... she started to... then she just said, "Is it really ok to pray without a veil?" "Yes it really is. How else can you pray at all times like the Lord has commanded?" She got it. We put a return appointment Wed and Fri and a commitment to read the B.o.M. and attend church on Sun. Dolores. She will be a baptism.... Just not in our ward because she lives JUST out of the area. She is really great though and I will be keeping tabs on her.

The division of the mission has finally come... almost. Haha. I am going to miss Pres. Reeves a TON! But I know that I will love Pres. Christenson as well. We will be meeting him on the 29th of this month. One more week. EXCITING!!!!

I love you Mom!!! I hope that all is well there. Tell Elder Orr that I said "HI" and also to the Ralphs! Till next week.

Elder Heath