Thursday, June 1, 2017

"And His Soul Rejoiced"

Chalking! We actually got to talk to a lot of people, and even
some Hispanic people who happened to be in the park 🎉

What a crazy week!

Bikes woes - We had three really long bike days this week because we're trying to conserve bike miles. The elders tell us they bike 15 miles all the time, but do that three days in a row and it kind of killed us. But hey we're not gonna go over on miles this month! We also found a really good way to contact is to break your bike. Hna Shepherds skirt got stuck in her bike  gears while we were biking and three different people pulled over and offered to help us, and we almost got to give a Book of Mormon to one of them. So you never know what little inconvienences can turn into contacting oppurtunities. 

Funnies -
We saw someone getting married in a Pollo Campero, a fast food Mexican Restaurant here.

We were trying to text a member to ask if she could come to a teaching appointment with us, in Spanish of course, and we got a text back two minutes later that said "Go back to your country..." so wrong number whoops. The running joke with all the Spanish missionaries is that we're all scared to talk to white people now because they're the only ones that ever yell at us. 

Benito! He was trying to wave at y'all

I keep saying everyone is leaving us, but it's true this week and really sad. The Andersons left this morning to go home. Our district made dinner for them last night after church. And Benito is moving to Texas because he's getting too old to live by himself and he has family there, and we went to go say goodbye to him yesterday and he started crying and I started crying and everyone was crying and it was a sad day. He is this really awesome member who feeds the sisters every sunday, and he is so sweet and when he found out I don't really like meat that much he made me vegetarian soup last week and he is the best. He also keeps giving us all his stuff and we had to bike home with a DVD player and ten pounds of books.


All of the stuff Benito gave us we had to bike home with...

There hasn't been a whole lot of progression this week. We weren't able to meet with Jonathan this week because his work gets really crazy at the end of the month and he takes more shifts. But hopefully we'll get to see him tonight. And no one came to ward conference yesterday, we had about 25% of even our really active member weren't there. But I got to translate in relief society from English into Spanish and it went surprisingly well. People mostly understood what was going on, and the gift tongues is real. 

In a meeting with our bishop this week, he gave us a really cool spiritual thought I wanted to share with you. In Moses 7, Enoch is having a vision and is seeing the wickedness of the world. In Moses 7:26 "And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth in darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced." And Enoch looks and sees the Lord weeping over his people. That should probably scare you just a little bit. The power that Satan is capable of having over us, and the fact that he mocks the Lord with it makes us a little angry as well. And Enoch continues to see the wickedness and the children of God falling into temptation, and says in verse 44 "And as Enoch saw this, he had bitterness of soul, and wept over his brethren, and said unto the heavens; I will refuse to be comforted; but the Lord said unto Enoch: Lift up your heart, and be glad; and look." Then in verse 47 "And behold, Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh; and his soul REJOICED, saying: The Righteous is lifted up, and the Lamb is slain from the foundation of the world; and through faith I am in the bosom of the Father, and behold, Zion is with me." As Enoch weeps, and his heart swells, and his bowels yearn, and he refuses to be comforted, there is yet one thing that gives him reason to rejoice: the coming of Jesus Christ. As a missionary, I have seen this power that Satan has over people's lives, and it is soul-wrenching, how so many have a desire for the truth, but don't know how to change to seek it. But that is why we're here, and that is what we're called to do as missionaries, to invite others to Christ, and help them repent and find joy through Him. He is our hope. And the power of Christ's Atonement can change people's lives. 

Trevino's took us to dinner at Famous Dave's. Mmm Barbecue 
Last district picture before the Anderson's left 😭


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