Hey fam!
How are you guys?! I hope everything has gone well for you this week. It sounds like you are all doing great! Well
this week was extremely special. There were many miracles and experiences that truly
made my testimony grow, especially the opportunity we had to see and listen to Elder
ANDERSON! It was an experience that I will never forget!
All of the missionaries in the mission got to the ward at 9AM and Elder
Anderson wasn’t going to get there till 12 haha. My mission president didn’t
want to take any chances. In these three hours we practiced for the choir and
our president told us to sit quietly and study in order to be ready for the instruction
that we are going to receive. And all of the sudden as I was studying my scriptures,
everyone stood up all at once and there entered Elder Anderson, his wife, Elder
Grow of the 70 and Bishop Davis from the general bishopric! He made his way to
the pulpit and the first thing he says with a giant grin on his face, "Que
tal, mis misionaros fantasticos!" We all had the chance to shake his hand,
which was such an unbelievable opportunity! He started out by walking through
the isles with a microphone asking everyone questions, trying to get a
discussion going about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how if we as
missionaries understand and make these people feel the power of it we will
overcome any challenge that we could ever imagine with our investigators and
less-actives.
Here are some of the notes
from him (haha sorry, maybe Huggy can translate.) He did his entire
presentation in Spanish with his French accent.
Imagine all this in a French accent....:)
Al empezar su
discurso él nos señaló como sus compañeros en la obra, ¿Entendemos
eso? Somos siervos autorizados para traer la
salvación a los hijos de Dios, en calidad de misioneros tenemos parte del
Apostolado, ellos confían y delegan responsabilidades a nosotros para que
se cumpla la palabra que se encuentra en DyC 65:2 “Las llaves del reino de Dios han
sido entregadas al hombre en la tierra, y de allí rodará el evangelio hasta los extremos de ella, como la piedra cortada del monte, no con mano,
ha de rodar, hasta que llene toda la tierra. “
Al
aprender de la expiación, nos damos cuenta de que antes de poder enseñar a
alguien el significado de la expiación, tenemos que sentir nosotros realmente
lo que hablamos, tenemos que ganar experiencias de la expiación, tenemos que
ser puros y limpios, o en otras palabras, “Es imposible ser un misionero
indigno.”
En 2
Corintios 4:18 dice: “No mirando nosotros las cosas que se ven, sino las
que no se ven, porque las cosas que se ven son temporales, pero las que no se
ven son eternas.”
¿Qué
son las cosas que no se ven en nuestros investigadores? Pensamos muchas veces
que los cambios se generan desde afuera hacia dentro, pero es todo lo
contrario, al momento de enseñar directamente al corazón, más que a la persona
misma, descubriremos realmente cuales son las cosas que necesita cambiar para
renunciar al mundo y aceptar convenios eternos. El corazón cumple un papel muy
fundamental en la obra, ya que allí se producen sentimientos que luego van a
abrir nuestra memoria al recuerdo, es allí donde parte el deseo y la conversión
de una persona.
Al cambiar
el corazón, se gana una experiencia de la expiación.
Elder
Andersen dijo “Primero el cambio, luego el Bautismo” Queremos
conversos en la iglesia, aquellos que tengan una convicción de que Jesús es el
Cristo, que la expiación de Cristo les hizo limpios y nuevos, y tengan un
testimonio firme del evangelio restaurado por medio de José Smith.
“Podemos
tener bautismos sin un testimonio del Libro de Mormón pero no podemos
bautizar Conversos que no tengan un testimonio del Libro de
Mormón”
Esperamos
que nosotros tengamos la necesidad de ganar experiencias con la expiación al
ser honestos con nuestro trabajo, nuestro prójimo, nuestro presidente, nuestro
salvador.
Busquemos
a los de un corazón quebrantado y un espíritu contrito, aquellos que saben
desde la vida pre terrenal las cosas que vamos a enseñar, a quienes el
señor escogió para que sean nuestros investigadores.
A part of his instruction to us and what
truly struck me was his energy, light and happiness he had with him. It just
seemed like his smile and happiness never got tired! I thought to myself that there
are some days on the mission I don’t feel like smiling. However, with the
bright example of Elder Anderson, i will never make excuses again.
At the end of his instruction he
switched back into English and said with power and authority, "I am a
witness of our savior Jesus Christ. I
know through experience that He lives." He paused for a minute and looked
through the eyes of each missionary. In that
moment the spirit filled the room testifying that he was a chosen apostle of
God and that he was evidence that Heavenly Father and Christ live. I could not
describe that moment even if I tried.
My companion and I are working really
well together. This last week we found a family of five who had just moved into
the area. They said they had been
praying to find friends and a group of loving people to get to know. I am
positive that Heavenly Father knew the hearts of this family and led our steps
to them. The day before this a guy in our ward gave us a reference of a woman
who lived near him. As we went to find her, we could not find the number so we
decided to knock on a random door. She
opened the door and obviously had no idea who it was because she was new to the
area, but before she closed the door we asked her name and I started to say,
"Maybe you don’t have time right now to listen but can we come back
another da...........?" She said, "No, we have time, come in
now!" haha It was a miracle. We talked with them for a while about the
plan of salvation and how families can be together forever. There was such a special
spirit there. I can’t wait to go back!
My zone is amazing. We are all very
supportive of each other. We did another zone attack the other day in a
different area. It was probably the most poverty-stricken place I have seen
yet. We all split up to contact and we
found amazing families who were waiting to hear that they can be together
forever! We all went home together on the bus.
On our way back we all made it a goal to share our testimonies on the
bus. My zone leader started out by saying, "We have some good news for all
of you!" Then we all individually shared our testimonies as we were riding
back to our area. It was such an amazing experience. Goes to show that a
bus in Peru can be turned into a temple!
It has been a good week! Many miracles
seen and many amazing experiences to come! Thank you for all that you do for
me. I can feel your prayers lifting me and pushing me along here in Peru! I
hope you all realize how much I love each and every one of you. Our family ties
are more of a strength to me here than any other power. Each day try to look
for evidence of the power of the atonement in your lives. Keep smilin!
Love, Jess
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| Breakfast! |
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| Clothes-washing fun |
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| My cute companion |
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