Wena Todos!
This was the last full week of transfers, I'll most likely stay and my Mexican comp, Elder Dominguez will probably leave, but who knows. I've loved having a latino comp and speaking Spanish majority of the time! I often wonder if one of you guys back home heard me talking to another gringo missionary if you'd be confused about our English haha. There are some latinos that speak English and they like talking to me but literally I forget everything, it's kind of funny, I just phrase things in spanish with English words if that makes sense haha.
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This week I saw the effect and power of the Holy Ghost. I witnessed the Holy Ghost:
- Bear witness of the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus Christ); John 15:26
- Reveals and testifies of the truth; 2 Nephi 32:4-5
- Sanctify and cleanses; 3 Nephi 27:19-20
- Ratify and seal as the Holy Spirit of promise; Ephesians 1:13-14
1. Bears witness:
We were in a lesson with some members who haven't been coming to church for a while, the husband is wanting to come back and his wife doesn't. And during the lesson she kept going on about how cruel God is and how much he doesn't love us, that he uses anti love, and just talked and talked mocking him and his plan of happiness for us. It was wild. I felt sick that someone could talk about God like this. I never knew the power of words could be that physically strong. So I excised myself and went to the bathroom and said a prayer. A prayer for strength, encouragement, the Holy Ghost and faith. A scripture came to my mind afterwards that I took strength from; Alma 60:28 "Yea, behold I do not fear your power nor your authority, but it is my God whom I fear." And I went back out and we kept discussing. When it came to the point in the lesson to talk about Joseph Smith and the first vision it was my turn to take over. And when I said the words of the first vision (that I learned in spanish way back with district 15F) and I could feel myself boldly testifying of God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. And I could see in her face the Holy Ghost witnessing of the Father and of the Son. We are changing their hearts bit by bit.
2. Reveals and testifies of truth:
We were in a lesson with another couple, he is an inactive member amd she actually just got baptized this Saturday!! More on that later. Anyways we were going over the commandments with them, such as the Law of Chastity, the Law of Tithing and the Word of Wisdom etc. And there were two distinct ways I saw the Spirit acting here. The first: for her I could see her eagerly learning and understanding. The Spirit was testifying and revealing the truth to her! And the second: her husband kept squirming uncomfortably as he has not been keeping some of the commandments, and the Spirit was reminding him and testifying of the truths he had forgotten! It was incredible to witness!
3. Sanctify and cleanses:
This was one of the most incredible experiences on the mission thus far. The title of the email was named in part for this. "Alma the younger", this makes sense for those that know the story, and for those that don't I'll give a quick recap. So Alma and the sons of the king at the time, went around preaching that God is false and you can do whatever you want. Leading the people to wickedness and to forget their God. And after a bit of this, an Angel came and stopped them in their path and commanded them to stop. Alma immediately fell to the ground, weak and unable to move, couldn't even talk. He was like this for three days or so and during this time his soul was at war, feeling the chains of hell and at the same time the redeeming power of Christ. And he called on the name of Christ and was converted and saved and was able to move and talk again and went on to be a fabulous missionary. Correcting his errors and bring the people back unto God.
Anyways I didn't get knocked unconscious for three days or anything, or even for a moment. We were at a members house, another couple, they aren't married and it's a really wild situation that I won't get into. Anyways she doesn't want to get married because her pareja has an addiction to something. And these members always call the missionaries angels (you can see where this is going) and this time we felt we need to be direct and firm with them but con amor (with love, that is what I wrote on our lesson plan before we started). It was a powerful lesson. Highlights: yelling between the couple, shame, peace, tears of all sorts, a blessing, strongly worded scriptures and more. It was a rollercoaster! I want to focus on the blessing part. The man asked us to give him a blessing of strength as he had felt he'd been smacked by God to correct his addiction. And the blessing was very powerful, so specifically worded that I knew God was speaking through my companion as my companion wasn't aware of some of the small facts he mentioned. After the blessing the man sat in the chair for a moment. He slowly stood up and was shaky. He fell into the arms of my comp in an embrace, and shortly after fell into my arms. Then he stood off to the side. And suddenly just kinda fell and leaned heavily against the door. And said that he felt physically weak, that he felt disabled, that he was having a hard time speaking. And then he was quiet just kinda standing there in shock. I could see a war in his eyes. And then a sudden smile burst out on his face and he said that he is ready to change, that he would start immediately in getting rid of his addiction, they walked us home and he kept shouting for joy and praising God. I warned him to never forget this moment, and to always hold on to it to give him strength. It was marvelous to witness.
4. Ratify and seal as the Holy Spirit of promise:
This came at the baptism of our friend Leonor! The baptism was very special, lots of family and friends came to support her, a lizard in the font wanted to support her as well, but we removed it from the water before she showed up. And the next day during church she received the gift of the Holy Ghost. And I could feel the Spirit confirming God's pleasure and ratifying the covenant. And I know Leonor could feel it to based of her unshakable smile!
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Other highlights:
- I got to play piano in church again for the first time in a month!
- A youth in our ward got set apart as a missionary on Sunday and now his cousin wants to learn the gospel! The new missionary will be serving in Argentina! So Elder Ingo and Elder Ellsworth, if a Chilean missionary pulls up in the next couple transfers from Santiago let me know!
- And that cousin I just mentioned, we just had an amazing lesson with him, he walked in and said "I am ready and excited to learn and listen to the words of God." He asked qualquier question to understand. He learned quickly. Super attentive. His heart has been prepared by God for this.
- Already mentioned the lizard in the font
- Got to explore downtown Santiago today at Mall Independencia to buy my comp a new suit
- and my favourite moment was right before church started, like .3 seconds before. Leonor hadn't showed up yet. But then she did with .3 seconds! Now is the time for you to remember that scene in Nacho Libre when he is in the middle of fighting Ramses and his pinned under his foot about to give up. But he looks to the entrance of the fighting arena and he sees a solo nun walk in, and as she keeps walking in there are qualquier orphans that walk in after her cheering on Nacho and he finds the strength to win! And for those of you how haven't seen Nacho Libre, I am disappointed... go watch it. Anyways it was like that, she walked in and all I could see was her, but then followed her husband, her daughter and boyfriend and a couple more people! It was epic.
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Spiritual thought: this week I listened to a talk titled My Heart Pondereth Them Continually By Devin G. Durrant. It was a very meaningful talk! He extended a couple invitations, one was to save a bit of money each week, and imagine how much that would grow in 6 months a year 5 years. And the second invitation is to pick a scripture each week to ponder. You put the scripture in a place you can constantly see and each time you see it you think about it and ponder its meaning. By the end of the week you will pretty much have it memorized in mind and the meaning inscribed on your heart. Think of the strength knowledge and revelation you will receive in 6 months a year 5 years!! I challenge all of you to do this with me, choose a scripture tonight, if you don't no where to find access to scriptures shoot me an email and I'll tell you to go to the Gospel Library app, it has the scriptures there! And now I spoiled the need for you to send me an email haha. Send one anyways. Feel free to ask me what scripture I selected this week and some of my takeaways so far, but be prepared to share the one you selected as well!
Question of the week: How have you seen the hand of the Holy Ghost this week?
I love you all! Take care!
Elder Spencer
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