O-15: Highs and Lows, January 15, 2024

Wena wena todos!

This week was significantly harder and felt less rewarding! But it's going to take a lot more then that to get to me!

So on Monday instead of having a normal regular zone pday with 6 other missionary companionships, playing sports and cards, we could only have a district pday. Meaning we could only be with 3 other companionships. No fútbol, no volleyball, etc. Well yes we could do those things but it would be 4v4 instead of 7v7. It's not the same. And we are all good friends! But now we can only see them once every 6 weeks maybe twice. When our president first told us this, a lot of missionaries reacted negatively. There are a lot of districts with only four-six missionaries. To be honest though, that last pday was one of my favourites, it was a lot more relaxing, we had a BBQ cookout, played some 2v2 basketball, me and the Australian (Elder Gomez) cooked in both events. We played some cards, and we jammed on the piano. It was fun!

Then on Tuesday we had a lesson with Luis! I was excited for this, we brought an awesome member named Byron! He's 34, from Ecuador, with a wife and two children. Anyways we go into this lesson and we ask Luis if he has any questions. And he starts ranting for an hour, not really giving us the opportunity to speak, spewing out all of these doubts. Anyways our time ended and we didn't have the opportunity to respond. He was sitting there huffing, out of breath, a little red in the face. I was sitting there just thinking "............." so not really thinking. And we told him we would send him some articles to read. And he asked when we could meet next (he's now been ghosting us). The reason we had to end the lesson was because people started showing up for English class. One of them was Catalina, and she came to English class alone and on the verge of crying.

I find out Catalina and Andres have been arguing and fighting. On Wednesday they came out to fútbol night and I could see the tension and awkwardness between them. The worst part was no one showed up to fútbol, so we just sat in awkward silence for ½ an hour. I tried making light conversation, but it didn't go very far. And my comp just felt trapped in the awkwardness, not talking. Anyways they left and so did we. Then on Saturday, when we normally workout with eachother in the morning, Andres canceled. We tried setting up a time to visit with them and they said they were busy. I asked if they were coming to church and told them the time changed from 10 to 11. They told me no that they were busy. I'm a bit nervous for them, and sad that we haven't been able to meet with them all week. For like the past 3ish weeks before this last week, we had been meeting 2-3× a week, and now nothing. But I have faith we will meet with them this week!

Anyways there are a lot more difficult things I could talk about, but what's the fun in that? I'm going to talk about the good things I saw this week!

- ....

Just kidding there were actually some good things haha

- we had a fuego noche de hogar with Byron and his family! Little Egnacio his chubby almost 2 year old son, was super funny, got some good laughs out of me. There is a difference in little English speaking babies and little Spanish speaking babies that is very funny. They just have little one liners or words that are thick with accent. It's great jsjs. When we left he kept yelling "ciaaooooo" even when we had gone quite the ways down the street haha.

- I had some pretty awesome personal studies, thanks to my papá who gave me some good resources to study!

- I got to meet Oscar! He is a neighbour in our neighbourhood as neighbours are. We had an awesome lesson with him about the gospel of Jesus Christ! He was very receptive! And he also really loves theories and such, so my comp had a fun time talking, connecting, and relating with him about that. Afterwards we walked out and Elder Shell saw his weights and asked if he could try them. We both tried them, then he showed us his pull up bar and I got to do some calesthenics skills. He got excited that we like working out and invited us over this Saturday to have breakfast, us to teach him a lesson, and then workout together! It'll be awesome! If I am there...

- we had a lesson with our Haitian friends Eugenia and Naco, and we were able to bring a member, who is also our friend, David Gomez. Absolute legend! He has kids similar age to Eugenia and Naco, 11, 5, 2. We mostly talked about the Book of Mormon and we read a bit and answered there questions! David was calm and took the lead, it was very cool and I was able to learn as well! Just different lessons not the one he was actually teaching.

- the other day I felt impressed to knock a door that we had tried qualquier times but had never set up a successful appointment. But that day I was feeling it. So we tried and out came someone we hadn't met there before, she told us to come back the next day, Sunday, and we could have an appointment. Now with this house we've gotten to this point, and whenever we went back to the agreed time, no one answered. So yesterday we went, and the same girl answered the door and told us her mom had just left (our hearts sank)... but that she'd be back soon (our hearts unsank... rossed? Rised? Rose? Came up? Raised? *that was my cue for english to work... but it didn't*) and she did! And we were able to go into her house and talk and visit, I shared a scripture from the Old Testament, Nahum 1:7, I recommend it. And we set up another visit!

So it was a week of highs and lows! Took a little bit to see the highs but they eventually revealed themselves!

This week is transfers, we will probably find out Thursday and move out or stay on Friday. I have a chance of leaving because I've spent my whole mission here in Renca so far, but my mission president is changing things up a bit. Normally in this mission, a missionary will stay in an area for 3 transfers at most, but now he's changing it to 4 or maybe 5. So we will see! I'm happy with either outcome! I enjoy it here, but I would enjoy a change of scenery and meet new people!

Spiritual thought: Omni 1:26

"26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."

How can we come unto Christ?

- By believing in Him

- Learning of Him in scripture

- Praying to invite the Holy Spirit to testify of Him

- Having faith in Him

- Repenting of our sins

- Through baptism for immersion and proper authority, with the knowledge of the covenant we are making

- Go to church

Why should we come unto Christ?

- To partake of His salvation

- To partake of the power of His redemption

- these things mean that we will be saved, that we will be redeemed of our sins through Jesus Christ

- Also says in other scriptures that there is peace in Christ, shelter for the soul

Is it good enough to just half heartedly come to Christ?

- Not really, we need to try to come unto Him and offer (or sacrifice) our whole souls (giving up things that hold us back, letting God be the focus of our life).

- We need to fast and pray. Both these things give us spiritual power, helping us stay strong through the forces of Satan.

- And we need to endure to the end... which means always remembering these things, always trying to do our best. And if we make a mistake, we repent and partake of His redeeming power. And try again :)

Question of the week: What can you offer up to Christ to come unto Him this week? Tell me, and I'll follow up with you next week to see how it went!

Elder Spencer

Fotos (Renca)