May 17, 2010

Hola fam.
It’s been another good old week here in Sogamoso. We had a baptism on Saturday, we secured a few more baptism dates. I am full of ideas to get things moving even more.
The good news is that our baptism turned out fine. Nicolas, who was baptized, is only 11 but by reaching him we have reactivated about 9 other people. His aunt and uncle were inactive members and they have 5 kids. He now lives with his grandma and his 2 brothers. We found out that his mom was inactive so we started visiting them and they slowly started coming back. Then one day we invited her to present someone for us to teach and she said her nephew wasn’t a member but his brothers and grandma were. So we started teaching him and now all 10 of them are back in the church. Four of the boys are now going to receive the priesthood and the young men's leader has them very involved and excited, so it has been a great blessing to be able to find them and see their return.

Apart from that we have also been working with one guy named Manuel. We have now been teaching him and he has gone to church twice. We have invited him to be baptized and he wants to but he feels like he wants to learn more or receive a real answer, so we have been teaching him a lot about the spirit and how to receive and recognize an answer.

Guillermo and Lina have been working very hard as far as the word of wisdom and although she still occasionally falls into smoking, they are progressing a lot. This week he finally got a break from work so they both came to church and loved it. He is a very funny guy and outgoing so he made friends with all the members and even knows a few from before. We committed them to be married and baptized. It was a great lesson and they accepted. We tried to commit them to a sooner date but they decided on June 19 (Saturday) so that they can organize things well and have a nice wedding. Here, only the Catholic church and the government can legally do marriages so we are going to hire the Notario to come do the marriage in the church so we can invite everyone and have a nice meeting. Then afterwards we can baptize them. They are very excited and very committed. The only problem they have is the word of wisdom but this gives us time to work with them and have them very prepared. The only thing that worries me is the long time until that day. There could be a lot of challenges and opportunities for them to fall but I know we can get it done. They have an awesome little kid (4) named Juan Carlos and I can already see him as a missionary. So please pray for them that they can reach their goal and be married and baptized like they have decided to do.

There are more investigators, one named Nubia, that could possibly be baptized next week. Anyway, there will be lots to do. I have lots of ideas of ways to get the members moving and presenting their friends.

Today for P day, we had a ward sports activity and a bunch of members and the 6 missionaries played sports. Our chapel has a nice basketball/soccer court behind it. So we first played a little soccer. haha I basically have no idea how to dribble or kick the soccer ball but I’m a pretty good goalie and I can run with everyone and at least play defense. But afterwards, I got my turn and we played a little bball. It’s not really that exciting to play here because almost no one knows how to play but today there were a few that had an idea so we had a little fun. Then we played some volleyball which was a little more evenly matched and entertaining. Anyway it was a good Pday activity and Guillermo came and played so it was a good chance for him to get to know the members etc.

Also another cool experience from this week. We were walking down the street (Monday) and some kids shouted out "hello" to us in English. I usually have about 10 people a day shout something out in English as they see me walk by or say something about gringos which I usually just ignore, but this time I felt like I should talk to them. We walked over, which surprised them, and presented ourselves. They said they were also Christians and invited us to a meeting at their house the next day. We ended up with Elder Soria so the three of us went to visit them. At first it was just the kid who invited us but then person after person arrived until there were about 14 of people present. Then their Pastor arrived. haha . I have taught a few people of their religion and they are very, very, very, intense and hard to talk to. They believe that Jesus and God are the same person.

We thought it was just going to be a lesson and it turned into a meeting for their church like a fireside in their house. Their pastor welcomed everyone and said that first they would do their normal thing and then give us a little time to share what we came to share. They said about 5 prayers at random times during the meeting. And for the prayer they all stand up and close their eyes and start talking or shouting things at the same time... It was quite confusing so I just stood there and closed my eyes and waited for them to end. Anyway, after that their pastor read some verses from the Bible and shouted a lot and they played a few songs on guitar. Then they gave the time to us and the other 2 missionaries just looked at me haha. At first I was a little afraid to say anything "too Mormon" so they wouldn’t start fighting or anything. I talked about how we both believe in Christ etc. but then I really felt like we should tell them what we tell everyone so we started teaching them about Christ’s ministry and his original church with apostles and prophets. We told them that we believed that those things were lost for a long time and had been restored today and that there were prophets and apostles again in the world. Their pastor tried to clarify that the calling of prophets ended with Jesus but we clearly answered all of his questions and even used his own Bible. We ended up committing all of them to pray and ponder about what we had taught them and finished with our testimonies while the Pastor was looking for something to read them from the Bible. We finished and everyone started asking us questions about where we were from, our cultures, the church, why they call us Mormons etc. We could barely leave on time because they all wanted to talk to us. The family whose home we taught in even went with us outside and asked if we could go back and talk just with them.

This week we will return and teach them. We basically went into a house full of people (who are usually very difficult to talk to) and committed them all to pray about the restoration. We will return to their next meeting and keep visiting them. Who knows if any of them will really progress but it was really a cool experience because the Spirit guided us and for at least that moment they knew it and recognized it.

Well that’s about all the news there is to write this week. I have high hopes for the future and to make this the best part of my mission yet. I know we are in the true church and I feel very blessed to be a missionary. I love you, be of good cheer and I will talk to ya next week. Love Elder B