Aaaaaaaanyways, Mathew finally came to church again. We didn't even have to wake him up, he just came, which was awesome! He's got a lot more pilas than he did before, and we've got a fecha down for the 1st, so if all goes well, we'll have a baptism my last Sunday in the area (I think...) Familia Sandoval also came to church, and this time, they made it for all 3 hours. It was awesome!!! If we can work things out with the parents, we might be having a baptism on the 24th as well, so that is gonna be great.
As far as the zone goes... We're going to be seeing some changes in the district leadership in our zone, and in all the talking we had to do with Presidente, we were able to get one of our districts split into two (which really needed to happen) Carrying out all these changes is going to be a pain, but the skies are clearing a bit down the road. It's looking like were going to be better off after them, so I'm excited.
We had several interesting experiences this week. Yesterday, we were contacting (because all of our citas fell) and nothing was working. I had the impression to go and try to contact one of the references we have, and he once again, didn't answer.
So we're on the far side of town, and an idea came to my mind. Instead of contacting mas o menos randomly as we had been doing, the idea came to my mind to take out my map, and say a prayer with Elder Farabee. We took the map out, and asked Heavenly Father to help us choose a barrio and a cuadra. We both felt the same barrio, and he mentioned a street that bordered a block I was looking at, so we set out for that part of town. We walked a good 20 minutes to get there, only to find that the block we chose was a grass field. The Holy Ghost never tires to play sick jokes on me! After that discovery, we prayed again, to see which of the neighboring blocks we should contact, and we chose to contact the other side of the street. The first 6 or so contacts were typical Argentinos... we offended them by knocking their door. Then we get to this one house. We clap, and nobody comes out, when a car pulls up on the block in front. AWKWARD! After a minute or so, an older woman and her daughter got out, and started unloading things from the store. We offered to help, but they declined. After 2 minutes of standing there awkwardly, I said to to the woman, "Hey, we said a prayer, and felt like we should come to this part of town. Can we come in?" She let us in :) We ended up having a great lesson, and we've got a return cita next week! It was really cool to see how by pondering and focusing on the work, the Lord, through prayer and revelation, guided us to more fertile ground. It was really cool, I was very grateful!
The other experience was a bit of a downer, but it changed my life a little bit. We have an investigator named Ruben. He"s a double amputee, without his legs, but he uses two prosthetics to walk, which is pretty cool. The guy was super rich before, but for several reasons, he now lives very poorly. Sometimes its hard to set citas, because he doesn't commit himself much, so we usually end up passing by no mas. A couple nights ago, we decided to pass by and see how he was doing. When we knocked the door, we heard a shout from inside. We knocked a couple times, and finally, he answered the door, walking on his stubs. He let us in, and what I saw changed me. Half empty bottles and burnt out cigarettes, everywhere. The house was a mess. He was laid out on a dirty blanket, on the floor, watching ESPN. Elder Farabee was a bit shocked, and tried to start talking to him, when I said "Ruben, are you drunk?" "Yeah, a little" he said, and started to cry (for being drunk nada mas though) "Ruben" I said "Wheres a broom?" He told me that there was one in the kitchen. The house was horrible. I entered the kitchen, and there was rotting food and alcohol everywhere. I grabbed the grubby broom, returned to the front room, and started to sweep. Nobody said anything. I kept sweeping, moving chairs and other random obstacles, trying to make a more decent ambient. Elder Farabee was confused, but I had learned from Elder Bobadilla that sometimes, words just don't get there, but actions do. After sweeping up the cigarette butts, I started finding open bottles, and pouring what they had left of the lawn. Then I started grabbing the mostly empty boxes of cigarettes, and throwing them into a bag. However, when I got to one that was mostly full, Ruben said "No, I'm keeping this one" "Ruben!" I said, "This is what's destroying your life! This is what is inviting the devil into your home!" But he wouldn't budge. It was so sad to see how hopelessly lost he is. Leaving the house, I had a huge mix of emotions. Shock, sadness, frustration, etc.
However, after thinking it all over, one emotion prevailed. Gratitude. Experiences like that make me so grateful that, like Nephi of old, I was born of goodly parents. However, unlike Nephi, I didn't even need to travel to the promised land. I was born in it. The gospel has given me a moral code that has protected me and my family during my life, and for that I will be eternally grateful. I don't know what I did right in the life before this, but what I do know is that God is great.
Those were the highlights that happened this week. I hope each of you can take a moment this week and really think about how good you've got it. FAMILY! I love you guys!
SOFIA! Happy birthday this Sunday! (legit this time though)
MOM! I LOVE YOU!!! Get well soon!
- Elder Jimenez
Special Lunch with Luisa
No comments:
Post a Comment