Well...I'm 20 pounds underweight according to this weight scale measuring machine that was in Albrook Mall, haha. We had to go into the city this week for immigrations stuff, paperwork business and I didn't even get to renew my ID because of some mistakes that the office elder made in my paperwork, so I'll have to go back in the next time to take care of it. But anyway, we go to the bathroom in the mall and they have those weight machines where you put in a quarter and what not and it tells you how tall you are and how much you weigh. Well, I'm 6'2" and weigh 161 pounds, so I've definitely put on the weight I lost back in San Blas, even though I'm pretty sure at this point that the scale in the AP's house was wrong and I never really weighed only 135 pounds, I was probably like 145 or so. It told me that for my height, being somewhat tall that to be a normal weight, I should weigh around 181 pounds, but I haven't weighed that since I graduated high school. Funny, seems pretty big, I wouldn't mind weighing that, just wouldn't want it all to be rice weight and dry chicken making me fat.
Going into the city was fun, I like it, all the tall buildings, loud noises, rude people, it's great. I wonder where I'll get transferred next, if I'll be heading back towards the city or even farther away off towards Costa Rica?
We've been really blessed this week and as usual I've learned a lot, about listening to the promptings of the Spirit. As you all know we have a group night in the church every Thursday night, which usually only brings around 5 or 6 people, and like no investigators which is really the point of doing them. Well, we motivated everyone this past Sunday to come; put people in charge of bringing food and we were going to make it great. Because as we all know, if there's food involved, about 45x more likely that the people will come. No food, no people. We taught our English class beforehand which went pretty well. I taught the difference between "I go" and "I'm going" and using different verbs and props and stuff. This week we set it up to add a bit of the Gospel into our English class by teaching how to pray in English, which is going to be fun. So after the English class those people stuck around and lots of members came as well, and less-actives, and we ended up having 38 people there! That's the most Ive ever seen, and that's about half the amount of the attendance for Sundays. We pumped everyone up and made this cool flyer and announced that every Wednesday we, (us 4 Penonomé elders), were going to do what we call "miércoles con los misioneros" where people sign up and we throw Family Home Evening in the members' houses, inviting them to bring friends and less-active family members. It should be cool, starting this week, and when we announced it, right afterwards like 3 families signed up. The best part about it is that we're going to take a picture of each Family Home Evening, print out a big picture and tack it to the announcement board so that everyone sees how much fun we have and say "¿No te gustaría tener tanta diversión así?" haha :) Hopefully it is successful.
We decided as a zone yesterday during district meeting that in order for us to be more successful as a zone, we needed to make more sacrifices, because as we know, with each sacrifice, the Lord brings blessings and miracles, and what we need is a miracle. Our zone has not been producing very many baptisms lately and President is getting concerned. So we decided that what we needed to do was sacrifice. Starting this Sunday, and for every following Sunday, we as a zone are going to fast. We are all going to kneel down at the same time after lunch on Saturday, say a prayer and start our fast, and fast until Sunday the next day at lunch to end the fast in the same manner. Fasting brings miracles, I know so. I always think, "How can just skipping food for a bit help people to be more receptive, come to church, accept the Gospel and baptism, etc", but I know it works. More than anything, when I have fasted here on the mission, I feel the power of the Spirit so much stronger than any other day. The Lord confirms to me time after time that what I'm doing is worth the cost, and necessary for the well-being of others.
I had a revelation this week, which is the following, and I hope that you all use this in lessons or what not, whatever you feel like really, and if you don't want to use it, well too bad, haha :P It's this: Listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost is like tuning a radio. If we merely just scan super fast, we are not being sensitive to the blips of clear music that comes in when the radio station comes in clearly. If we merely fly through all the channels, all we'll hear is static. We need to listen carefully, going slowly, and listen with our hearts and not just our ears to hear the still small voice of the Spirit. Most of the time He's not going to shout at you to make you listen, He requires the desire of your hearts to tune ourselves into God's radio station. So I invite you all this week to listen carefully, quietly, and softly as the Lord speaks to you. Tune your dial carefully, because His channel always comes in crystal clear, better than HD radio, because it's HF(Heavenly Father) radio!
We taught an investigator class this past Sunday as well, which was just us 4 elders, a member lady from my old ward back in San Mig, and a cool member here named Hermano Arrocha, and an investigator of Clarke and Aguirre's who has no legs and is in a wheelchair. At first when I walked in I was incredibly distracted because this man smelled really badly of urine, as apparently many incapacitated people do. I just kept complaining about how bad it smelled in the room and it was hot so it made it smell even worse. My comp Elder Carrillo was teaching us all the Restoration and I just couldn't pay attention. The man in the wheelchair was just sitting there attentively, listening to the lesson, and then makes a comment and starts crying. And we all looked at one another confused, because it just came out of nowhere. Elder Clarke just looks at me and goes "Dude, he's feeling the Spirit big time". And then the Spirit hit me like a brick wall, as it is right now, and the words came to my head "The Gospel of Jesus Christ..:" or as I heard it in my head "MY Gospel blesses EVERYONE. Everyone needs it and cannot be truly happy without it". I testify to all of you that that is true. I was so distracted simply because this man smelled a little bad, and as soon as he began crying that the Lord told me that, I stopped merely smelling the man's stench and began to really listen to the Spirit and the atmosphere we had created around us in that room. The Spirit was there and it was strong.
Another great experience to finish this email is one that also happened on Sunday (notice a pattern here, all of this happening because of us fasting, and now because of the zone decision to do it every week, I hope to have experiences like these every week). We had gotten home and changed our clothes and decided that we were going to eat something in the house because we went to dinner to end our fast but the guy wasn't there. He had told me at church that he wanted us to come by to give his brother a blessing, so we showed up early to do that, but no one was home. I just said oh well and changed my clothes. Elder Carrillo started talking saying "we really should go back and give that blessing, what happenes if something really bad happens to him and we would know that if we would have just gone to give the guy a blessing, he'd have been healed?" Again, I was just like "ugh, I'm already in my normal clothes, and it's dark, I don't want to leave the house". But he kept insisting, so I said fine, we got dressed and headed out in the dark to the guy's house again. We got there, were able to get the dinner we had missed and he took us over to his brother's house to go give him the blessing and it went really well. I'm grateful for my companion's persistence in getting me off my butt to go bless another person. The priesthood is not to be taken lightly, it needs to be excercised daily, just like we should with our physical bodies daily (even though I never do, haha).
I want you all to know how much I love you, and encourage you to always be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit. He warns, He confirms truth, He comforts, He protects, He testifies, and He loves you.
First scripture is in 2 Nephi 25:18 which tells us that there is only one Messiah and He will come again to save us all and provide us with eternal life. Lastly we have 2 Nephi 28:30, which says that a testimony is gained piece by piece, here a little there a little. Although we want a testimony to all come at once, it doesn't usually work that way, we need to cultivate it like a garden. We can't ignore a plant for a month and then pour 5 gallons of water on it and expect it to grow, it takes daily care, little by little.
Have a great week ya'll, passing up 15 months in the mission this week, woo!
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