Oh...hi! Nice to see you all again, it's been so long since last talking to you, haha. This has really been one of the greatest and most rewarding weeks of my mission, and probably of my life. So much has happened that I don't really know how to accurately explain it. It's been a week of literal miracles, a week of rewarding lessons that we taught to people in which we left feeling so grateful for our knowledge of the Gospel and the power of repentance. Earlier in the week I had the privilege of meeting our new mission president, President Carmack and his wife. First impression: wow that woman is tall, they're a really tall couple. When she introduced herself to everyone; all the sister missionaries; she had to lean down to hug most of them because she looked like a giant, probably like 5'9" or so. President Carmack is a really nice and passionate guy it seems, and speaks Spanish like a pro. He's like "well...I haven't practiced Spanish for like 30 years so I'm a little rusty", haha, not, he speaks really well. I'm looking forward to these couple of months with him, because I think the Latins will really respect him and the mission will start having great success under his instruction.
Let me start now by sharing with you all a miracle that happened this past week. Ok, so I got a referral from an elder in an area called Bocas del Toro like a month ago, for a guy that lived in my area. I got his number and name and just simply forgot about him, didn't really give it any importance because we have so many things to do and it's always difficult looking for those kind of referrals, so I didn't really think about it ever again. I decided that with Elder Wright that we should contact some more in an area that I'd never done it in before. We walked past these two young guys hanging out in hammocks and kept walking. Wright decided that we should go back and talk to them, so we did. They were pretty cool, but as we were talking, some guy rides up behind us on a motorcycle with a little baby in the middle of him and his wife on the back. I didn't really think anything of it and just said to them "woah, una familia entera encima de una moto" and just thought it was funny. As we left talking to those hammock guys, we noticed that the moto was still there and the guy calls out "hey elders!", so...he was waiting for us to finish, haha, didn't know that. He started talking and saying that he was an inactive member and that woman was his "wife" (not married) but that she wanted to get baptized, so he would need to get divorced from his first wife and then marry this lady so that she could get baptized. Awesome desire. As he was talking about that, the referral immediately came to my head of that guy that Elder Goodson in Bocas had given me a month back, because the stories really coincided. But I thought, nah, couldn't be possible, that'd just be a coincidence. We kept talking and followed them home right away. He explained more and told us his name, which I also recognized, because the last name was strange, Bogantes. I realized that it was the guy, when he mentioned that he had been in Bocas a few weeks back and had talked to a missionary about coming back to church. THIS was the same guy. The Lord was basically telling me "well, Gregg, if you aren't going to call this guy to meet and teach him, I'll SEND him to you personally so that you can meet him". He literally threw this guy in my face, in a good way. His wife wants to be baptized, and also his 9 year old daughter, a niece and his 16 year old younger brother. SO, we were able to set up 3 sure baptisms with these guys, and we're working on bringing him back to church. All of this because my comp followed the Spirit which brought us back to hammock kids, and because I had "randomly" decided to contact houses in an unknown area. I know that that was a miracle, from Him, no doubt in my mind.
That experience among many others this week, some more sacred and personal that happened as well, have all strengthened my enormous testimony of the truth of the Gospel and the Lord's guiding hands in His work. Wow that took up a lot of time explaining that, there were lots of other things that I wanted to mention. Wright and I are arming up our New Testament-only bibles that are made by the church. They're in Spanish. We're marking them up with all kinds of cross references, and a huge list of common stupid Panamanian questions or concerns, for example "All churches are good, there is no true church, because God is one, and God is in every church". Wrong. We're getting ready to be able to answer every possible questions that the people have for us, by using both the New Testament and the Book of Mormon to support one another. Having us both literally "on the same page" is the perfect companionship. Can you think of a better one? That's why Alma and Amulek are such scripture giants in the BOM, because one testified with scripture, then sat down, and the other got up to bear testimony of what his companion had said. And that's what we're doing. It should be done and marked up by the end of this week, hopefully, and then I'll be ready at all times and won't let anyone stump me with their questions.
We had a great 4th of July, Wright and I. It was simple and yet nice. I wore all kinds of red white and blue, including my bracelet I made a year ago, and had ourselves a nice little BBQ of barn burgers. If you don't know what those are, ask my dad :) They were so delicious, and I think we're saving the fireworks for today, I bought a lighter already, so I'm set. I want you all to know that we truly live in the greatest country in the world, even with how much it has changed recently, that doesn't take away from the fact that we live in the best.
Scriptures this week are both in Mosiah, maybe my favorite book in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 13:1-4 which says basically that wicked people become angry when they hear the truth of their sins, and Mosiah 21:14-15 which supports that by saying that the Lord is slow to hear the cries of the wicked. You want the Lord to bless you and forgive you, then obey His commandments. The church is true everyone, you know it and I know it. Have a miracle-filled week :)
No comments:
Post a Comment