The Gospel Changes Lives

¡Buenos Días!

 

Sí, we got to watch general conference, but usually we try to find it on the English channel so we can watch it apart from everyone in our own language, but failed haha, so we watched the entire thing in Spanish, and I´m fine with that, but it´s so much more interesting when it´s their own voices and not some translator. But yes, it´s all live and everyone gets to watch it in the chapel. We couldn´t watch the Priesthood session though, but other than that, we were there for the other 4 general sessions. We had 2 investigators come and also one of the less actives that we´ve been visiting. He got baptized in the States (he lived in Florida and then later Texas) and speaks English really well because he lived there for 8 years or so. He´s been living in Santa Cruz, but his brother passed away here in Guayara, so he´s been here for about 3 months and is hoping to find work so he can stay here. He grew up here, but didn´t find the church until he moved to the US. Interesting, but everyone has their ways of finding the gospel. But for the conference, everything is in Spanish, except the choir, they still sing in English and I guess it´s hard to understand what they´re saying so they don´t bother trying to translate it.......... or something like that. Haha but for the congregational hymns everyone brings their Spanish hymn books so we can all sing them in Spanish because it gives the words in english still, but because I was sitting next to el Hermano that lived in the states and because the words of my Spanish hymn book are super tiny, we sang together in English haha. That was fun because normally the Bolivians just look at me funny when I start singing in English all of a sudden, but I wasn´t the only one so it was all good.

 

But the talks were amazing too. Go read them and ponder and pray and put them into practice. There´s something from every talk that we need to improve, every single one of us. Now go and do something that you haven´t done before and watch how your faith grows!

 

Oh ya, so the couple that we´re teaching. We went to their house for our visit the other night on Thursday. The hermana was there and looked kind of surprised at who knows what and sabe que [you know what]? The hermano had left for la Banda! He´s in Brazil working and she said that he told her that he´d be back in 20 days. (That´s completely normal for Bolivia). But we were shocked and didn´t know what to say for a second, then the next second I don´t know why, (but normally when something like that happens, it´s like, ´well great, I guess that´s over for now...´).. but we didn´t feel like that and instead felt like somehow this is the answer to everything they´ve been praying for. They had talked about their baptism on the 26th before he left and decided that it´s really want they want and made it their goal, and then they saw this work ad on the TV and he packed up his stuff and left without leaving a phone number or any other way to communicate, but took the next boat to Brazil and went to get the money they need to get married. Wow this family is having so many challenges right now it´s amazing. Oh, and the owner of their room that they're renting showed up yesterday and stormed in and took their TV because they didn´t have anything else to offer. So when we found the hermana yesterday, she was on the verge of tears, but we talked for a second and explained that we´re going to continue to help them get ready for their baptism so when the hermano comes back (which should be very soon because they´re never gone for as long as they say they´re going to be), they´ll be able to get married and get baptized. But wow the faith of this family and everything that has happened. But really I think we´re learning more than they are right now watching how they´ve changed everything to accept the gospel. Common sense tells me that all´s lost, but I can´t deny what we feel every single time they explain the sacrifices that they´ve made to change their lives. We can´t deny the Spirit we feel everytime we pray for this family when we don´t even know what to do next. The Spirit is real and the gospel brings about miracles.

 

Also, the man from the other week that had the accident with the glass. He´s changed too. He made every joke about the Mormons before, but now we´re teaching him with the family that owns the glass place that lives in our branch and he accepted a baptismal date on the first visit and said that this accident with the glass has really made him think about his life some more. He´s come to church 2 times since then, including general conference, and told us that he wants to get baptized. We´ll see what happens. The hard thing is that he doesn´t live in our boundaries and the other missionaries met him the other day at the conference, but every time that they´ve gone to visit him, he´s never there because he´s always here in our area with the member family, but we can´t really teach him a lot here because he´s got to attend and be baptized in his own branch on the other side of town. But he´s changed a lot too and has lots of questions and realizes now that he was only hearing the rumors before and we´re nothing like he thought we were before. So let this be a lesson to us all that we shouldn´t judge others when we have no idea what´s really going on, that the gospel changes lives, that everyone has their own special moment to accept the gospel, and that we should all be sharing the gospel with everyone we know because we have something that they need. And it doesn´t matter what their situation is, they are missing something and the gospel is the only thing that will be able to fill the gap.

 

Love you all and hope you have a great week. 

 

Amor,

Elder Groneman