Putting the Gospel to Work

Comas Zone at a permanent style County fair on P-day

Dear Familia,                                                                                                                                    

           

Yes Beatriz got baptized! She asked us Saturday if she could talk to some sister missionaries about a few doubts she had and my mind started to spin. I almost lost a chunk of faith, but we said of course and called the sisters to come up on Sunday to talk to her. After the lesson we didn’t get to talk for a few days and on Tuesday we had an appointment with her and her family. We walked in and in the course of the conversation we asked her if she was ready for her baptism on Saturday and she said yes! When will it be? Wow, she was soo sure, soo excited and it made sense to her about the church, she has a testimony, and when she bore it after the baptism, she said how she was sad her parents couldn’t be there to watch, but she has faith that someday that they will understand that this is the true church like she does. She kept bearing her testimony and suddenly into the chapel walked her mom! Mid-testimony she came in and sat down in silence. We hope to be able to teach her this coming week. She didn’t make it to see her daughter baptized, but she heard half of her testimony and she has seen the positive change that has happened in her daughter’s life.

This week we were able to work on the home teaching program her in the ward and really try to help the elders quorum president understand how it works. He’s a convert of about 2 years and so its new to him and to the majority of the ward. He went out to visit some of the recent convert families with us this week and we showed him how a home teaching visit goes and how to make some kind of a report of what happened. He was really grateful with us and expressed how really even though his family has been going to church for 15 years or so, in his 2 years he hasn’t been able to learn much about how to exercise his priesthood in his home. I ended up giving him my ordinance card in Spanish and there was a talk about FHE this week in the sacrament meeting, so he is coming along. That is one thing we are finding is that many of the members don´t know what a functioning LDS family is, what are the "normal things" we do that all members should be doing.

That lead me to think about what are the things that we as members ought to be doing that maybe we aren’t so focused in doing. We are always striving to make our homes into temples, but what are the things that we should do inside of our homes to make them into temples? Because really what makes a temple a temple isn’t the beautiful paintings nor the whiteness of the walls nor the way we act inside, it’s the sacred covenants and the blessings promised there. In our homes, it’s the FHE, daily prayers and scripture study, in addition to the decoration, the mutual respect we show and the actions of love.

Well, I hope this is a good letter, I hope it’s been food for thought and a letter that isn’t just dead in the blog, but something that provokes action and a real difference in your lives. I love you all, and I want these letters to be like the New Testament, not just words in an old book, but words that work in the hearts of men, to their eternal benefit.

Love,

Elder Nelson

ps  We will find out about transfers after our computer time....