Dear Family,
Why in the world did
you send my letter at 2 AM? Just been noticing the time stamps on some of
the letters I get...thinking what mom is doing in her scrapbooking room at 2 in
the morning writing a letter :)
Well as all the
missionaries that know me in the mission put it, my "Grandpa" came to
the mission this weekend. If you follow church and world news closely,
Venezuela rejected a visit from Elder Russell M Nelson and Elder Ronald A.
Rasband probably for some political reason. They asked the area president,
Elder Uceda where they could go to visit on Saturday morning, and well,
Elder Uceda must have a soft spot for the Mision Peru Lima Norte, because he
said right here. Yep, we had a visit from the three of them as well as our
Mission President on Saturday morning. We had to wake up at 4:45 to
get there on time because it was held in the Limatambo Stake building, which is
pretty far from the mission. There was a plaque there so I took a picture of
that, hope you can read it, it’s a piece of Peru church history. Anyway, we got
there and in the course of things after greeting old companions and being
seated, in walks Elder Nelson, Elder Rasband, ELder Uceda, and Presidente with
their wives. They requested that all of us come and shake their hands (He said
I know to take care of the name). Then started the training or discourses. Wow!
I´m still in awe at it all. They were all in English apart from President and
Elder Uceda.
Elder Rasband talked
about how the mission work has changed from the mission work of missionaries
and mission work of members to the mission work in general, and that as such,
we have to leave old things behind, in order to learn the new way of doing it.
Like when they changed from memorized chats to PMG, it wasn´t gradual, it was a
complete change, nobody was giving half and half lessons. He also emphasized
that the missionary purpose with the obra de salvacion, extends until the
families are sealed in the temple, not just until they are baptized and
confirmed.
Sister Nelson talked
about how Jesus Christ has changed each of our Lives, and there were two
suggestions in order to help us make sure that they didn’t change back.1) fall
in love with the scriptures as the source of answers in our lives. For 30 days,
before studying say a pray in which you thank our Father for the scriptures,
ask for the Holy Ghost to guide you, and then ask a question that weighs on
your mind. Then she said open your scriptures and read, using footnotes or just
reading until you find the answer. In a notebook in four columns write the
date, the question, the answer, and the scripture reference. Suggestion number
2: increase your understanding of the atonement using a plan, like Elder Scott
said in his April 2010 conference talk. She said to read Tad R. Callister´s
"Infinite Atonement". Prayerfully study and search one page every
day, it ought to take about a year. (Please buy it for me in English for my
cubby :) )
Then Elder Nelson
spoke about the necesidad for a real conversion, and that its true we ask
people to be baptized in just three weeks sometimes, but in reality, the
conversion takes place in little time or lots of time, and we should never
baptize someone who hasn’t exercised faith and repented. He also talked about
why it’s so hard to find investigators when we have the truth, like really they
ought to line up to hear us right? He taught from Judges chapter 7 and said the
ratio (1:500) of the battle that they fought after God fixed how many they had
in their army (you can fix the pronouns in this sentence right?) is almost
exactly the ratio of members to nonmembers in the world today. God knows His
vineyard, and He knows exactly how His laborers should be working.
 |
| Jerica Paz's Baptism |
He then called a
sister from our zone up, asked her where she lived, and proceeded to describe
the nearby lake to her, and that across the lake is Liberty Jail, then he asked
her to give the scripture reference for what God told Joseph Smith when he was
in the jail under inhuman conditions. It just confirmed to me that he is a prophet
of God. He told us he has seen who we were in the pre existence ( see DyC
138:48, 55-56), who we will be in 50 years, and who we will be in 50 million
years. He told us to save the fact that Peru now has 12 missions, 100 stakes,
and 1 temple with two on the way to tell our grandchildren because it won´t
seem like anything when you really know His plan for the world. He taught us
that we are protected, like Dad said in his letter, and that He fights our
battle for us, but lets us suffer to gain experience. He left an Apostolic
blessing on us that I felt from my ears to the deepest recesses of my
heart.
Right after that we
came back to the area, ate lunch and headed to the church to have a baptism.
Jerica Paz was baptized to join her family, and the bishop gave permission to
confirm her (I did it!) the same day because there weren´t church meetings due
to voting on Sunday (voting in Peru is mandatory and any reunion by
any organization earns an automatic fine from the police).
 |
| My Companion hard at work.... |
Letter to President
Excerpt:
All in all things are going really well. We know what it is we
are expected to do, and we are focused in making sure it gets done. We work
hard, and come home absolutely matados, but we feel good, we are working in His
work, and trying to find a way to work better with the members in our ward at
the same time. His blessings are upon us, and we feel them on a daily basis.
The Members stand as
witnesses constantly because they are a minority. Those who expect that someday
the church will be a majority are sadly mistaken. The true church, according to
prophecy in the scriptures will always be a minority, and that´s okay, we are
strong in our position because we know that God has confirmed our prayers.
 |
| Work hard, sleep hard.... |
As for promptings I
have received and things to say, we can use the example that we have points to
teach in the lesson, but I honestly don´t have a detailed plan to teach it,
just the points, a bunch of scriptures that I can pull from and the spirit.
Examples come to me in the moment, and I usually use examples from their lives
of my investigators. There are two investigators that are sisters, almost twins
but not quite, I used them to say that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are
similar, but different, that example hit home better than a more general
example like they are similar to my hands, left and right but performing
functions to reach a goal.
Well that’s all I had
time to write, but know that I love you, I pray for you, congrats to Melissa on her Young Womanhood Recognition award, you´re the greatest, little sis! I got a
letter from Brooklyn Hirschi and the wedding announcement from Brooklyn Dyck,
Thanks guys, love to hear from you all!
Love,
Elder Nelson
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