Week 29 - The Week where we Apply... Everything!

So Elder Linares and I went absolutely nuts this week! We had a really good Zone Conference last week about the 4 phases of missionary work, and afterwards Elder Davis and Elder Enlow, the other Elders in our district set some really high goals that they wanted us to join in on. The goal was this: Our District of 4 missionaries is going to work so hard that we outdo the 1 other District in our zone that has 10 missionaries. Disclaimer: We were not doing to brag or anything, we just thought that would be the best way to give ourselves a high goal without just throwing numbers out there. The goal was basically that each companionship works as hard as 2 companionships at the same time.

The 4 phases of missionary work that President described is basically the 4 key indicators with a bonus phase: Find the Elect, Teach from the Heart, Church Attendance, Baptize.

We have thus made our plans and studies titled as such:

"The Elects Detector" - This involves our plan of how we are going to try and find new people to teach and what we do right in the moment of finding them. We practiced to keep our contacting down to about 3 min. explanations of a gospel principle, then we leave something really short for them to read, and we set an exact time and day that we will come back. 

"The Volleyball of Testimonies" - This is designed to help us teach from the heart. The key is that it makes us bear testimony of everything we talk about and have unity in the companionship because our companion will testify of the same thing. We share some really short part of the lesson, then we bear our testimony, then without having that awkward look at your companion saying "Hey, I want you to talk now!" after the testimony, the other instantly jumps in affirming the testimony of the first and continuing with the lesson. This keeps every thing we say, and in the end, the entire lesson short, simple, and powerful.

"The Key of Assistance" - This is how we've been applying helping people get to church. We all know that some people we teach are just better off than others. Those that we feel really good about right from the start after contacting, we try to get members in that first charla (discussion), but not just any member - a member that has the ability to bring them to church with them on Sunday, without us having to pass by all the time. Then we also have to have a charla with members after someone comes to church. This way they feel more integrated and we have more people bringing people to church than just us. I can't believe we didn't do that before.

(Baptismal Dates) - We still don't have a fancy name for giving out baptismal dates, but the basic idea behind it is that we give out baptismal dates right in the first charla. That way we get an early view how willing the person is to progress. Our purpose is to baptize, they need to know why we're coming to visit them from Day 1.

Let me tell y'all, it worked!

Our District did end up achieving that goal, and I saw easily the highest weekly success I've ever had in the mission, and we're shooting for even more this next week.

(24 new people to teach, 6 people with baptismal date, 3 people came to church.)

The other companionship in the district was not far behind us!

Now an update on all the people that are progressing!

C. and M. R. came to church yesterday! C. has always been super cool with us, but M. has been investigating the church of the Jehovah's Witnesses and hasn't wanted to talk with us much. When we visited them after church though, she was way more interested in us, and she made all her kids gather up and listen to us. Eventually 2 kind of drifted off, but we gave a baptismal date to one of their kids, L., for the 16th of February. C. and M. also seem more willing to think about getting married.

S. is the other person that came to church. Elder Linares had lots of plans to go collect people, many fell through, but even with that, S. came to church on his own! He really enjoyed it! He had gone to lots of Evangelical churches before and was invited to go to the church of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but he said he always felt something was off. He said he really felt good and comfortable in our church though and seems really willing to listen to us. He is married (legitimately) to his wife A. For now, she hasn't wanted to talk with us as much, but we're really hoping we can get her to come our for the next charla.

J. and N. are friends that now are going to try working towards a baptismal date of February 9th. J. has had lots of problems with coming to church for awhile, but maybe having a friend of hers trying as well will help, and if we can get a charla with her and a member, we've got some higher hopes now. J. is actually really good with reading the Book of Mormon and praying, she just doesn't come to church, but we can get it done.

C. is a younger girl that said that she actually really wants to grow closer to God, but she felt off in another church also.  Not only that, but her aunt was the pastor of the church, and she still felt off. She has a lot of faith and prayed in the first charla that we had with her, but she works SUPER late on Saturday nights so it'll be hard for her to come to Church, but she really wants to. She also is going to work for February 9th for her baptismal date.

D. contacted us one day. It was near an area that we never would have contacted because of the problems that are there, but he came out as we passed by and told us that he wanted to stop drinking. He already prays and reads the Bible every day, if we can help him come to Church and stop drinking, he's good to go for the 9th of February also. A member in the ward, Hno. Frias is going to help us with him. He's going to pass by for him alone to bring him to church next week to free us up for other people as well.

Finally, S. is the last person that has a baptismal date for the 16th of February. She's super willing to listen to us and believes in God, but she basically stops there. She doesn't read the Bible ever, she doesn't pray, and she told us straight up that she has been invited to a lot of churches and not gone, but I highly doubt anyone else has put in the effort that we're going to put in to see that it happens.

We're super excited for everything we were able to accomplish and looking to accomplish even more in the week to come. God is directing his work and he is qualifying who he has called. I thought I was a good missionary before, but I never realized this massive space of progress I was still missing. 

I gave a talk in our Branch this Sunday about the Role of the Book of Mormon in our conversion.  The study was really great, and it was really nice to give my first talk in Spanish.

I know the Book of Mormon is true, I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true church on the Earth. Most importantly, I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Savior of the world. 

I pray for y'all every day! 

Nos vemos!

-Elder Martin

I asked Bryant what the big thing plugged in in the middle of the kitchen was.  

He replied:  "Howland!!!! It´s our fan that keeps us from dying."

This is their laundry drying balcony.

The little Christmas tree I sent to Bryant.  

Apparently the First Presidency is their tree topper!?!

 

Christmas in Argentina  😊