Week 46 - Tranqueras Improves 1 Week at a time!

This week was super solid for us again! We are seeing some miracles here in Tranqueras and I'm getting super stoked for some of the people we've been finding and teaching!

We started out strong this week on Tuesday! We were contacting pretty late at night when most people don't want anything to do with us, and we passed by a house on the way home, but Elder Moreno and I both stopped at one point and decided to return to the house.  An older man answered the door and after talking for a bit he let us into his house! That never happens in the first contact (normally). Not only did we manage to get an entire lesson in, but we also challenged him to baptism in that same lesson and he accepted. He told us he had to travel the weekend so he couldn't come to church, but that he would come this next Sunday. His name is J. L. and he has a baptismal date for the 15th of June.

We also invited another older man named J. to be baptized. We challenged him for the 8th of June. We were really hoping that he would come to church on Sunday but he didn't so we're going to have to go see why not and help him to come this week.

M. also still has his fecha for the 1st of June. Unfortunately he didn't come to church this week either because he has to take some pills sometimes that knock him out really bad, so he didn't wake up to be able to come to church. The good news though is that he has started taking the Church's program to be able to stop smoking. We are really hoping that he is able to do it.  Its always been a difficult issue to overcome but I've also seen it done before.

Also super awesome - one person we are teaching came to church this week. M. has been coming super strong for 4 weeks now. The main issue is that he is not married, but in the moment that we can get a charla with him and Silvana with our Branch President, we are really going to hit that hard. For now though, he is also working on stopping to smoke. He's already had a decent amount of success in leaving cigarettes. We are really excited for him and really believe that he can progress, we just need to deal with the marriage obstacle really.

We also found a super cool family this week! We were talking with the mother of the family, but it was super obvious that she did not want to talk to us, so we just invited her to church and started walking away, but then one of her adult sons came out and asked us to come back because he wanted to learn more about God. Long story short we ended up teaching the entire family actually. They've had some really bad experiences with churches so they said they wouldn't come to church, but maybe later if they feel more comfortable. It was super cool though to be able to find them.

All in all, the work here is consistently improving! I'm loving it!

I want to share something I found super cool in my personal study from this week.

2 Ne. 25:26-27,30

26 And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.

27 Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away.

30 And, inasmuch as it shall be expedient, ye must keep the performances and ordinances of God until the law shall be fulfilled which was given unto Moses.

What I really liked about these scriptures is the way it relates really well to a talk by Elder Bednar in Oct. 2018. "Gather together in One all things in Christ." We all know the first one, but it continues by saying that the law itself does nothing for us if we don't understand or have true faith in Christ. Not that the "performances and ordinances" are not important but we must keep in mind the way that they connect us to Christ. I know Christ is the Savior and I'm super grateful that I have this chance to pay him back at least a tiny bit by serving God's children. 

That's all for now! Love you all!

-Elder Martin