Week 65: The Week where I have to talk about 2 weeks!

September 24, 2019

Week 65: The Week where I have to talk about 2 weeks!

Well if I'm going to be completely honest, it's going to be a little difficult catching up on everything that happened in the last 2 weeks because a lot of stuff went down, but I'm going to do my best. Sorry I couldn't write last week; some crazy stuff went down with our writing situation but everything is all fixed up now!

WEEK 1

On Wednesday I did divisions with the Zone Leaders and it was pretty good. Nothing too crazy happened but we did contact this guy named J. that had talked with missionaries before and had even gone to church before. Spoiler Alert: We still haven't managed to have a full charla with him because he's a little busy, but for now we have a charla set up with him for tomorrow. We also had a charla with M. C. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. We had to double check a lot to make sure she was understanding because sometimes the Plan can be a lot to take in but after it seemed like she got it down pretty well!

On Friday we had a "Family Night" with the entire branch that we do every other Friday. It was really good. We watched a video that talked about the importance of ministering and what ministering really is. After that Elder Niela and I were in charge of the game, and we did like a Jeopardy type thing. All in all it was a pretty enjoyable experience.

On Saturday I did divisions again, but this time with the other elders in my district. I was with Elder Rolon, who actually has 21 months in his mission right now. I'm not sure why he's not District Leader honestly. He has more experience and he's not disobedient or anything; he's actually pure capo! I learned so much from being with him on that division, which I will partially talk about at the end of the email. We also had another charla with M. and her Mom and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This one was much easier for her to understand and she finally worked up the courage to participate in the prayer in the charla! She's super shy, but she's the best!

Sunday was chill no más. Only K. of the people we're teaching came to church but that´s fine. We knew M. wasn't going to make it, but later in the day we passed by for C. and he said he was visiting his sister during the morning but that he would make it the next week así que, está bien.

WEEK 2

On Wednesday we had a really awesome Zone Conference and we talked a lot about what Elder Rolon and I were already discussing when we did divisions. (I also did divisions with another Elder on Monday because our companions were in Montevideo and we talked about the same stuff.)

On Thursday I got the really cool experience to go with Elder Niela, and the other Elders in my district, Elder Rolon and Elder Bodniza, to the house of the hermanas (sisters) in my District and dedicate the house. It is definitely very true that in using the Priesthood you feel the Spirit very powerfully, even if it's something super simple like dedicating a house.

On Saturday we had Interviews with President Dunford as well. Those are always really awesome experiences! Also as we were finishing up the day and heading home, I got the feeling that we should pass by for Family C. because we hadn't seen them all week. The Hermana has been super busy with work this week because she works in a restaurant in a hotel and it was Spring Break for Uruguay, and Colonia is THE place to go for Spring Break. We passed by super quick just to see them and we ended up getting M.´s older sister, J., to commit to go to church also, and she was going to go with her friend, S., that was there with her!

On Sunday we had a lot of people at church (for our branch), 18! There were 5 non-members there too. We are only teaching 2 as of right now but we have good reason to believe that we could start teaching the other 3 here pretty soon. C. and M. came (K. is in Montevideo for Spring Break) and then the other 3 that came were S., and 2 kids of a less active member that is returning to activity, J. and F.! Sunday was the best!

So all these conversations I've had and the Zone Conference was 100% focused on the Spirit and the preparation of converts for baptism, in such a way that it doesn't just get done as fast as possible but that the person really understands the covenant they're making. Sometimes it happens that people get baptized without a really good knowledge and understanding of what they're really doing. I learned the importance of Following the Spirit in the invitations we make as well as teach doctrine and principles, and not applications. Leave the applications to the person. I'm not really going to be able to explain everything very well of what I learned in these moments but I learned that looking for the doctrine in the Scriptures, understanding it, and relying on the Spirit to teach us is the only way we can truly become spiritually self-reliant. That's the new focus our mission is taking, making sure that the people are fairly spiritually self-reliant before baptism. I'm super excited for this change! It may mean less baptisms but it will definitely mean much greater retention which is really more important anyway.

I love you all!

Nos vemos!

-Elder Martin