Week 74 - The Week of K.!!!

This week was really awesome for Elder Reinen and I! 

 

First of all on Wednesday we had an amazing Zone Conference with Elder Benjamín De Hoyos who is our Area President here in South America South.  It was an awesome conference with many great teachings! I'll share a little bit more about what we learned at the end, but y'all just need to know that the Spirit was super strong there!

 

On Friday we had a really good charla with C. who we hadn't seen in a while. She said that she still had desires to be baptized but that because of the Presidential Election here in Uruguay this Sunday she wasn't going to be able to come to church this week but that she was going to do everything she can to make it next Sunday. We basically just talked about the importance of keeping up the good habits of praying, reading scriptures, and going to church; that will keep us spiritually protected. It was a solid but simple charla. We also had a charla with K. on Friday and we just explained the Confirmation and the Holy Ghost to her (again) so that she would be excited for both the baptism AND the confirmation. I feel like sometimes too much focus is put on the act of baptism even though we know it stays incomplete without the baptism of fire. 

 

On Saturday, K.'s baptism was super great. We were at the church at 6 in the morning to fill up the baptismal font because it takes 4 hours and the baptism was at 11 so we wanted to do it with plenty of time! It was a really great experience and then on Sunday was also super great for the Confirmation. Really great spiritual experiences for all present! We didn't have any investigators at church on Sunday but I was content enough with everything that had happened. Now that this is behind us, we'll now be able to throw a little more focus on other people to help them a little more.

 

Alright, so the thing that I want to share is actually from what President Dunford shared with us at the Conference. What Elder De Hoyos taught was really good, but more so just a missionary application about contacting and asking for references, but what President Dunford taught about was so applicable to so many things! He shared lots of stories about prophets who have been asked to climb mountains. He told us to consider how hard this might have been for some prophets, focusing on Joshua and Nephi. Nephi was asked to go into the mountain to be able to find food, keeping in mind that he is basically starving. Joshua was 80 something years old but he said that he will do anything with a youthful energy. Sometimes God asks us to climb mountains, even when we may not be in the greatest conditions to be able to do it, nonetheless, as we do what God asks, the blessings we receive are increased and we have an increased connection with God! 

 

Well that's all for this week. 

I love you all! Nos vemos!

 

-Elder Martin

After K.'s baptism

Elder Reinen and Elder Martin taking a break at a park on P-day

Fountain in the park