April 2, 2018
Conferencia General, Bautismos, Propuestas y Digging a Little Deeper
Dear Familia, Amigos y el Mundo!
WOW! This week was insane! It went by fast and it had about 10,000,000 things jammed into it! First, we had “intercambios” and that’s always fun when you’re with your older Mexican brother you never knew you had! Then, we had interviews for Zharick and Melanie to be baptized. Then, we had General Conference and had to get people to try to come to see it at the church. Believe it or not that is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Of course, we also had the Baptism of Zharick and Melanie! And boy is there a story for each one of those events but, I’m going to focus on just a few. First off, I LOVE President Nelson! How many spiritual bombs did he drop on us!?! Also, I realized that General Conference on the mission is not what I thought it would be. Let me explain first that General Conference is when the Prophet of the Church and the 12 Apostles and other authorities of the church address the members of the church, as a whole. This happens every 6 months in October, and April. President Nelson, was called as our new Prophet after the passing of President Monson, and during this conference we had the priviledge of sustaining him as our new Prophet. He receives revelation for the whole world like unto Moses or Noah. And boy, did he show us that! I say it was different, because the whole time I was honestly just worried if investigators were going to come. This hit me hard on Sunday, and I really had to dig deep. Saturday was great! I felt good about the whole thing. I probably wasn’t as worried because we had another day to get people to church if they didn’t come on Saturday. Well, Sunday came and I sent texts, called, and even went to houses and only 3 people came in all of the 2 days.... My heart broke. I had, had it! I was with Elder Razcon trying get my investigators and others to come. Then, when no one would commit I was honestly just mad. I was expressing all my frustration to the effect of, "Why can’t I have that golden investigator…the one who gives referrals and then goes and picks them up himself?... Why?! Why?! Why??!!" Elder Razcon continued to stayed silent as we walked. Then, we got into the taxi to go to the church, I was going to sit up front when he told me to sit in the back with him. He then gave me some advice. He said first, you can’t compare yourself to others, because you’re not me or any other missionary and you won’t get baptisms that way, so it does no good to compare yourself. You can compare in a good way and a bad way, but you’re comparing in a bad way. Try looking at what others do and apply the things they do good that would work for you. Second, this is a learning experience. That’s the great thing about being here on the mission. You are here for 2 years and you get to apply all that you learn now, later in your mission and throughout the rest of your life. You need to learn from your falls. I knew he was right. But I was just too sad and broken-hearted. I had to cry! You all know I cry a lot and well I cried. I just love these people and can’t help but sit there, as I watchand listen to these talks thinking about how and what the people of Colombia are missing out on! This talk would have been great for him or her! This could have been the converting point for him... I was just distraught. Elder Razcon saw that, so he embraced me, and told me to listen with the spirit and I will find my answer in this last session. I am a little embarrassed to say…I felt I didn’t get any answers, but then I looked back on my notes and the one talk that stuck out was from Elder Bednar about meekness! I realized am missing a bit of that. I don’t fully understand meekness, and I need to work on better understanding it and become more meek for sure. Elder Razcon also said, “You will learn the most from this Conference than you ever have or maybe will learn. Not just from the talks but more from the experience.” and, he was right! I just didn’t see it right then.
Then, we had the baptism for Zharick and Melanie and let me tell you it was hard. The dad was a little hard to convince and the mom wanted this pathway 100% for her daughters and so she drove them herself to the baptism and I baptized them. I messed up on their names a half a million times but they’re baptized and I know 100% that this pathway has just set them up for greatness here in this life and the one to come! Now, we need to work a bit more with the mother and father and then it will be a full member family. It was hard, but in the end was worth it! A wise old man named Dad once said, “Sometimes in our lives it feels like we work 98% of the time, with 2% of our time being joy or the rewards of our work.” That’s what I felt, and I am finally seeing a bit more of that 2%. Which means maybe it will soon become 3% joy and success! I am happy to be in this church with a living prophet andvery excited to be a part of the Lord’s plan to bring people to this gospel and help them realize that what we have is pure, and it is exactly what God wants for us. I love being a missionary. I have had trial after trial after trial and I am just barely in my mission. God purifies that’s for sure! And he has to work on me everyday it seems. But after all the pain and suffering there is always more light, and I come out a little bit more pure. Interesting how that works. Go check out the words and council FROM A LIVING PROPHET! On lds.org!!
Love you all!
Elder Weaver
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