Hey family.
This week was pretty amazing for us. We had another baptism! Hurrah! We baptized a girl named Larissa on Saturday night. We have been teaching her for a while, and she has progressed very well. She's actually a friend of the first girl we baptized here, so the two of them are both very excited to participate in the Church together. Our ward's Young Women's organization is actually pretty strong, so the two of them are already getting well-integrated into the ward. We actually went to their apartment yesterday (the two of them live in separate apartments, but they're both right next to a member family's apartment) and talked to them about General Conference and the importance of following the prophet. The young women in our ward are currently selling (enormous) truffles to make money for their camping trip / youth conference thing in February. My companion and I promised to buy five truffles from each of the two girls we baptized and their friend who was already a member if they go to all four sessions of Conference and take notes. We'll see if they follow through with that.
Speaking of which, I am going nuts in anticipation for General Conference. Word is that there will be an English room at the stake center here, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll get to watch all five sessions. I am so excited it's stupid.
Anyway, at that same visit, Aline, the first girl we baptized, asked me if members of the Church are allowed to marry nonmembers. That led to a good discussion about the temple and eternal marriage. We ended up teaching about baptisms for the dead and committed both of the girls we baptized to prepare themselves to go to the temple next month. I really can't believe that that is even a possibility for them now.
Aside from Larissa's baptism and confirmation, there weren't two many noteworthy occurrences this week. The rainy season is getting here, which I love in spite of it screwing up everything we do.
Oh, there was something big that happened: for the first time so far in my whole mission, my companion and I were forcefully asked to leave someone's house on Saturday. Right before lunch, we went to the house of a guy that I had contacted a few weeks ago. He and his wife were both at home, but he was the only one who was happy to see us. We went in and made some small talk. The guy's wife didn't want to hear a message from us because she was making lunch (and, we found out, she was suuuuuper Catholic). So we started teaching the Restoration to the guy. The lesson was going fine, even though he wasn't paying too much attention. We made it to the point in the lesson where we talk about Joseph Smith, and my companion read James 1:5. He asked the dude who we should go to when we have doubts about religion, and the dude said God.
And then everything went nuts.
The guy's wife stormed into the room and started yelling at us. She said that she had been listening from the kitchen the whole time, and that she wanted us to leave. We agreed to, and started packing up our things. As we did so, she kept shouting at us. Apparently she thought that we read James 1:5 to speak out against the Catholic practice of praying to idols or statues. She thought we had gone into her house to tell them about how wrong Catholicism is and that Catholics don't believe in God or Jesus Christ or whatever else. We assured her that we didn't want to offend her, and that that wasn't even what we had been talking about. And she said that she was offended all the same, and that we should leave. So we did!
It was nuts.
Anyway, that was this week. I am seriously so dang stoked about General Conference. I hope you are, too! I love all of you with all my heart, even though you guys don't really seem real to me anymore (a year is a long time)!
luv
elder booga
This week was pretty amazing for us. We had another baptism! Hurrah! We baptized a girl named Larissa on Saturday night. We have been teaching her for a while, and she has progressed very well. She's actually a friend of the first girl we baptized here, so the two of them are both very excited to participate in the Church together. Our ward's Young Women's organization is actually pretty strong, so the two of them are already getting well-integrated into the ward. We actually went to their apartment yesterday (the two of them live in separate apartments, but they're both right next to a member family's apartment) and talked to them about General Conference and the importance of following the prophet. The young women in our ward are currently selling (enormous) truffles to make money for their camping trip / youth conference thing in February. My companion and I promised to buy five truffles from each of the two girls we baptized and their friend who was already a member if they go to all four sessions of Conference and take notes. We'll see if they follow through with that.
Speaking of which, I am going nuts in anticipation for General Conference. Word is that there will be an English room at the stake center here, and if everything goes according to plan, I'll get to watch all five sessions. I am so excited it's stupid.
Anyway, at that same visit, Aline, the first girl we baptized, asked me if members of the Church are allowed to marry nonmembers. That led to a good discussion about the temple and eternal marriage. We ended up teaching about baptisms for the dead and committed both of the girls we baptized to prepare themselves to go to the temple next month. I really can't believe that that is even a possibility for them now.
Aside from Larissa's baptism and confirmation, there weren't two many noteworthy occurrences this week. The rainy season is getting here, which I love in spite of it screwing up everything we do.
Oh, there was something big that happened: for the first time so far in my whole mission, my companion and I were forcefully asked to leave someone's house on Saturday. Right before lunch, we went to the house of a guy that I had contacted a few weeks ago. He and his wife were both at home, but he was the only one who was happy to see us. We went in and made some small talk. The guy's wife didn't want to hear a message from us because she was making lunch (and, we found out, she was suuuuuper Catholic). So we started teaching the Restoration to the guy. The lesson was going fine, even though he wasn't paying too much attention. We made it to the point in the lesson where we talk about Joseph Smith, and my companion read James 1:5. He asked the dude who we should go to when we have doubts about religion, and the dude said God.
And then everything went nuts.
The guy's wife stormed into the room and started yelling at us. She said that she had been listening from the kitchen the whole time, and that she wanted us to leave. We agreed to, and started packing up our things. As we did so, she kept shouting at us. Apparently she thought that we read James 1:5 to speak out against the Catholic practice of praying to idols or statues. She thought we had gone into her house to tell them about how wrong Catholicism is and that Catholics don't believe in God or Jesus Christ or whatever else. We assured her that we didn't want to offend her, and that that wasn't even what we had been talking about. And she said that she was offended all the same, and that we should leave. So we did!
It was nuts.
Anyway, that was this week. I am seriously so dang stoked about General Conference. I hope you are, too! I love all of you with all my heart, even though you guys don't really seem real to me anymore (a year is a long time)!
luv
elder booga
No comments:
Post a Comment