Family and friends,
Peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment (DyC 121:7).
First
off, I want to mention a man that we found recently who is very
interested in learning about the Church (to the point where he wanted to
share his testimony and experiences before the congregation on Fast
Sunday). His name is Pedro, he's about thirty years old, and he had an
accident in past years that left him with little use in his left arm and
difficulty in walking; but he is extremely spiritually receptive. He
told me that once he was on Facebook and saw a picture of a young man,
and it stuck in his head for some reason that he didn't understand.
Then, two Saturdays ago, while I was in intercambios with the zone
leaders, Elders Mazzeo and Hill (from Pascual Segura, not me) found him,
and Elder Hill looked almost exactly like the young man whose image
Pedro had stuck in his head. And furthermore, when they knocked on his
door (well, clapped from the street) he knew it was him before opening
the door. His testimony is already powerful.
Then
Thursday was interesting and full of spontaneity. We had a last-minute
interview to do in Mendoza Centro for a baptism of the Hermanas, but
before that in the morning the Assistants of the Mission President
called us and said all the elders from the offices (seven in all) would
come to our area that afternoon to work. That was completely out of the
blue, and we still don't know why they did that in our area,
specifically. But we had to wait for them to arrive, give them
instructions and area assignments, set them loose, and then immediately
rush off to Centro to hold the interview which we were already late for.
That was interesting, to say the least. By the end of the day, those
elders had gotten us thirteen new investigators with four baptismal
dates, and had talked with over a hundred people in the street; that's
impressive. At least we now have assured work to do in the next weeks.
That
night we talked with a family which has not attended Church for
decades, and our conversation was interesting. They ended up telling us
that they don't go to Church because one member treated them badly, and
the members in general are hypocrites, and stuff like that. That's a set
of excuses pretty normal, from my experience, and those excuses always
come about because of a misunderstood doctrine or ten of the Church.
I've already given that lesson many times to many people, but this time
it was notable for me because I felt the Spirit physically managing my
thoughts, flowing points together into a perfect fabric of doctrine that
I used to put down their excuses. Also, I was worried that I would come
across as rude and insensitive (which I often do; I'm trying to correct
that), but the Spirit gave me words to say and the inflection to say
them with such that it was perfectly calm, peaceful, and loving, even as
I tore their arguments apart. It was like an out-of-body experience,
and I saw my own mind working; every time they said anything at all in
response to my points, I could feel my mind warp around the information
like an amoeba, absorbing and dissecting it, then inverting it into a
counterpoint in the continuous fabric of the Truth; it always came back
in a beautifully sensible way. But I can promise that was not me. I was
watching myself work, feeling almost detached from myself in awe of what
I was saying. Even my words were fluent in Spanish, which I have only
ever seen in myself with the Spirit working my tongue. It was satisfying
to be able to see their walls of pride crumbling bit by bit, each point
perfectly countered. But then, right as I was crushing their arguments
in that attending Church is a commandment, they cut me off and showed us
their grandchildren. I could feel in the way that they did it that they
did it because they were looking for an escape from the contiguity of
my points, because they were afraid of not having the protection of
their pride. We accomplished nothing after that because we had to return
to the pensión to meet the Asistentes and other elders again, but I
wanted to share that experience because it is fascinating to me.
I
had a similar experience with the pride of others with an older man
named Benjamín. Dang, I like that name for some reason. He works in a
kiosco, and we were just talking with him through the service window of
the shop. The first time, we talked about the Restoration of the Gospel,
and the fact that it was lost, and citing Amos 3:7 we managed to help
him understand that prophets are necessary in God's work; and citing the
history of the Bible, we helped him realize that the Bible is not
everything we need for Salvation, and that, thus, the Book of Mormon is a
logical and necessary extension of the Bible. At that point, I saw his
countenance fall, and I could feel that he knew we were right. We left a
pamphlet of the Restoration with him, inviting him to read it and pray
to God to know if it's the truth or not, and we left him thus. The
second time we met with him, it was painfully obvious that he had talked
with his pastor because he had a page of notes with him that he used to
find relevant scriptures. He asked about the dream we had promised he
would receive as his answer (which we certainly had not promised), and
cited a scripture in Deuteronomy that says that we should not believe
false prophets that preach of dreams and lead people astray after other
gods. That was easy to shoot down because we didn't make any such
promise. But then he brought up the classic, also in Deuteronomy, which
says that anyone who adds or subtracts from these words will be cursed,
but that was even easier to address because it's in Deuteronomy; if that
really meant the Book of Mormon was a lie, it would also mean that
every book of the Bible after Deuteronomy, including the entirety of the
New Testament which is important for obvious reasons, would be invalid,
too, having been added to the words of God after that admonition. After
that point, he made more weak excuses which didn't even come close to
countering that point, and slowly I saw his countenance fall again in
the same way. I know he knew we were right. But he still refused,
clinging to pride and tradition before searching for the truth; that
makes me sad, because that means he will have worse condemnation if he
does not repent in the future, having seen the truth but still refusing
to accept it. I pray he will accept it in the future.
But,
I have to say that just because I'm saying this about the pride of
others does not mean by any stretch that I consider myself free of the
same curse. As I emphasized earlier, this knowledge and ability does not
come from me, and thus everything that I have mentioned in this letter
that I have done that was miraculous is not mine to claim. It is from
God. I just want to make that a bit clearer.
But
now I want to mention a few thoughts on the Sacrament. My favorite
scripture on repentance is Isaiah 1:18-19: "Come now, and let us reason
together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land".
As my mission president says, this is like the balancing of a
checkbook. We come before the Lord in the Sacrament, recognizing our
need of mercy and grace from Him, and we compare our records of our own
deeds with God's record; we reason together. And then there is the
promise: if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the
land. Just for being willing to approach the Lord and reason with him,
we can really inherit our promised land of blessings. It reminds me of a
song I love by Sleeping At Last, called "Snow", which says, "As gentle
as feathers, the snow piles high; the world gets rewritten and retraced
every time. Like fresh plates and clean slates, our future is white."
That is such a joy to me, to think that every single day I can start
over in the eyes of the Lord, if I am just willing to compare notes with
Him. Is it really that hard? My future can be erased and bleached white
every single time I fall from perfection (which is basically
constantly). I am so humbled and grateful for that.
Regarding
the funeral services of Grandfather, thank you so much for the many
details and pictures I received. Puedo verlo así como yo hubiese estado
allí - I can see it as if I had been there. Though I will miss him, I
have no sadness in his passing; I know with overwhelming force exactly
where he is, and he is not in a bad place. I have never known so
powerfully that the Plan of God is real as I know it now. And, exactly
the same as repentance, we can turn to God and have the pain of his
passing removed through Christ. Though the future may appear dark
without him, the world can be rewritten and retraced in the clean slate
of the Atonement of Christ; and though the pain appear as scarlet, it
shall be white as snow.
Please remember that I
love you all immensely. And please remember also not to procrastinate
the day of your turning to the Savior. "Don't wait around for tomorrow,
open up your arms and let it in" ("This Gift" by Glen Halsard).
Elder Hill
Fotos:
- Yo y Lorena de su bautismo
- Comida chilena el P-day pasado
- Brickham Young figurines
- Intercambios con Élder Mecham
- Personas protestando en una calle cerca de la pensión; no tengo ni idea qué es el propósito
- Servicio en moviendo cosas para el hogar nuevo de Hermano Agüero, un ex-Setenta de Area del CCM en Buenos Aires (Élder Soto está abrazando el piano en la máquina elevadora)
- Empujando el piano
- Fútbol en Barrio San Martín
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