This week I really don't have a lot of time to write, but I'll try to share something of worth.
This whole week
we've had so many disappointments because we've had a heap of
appointments that all fell through. The worst is that we were going to
give a lesson to a man who is under house arrest and thus literally is
not able to leave his house, but when we stopped by he was sleeping. It
was 11:30. Why. How. Also, regarding him, I talked with the zone leaders
just to make sure it was okay with them if we taught a condemned man
(for safety concerns, I was just asking their opinion), and they said it
was alright. When they heard that he still has a year more of his
sentence, one of them just said, "Bueno, that means you have a year to
get him to baptism!" Gracias, Elder Valencia.
But,
in the VERY end of the week, last night, we sought a woman whom the
missionaries had just up and stopped visiting a year ago, or so, after
she had passed a baptismal interview but her sister had opposed her
firmly enough to deter her. So the missionaries just left her? We talked
with her and apologized for the sake of the other elders that had just
left her, and then we taught a little bit about baptism and BOOM, just
like that, she accepted another baptismal date! She will be baptized on
August 31, if all goes well. This time, she says, she will do it more
quietly to avoid her sister and make her own decision. I'm so happy for
that! And we even have two more people who could possibly be baptized
soon, as well! Finally!
Yesterday I shared a scripture with a member family that was very impactful (sorry, Mom) for me: Jeremiah 17:5-8:
Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Yesterday I shared a scripture with a member family that was very impactful (sorry, Mom) for me: Jeremiah 17:5-8:
Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
I
pondered on that scripture this morning, and I thought, "How can I be
so daft?" I have departed from the Lord and His goodness so many times,
despite the fact that I have seen the beauty and the blessings of His
presence, and it makes no sense. I am so incredibly weak. I thought
about the time when Christ said that we must treasure up riches in
heaven, where moth and dust cannot corrupt. Here on earth, moth and dust
continue to corrupt, thieves continue to steal, and even our very lives
depend so often upon the whims of murderers, in a variety of ways. Why
do we trust in the arm of flesh? "Shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (Hebrews 12:9). That
has awakened in me anew the determination to be perfect, even as He is
(Matthew 5:48). Thus, "choose you this day whom ye will serve;... but as
for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." All I can say is that,
despite my hypocrisy in being a preacher of perfection and being
imperfect myself, I have seen the vision of the goodness of this plan I
follow, and I cannot bear the thought of not helping others to that path
(see Mosiah 28:3). As always, I can only testify of what I know to be
true, no more, and no less; and I testify that this is it. If you are
searching for the Truth, it is here.
Love,
Elder Hill
Fotos:
- Un kilo de kinoto (kumquat) que compré
- Me di cuenta que eso significa "hang yourself"
- Five pictures taken inside a football stadium: En el estadio Malvinas esta mañana
- A model of the stadium: Este es un modelo del estadio con otras canchas cercanas; en el medio allí se ve la cancha de Quidditch
- Cerro de la Gloria, esta mañana
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