Hello hello everybody! Sorry last week I couldn´t get an email to send out. I have lots to do and just ran out of time. So this week I´m back on track!
So Guarambaré is great so far! Elder Alexander and I get along really well. For being relatively new in the mission, he is great. He teaches well and he is very obedient to the mission rules, so it´s awesome. I´ll try to send pics the next time, but I don´t know if I can from this cyber. We have 15 people with baptismal dates, and are pretty sure most of them will follow through. We have 1 kid who is going to be baptized this Saturday, but he is just in a member family and turned 8 so it´s not anything we did. Then next week on the 26th we have 4 people who are planning to be baptized! They all came to church yesterday too, so it´s pretty promising as of right now. I´ll let you know next week for sure if it´s going to happen or not! And then another guy named Pedro is supposed to be baptized on Sunday the 27th, but his wife pretty much controls him and is reeeeeally evangelical, so I´m not so sure it´s going to happen that day. He is great though and we´ll keep working with him to get him in the water. We have a few potentials for July 3rd and 10th as well that I´ll keep everyone posted on. I´m excited!
So an interesting fact about our house here in Guarambaré - a few months ago, it got struck by lightning haha. They said they came home and the tile was broken off the wall in the bathroom where it had hit and travelled down a cord in the wall, and some of the tile was all the way on the other side of the house in the kitchen haha. Good thing they weren´t in there. Oddly enough, that night before they came home and saw it, they were teaching a lady who a few weeks earlier her husband had died because their house got struck by lightning and he was sitting right next to the socket and it jumped through the plug and killed him. What a day for lightning. Mom, no worries, they´ve since fixed it and put in a lightning rod to make sure it won´t happen again lol. And also, don´t worry, we don´t have a rat anymore. We killed it 2 nights ago, it was a glorious victory on our part.
So Guarambaré is great so far! Elder Alexander and I get along really well. For being relatively new in the mission, he is great. He teaches well and he is very obedient to the mission rules, so it´s awesome. I´ll try to send pics the next time, but I don´t know if I can from this cyber. We have 15 people with baptismal dates, and are pretty sure most of them will follow through. We have 1 kid who is going to be baptized this Saturday, but he is just in a member family and turned 8 so it´s not anything we did. Then next week on the 26th we have 4 people who are planning to be baptized! They all came to church yesterday too, so it´s pretty promising as of right now. I´ll let you know next week for sure if it´s going to happen or not! And then another guy named Pedro is supposed to be baptized on Sunday the 27th, but his wife pretty much controls him and is reeeeeally evangelical, so I´m not so sure it´s going to happen that day. He is great though and we´ll keep working with him to get him in the water. We have a few potentials for July 3rd and 10th as well that I´ll keep everyone posted on. I´m excited!
So an interesting fact about our house here in Guarambaré - a few months ago, it got struck by lightning haha. They said they came home and the tile was broken off the wall in the bathroom where it had hit and travelled down a cord in the wall, and some of the tile was all the way on the other side of the house in the kitchen haha. Good thing they weren´t in there. Oddly enough, that night before they came home and saw it, they were teaching a lady who a few weeks earlier her husband had died because their house got struck by lightning and he was sitting right next to the socket and it jumped through the plug and killed him. What a day for lightning. Mom, no worries, they´ve since fixed it and put in a lightning rod to make sure it won´t happen again lol. And also, don´t worry, we don´t have a rat anymore. We killed it 2 nights ago, it was a glorious victory on our part.
I´m learning so much as district leader. Leading a group of other people and being responsible for their progress isn´t always easy, but I´m VERY lucky because everyone in my district does really well and needs very little guidance or training. A few points here and there. But I´m learning a lot about management principles and about myself, I´m loving it. I made up a 3-part ward mission plan to work on getting more people in church here in Guarambaré and presented it to the ward council, and thankfully they loved it. I don´t even know how I did it. I didn´t plan on doing it before the meeting and I hadn´t written up any notes or diagrams before-hand, but the Spirit guided me the whole way. I presented it with drawings and notes on the chalkboard and everything, and applied it to this branch specifically. Needless to say, I´m learning a lot about how to receive, recognize, and follow the Spirit.
One thing we hear here a LOT is that everybody has their beliefs, and it´s not important what they are as long as they are about God and Jesus Christ. "Cada uno segun su creencia" or "Cada persona tiene su creencia". A lot believe that it doesn´t matter what church you belong to as long as you believe in and worship God. I completely reject this idea - not based on my personal belief in my own religion, but the fact that the claim goes against logic and scripture. Christ Himself says that the way to eternal life is narrow and the door is small, and few are those who find it. This means that there is one specific way to obtain salvation - the way that He has established in His gospel from the beginning of the world with Adam until today. In Ephesians 4 it states that He established His church so humankind could arrive at "the unity of faith in Him". Christ is not divided, and intended for there to be one true and everlasting church - the one that He himself established. There are a whole army of scriptures that testify of this, that should you be interested, I can cite in my next email.
Christ taught the truths of the gospel that are necessary for our salvation. Every single teaching He shared has significance - every principle is necessary for our salvation, and there is nothing that He taught that does not have significance. In these times, there are millions of churches, beliefs, and religions. No 2 churches teach exactly the same doctrine, for if they did, they would be the same church with the same name and same organization. The question would be which of all the churches of the world has 2 things: 1.) all of the teachings of Christ, and 2.) the teachings exactly as He taught them. This would be the true church. For example. 1 church may teach that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are 1 united Being. Another may teach that They are 3 seperate and distinct Persons. The 2 cannot be physically possibly. They are 1 Person/Being, or they are 3. Therefore, which of all the churches has the correct doctrine in all truthfulness without one error or false truth is the question and the indication to which of the millions of congregations is that of God and the same that Christ instituted.
Moreover, authority is necessary in the work. If it were not so, Christ would have not given any authority to His apostles because it would have been unnecessary and unserving. Because of the Great Apostasy, we know that this authority was lost on the earth for years. The only people who had the authority of God (Christ and His apostles) died, and died without having passed on this authority to any successor. Therefore, it was necessary that God through divine intervention restore that authority to the earth. I know of only 1 church that claims to have this authority and that also has the evidence to back it up. And yes, there is evidence. There is the Book of Mormon. Anybody who carefully and studiously reads the Book of Mormon will find this to be true. Also, every single person who has been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has prayed to God asking if said restoration happened as we say it did, and every single one of the 13 million people have received an answer in the affirmative. What better answer is there than that from God? Put it to the test. Read the Book of Mormon. Think. Pray to God to know the truth. It will come. You will know for yourself, without relying on any other person´s words or testimony, that this is the Kingdom of God on the earth and the only truths that will lead to not only salvation, but complete exaltation. Christ lives, and this is His work and Kingdom. I´m not afraid nor ashamed to declare it to any and every person who will hear it. I testify of the truthfullness of my words and this the latter-day work, in the name of Jesus Christ, whose name I am authorized and worthy to bear, Amen.
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