Last P day was pretty sweet. We ate at a restaurant called Mang Inasal where you get a huge chicken and unlimited rice. It was super good and we followed it up with Dairy Queen which was my first "real" shake I've had since July! Shakes are my favorite thing ever so that was a success. I also made a sweet purchase of a Karl Malone jersey for 400 pesos and a Lio Messi jersey for 150 haha. You can get at least 10 jerseys here for the price of one in the states.
Anyways, now to the important stuff. We had a few cool experiences this week. First off, Danni Santos is into 2 Nephi now which is awesome! He's kinda like our grandpa, super friendly. He continues to understand our message and is always so interested. When we first introduced the Book of Mormon he was super hesitant and I could tell he just wasn't happy. BUT we promised him all he had to do is read it with a true purpose and pray with real intent. Sure enough he's been doing that and he loves the Book of Mormon now. It just showed me yet again the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion. If you just take some time to read it, everything will start to make more sense and you will receive an answer this church is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. It can answer any question we have and we can receive so much peace and comfort by reading daily. We had the old bishop of the ward come to the lesson too which really helped because they're the same age. We invited him to go to General Conference Sunday and he came! He loved all of the messages in the Sunday morning session so hopefully that sparked his desire to start coming to church now.
Katerine continues to progress. She comes to church every week:) We had two really cool lessons with her. The first one she was just filled with questions about the Book of Mormon. But I guess you could say they were more unimportant questions. Before I knew it we were discussing the 12 tribes of Israel, evidence that the BOM and Bible work hand in hand, who's the son of who, etc. I was digging into scriptures I thought I'd never use haha! We were lucky to have the spirit with us and we answered all of her questions using the scriptures. No way I would've been able to do all of that before the mission haha! That night though I was thinking about how we could help her out. Being missionaries we are supposed to answer questions but we're supposed to keep things simple and focus on the main doctrines. Things got a little out of control even though it all turned out alright. So we decided to return next lesson and just simply talk about how the Holy Ghost will help her receive an answer. We simply taught that if she would truly read and pray with real intent she would know the truth. I asked her what she expected to feel to receive an answer and she had no idea. We were able to focus on how to feel the spirit and what we can do to gain a testimony of this church. We also shared that we need to be patient, we won't understand everything at once but as it says in 2 Nephi 28:30 it will come line upon line, precept upon precept. Answers come in the Lord's time, we just need to put our trust in Him. Basically He knows everything and we know very little, but we don't need to know everything. We just need to trust Him, His plan, and His time.
We've got lots of others who are progressing and coming to church. I guess those lessons were all pretty avg. But we had like 6 new people burst into tears in in first visits and we got to help them out. Life is tough over here. The gospel truly helps them feel peace even if they don't all end up being baptized.
Soo I had a pretty hilarious experience this week. We were talking to a couple on the side of the road when suddenly this drunk guy comes and gets right in my face! He told me he wanted to kiss me on the lips! I just started laughing super hard and was like "wow really??" We said goodbye to the couple and I gave the drunk guy a handshake and told him to take care. As I shook his hand he grabbed my hand super hard and started kissing it! I pulled it away super fast and we ran away laughing pretty hard. Literally I can't explain how funny some things are here. It was a new experience, nonetheless.
Conference was super awesome. We watched it at the stake center in Sta Cruz. I really loved sitting down with notes and listening to the full conference. I can't really choose one as a favorite but there were a few things I really liked. One, in priesthood session Eyring talked about Melchezidek Priesthood holders needing to lift up the Aaronic Priesthood holders like they were lifted in their youth. It reminded me of all of my awesome examples growing up and how much they really helped me. I don't think they even realize! My Priesthood leaders in church definitely helped me more than I can really explain. A person becomes what they hear, see, and think and being around so many great examples has really helped me out. I guess most of the time we don't see all the results of the good we do. It made me want to be a good Priesthood holder and to one day be a good example to the youth as an adult. Next, I liked how Uchtdorf talked about not taking the gospel for granted. He talked about how amazing it really is and we should never just get "used to it." Look at the blessings of this church: Prophets, priesthood, healings, baptism, Holy Ghost, temple ordinances, eternal families, sons and daughters of God, Jesus Christ's atonement, Book of Mormon, etc. It really is pretty sweet. Third, Cornish talked about not worrying if we'll make it back to God. If we always try our best and repent we will make it. God loves us and it's His work and glory for us to return to Him. He's not a heartless referee haha. Last, Russel M Nelson said we need to look for joy in everything. Joy doesn't have to do with our circumstances, it has everything to do with our focus. Focusing on the good will make our life alot easier, and focusing on the gospel will make it that much happier.
Alright, that's all. Things are good here. Gotta love it. I gave my umbrella to a member last week at church and forgot to go pick it up, while my companion lost his. So one day we had no umbrella and it just totally dumped on us like none other. Not that umbrellas do much here but they surely help a little haha!
Have a good one, Love Elder Reber
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| Already collecting souvenirs?? |
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| The eight missionaries in Parkers zone. |
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| The missionaries got invited to a birthday lunch. |
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| I often see a theme with missionaries sending pics of food. Think they will keep this up when they get home? |
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| Parker was so pleased with his Karl Malone jersey purchase. He said with the cheap prices, he would love to do some school shopping there. Not quite time to acquire school clothes but glad he is planning ahead:) Apparently Elder Lambert enjoys a good smolder with the selfie stick as well. Two peas in a pod. |
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| Parkers zone at Hot Donalds- he assured me that is still what he calls it! What a tender mercy for Park- living without the golden arches would have been a real trial- As Park would say....haha |
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