Monday, May 26, 2014

Week 40- May 12, 2014- Lincoln Hights, East L.A.


Dear home,

Happy Mother's Day first off! Hope that went well for everyone! I had a good time talking with my family, even though it went by pretty quick.

This week we had zone meeting and MLC, where we got to hear from president Becerra for a good amount of time. He talked about how we can help people understand what we teach better so we can help them realize the importance of the restoration. 

The 4 pillars of truth that we help people understand is 
1) Belief in Jesus Christ and that He is our savior. 2) The reality of Joseph Smith's First Vision 
3) that the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ 
4) and that the same priesthood authority that was on the earth during Jesus Christ's earthly ministry has been restored. 

I thought about it a bit and it's pretty cool to think how it goes hand in hand. Because of Joseph Smith's belief in the Savior, he prayed and really had the First Vision, which caused him to first bring light to the Book of Mormon and then restore the authority of God on earth. 

Which I thought was pretty cool how simply he put the differences between us and everyone else. We only have 1 MLC left with president Becerra, I'm definitely
going to miss hearing him!

The next day after MLC we went on exchanges with Tujunga. I stayed in Lincoln Heights with the district leader, elder Clark. I was pretty excited to apply what I had learned from MLC into our lessons. Our
first lesson was with Vilma. She was telling us that she still had to pay off her debt and still wasn't 100 percent sure about baptism. And on top of that she kind of got anti-ed a few days earlier, but she
didn't really listen to them so it went better than we thought. So we originally had something planned to teach her along the lines of faith/baptism. But I felt like that wasn't what she needed, I felt that she needed to hear the restoration again. So we started teaching her and a bunch of doubts came up. That's when we realized that it was more than the economic situation holding her back. That's when we started helping her understand a lot more, and she seemed to
understand more as well. She kept telling us she really wants to get baptized, but she needs to find the right place to do it. After we finished the lesson, she seemed to have understood pretty well, but
still wasn't completely sure. So we invited her to pray on the spot and ask God if it was true. 

So after she said an awesome prayer, we all sat in silence for about 5 minutes until the member we brought with us asked how she felt. She responded that she felt very blessed, she was feeling great. As she went on describing how she felt she started crying and said she wants to get baptized as soon as her court case (her economic setback) is over. It was amazing to feel the spirit there. We didn't even invite her at the moment, the spirit told her what it was she needed to do. And the awesome thing is that her court case ends this Thursday, so she is either getting baptized this Sunday or the next since we still have to catch her daughter up on some things as well.

So the main thing I learned this week is to listen to impressions I may have. This is something I still struggle with sometimes, whether it be talking to people, knocking a certain door, teaching a certain
lesson, asking a certain question. But I know that as we do follow these impressions, we will be blessed and guided into the way The Lord wants us to be. And that's what it's all about!
Love you all!!



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