09-15-2014 we got to teach them and pray with them all together

Luis Miguel

Hey Everyone,

This was a great week.

Kevin and Luis Miguel's parents both gave permission for their baptisms.  

When we went to talk with Kevin's parents they were both a little on the fence but Kevin shared an awesome testimony with them again and then they were both supportive.  His mom even told us that she's excited that he's going to be baptized. She called the rest of her kids and for the first time we got to teach them and pray with them all together.  It was an awesome lesson and I hope that the family will follow Kevin's example a little further down the road.

Kevin is very ready to be baptized.  He's sure that the church is true and he already lives all the church standards well.

Luis Miguel had us a little worried on Sunday because when church started he wasn't there but he walked in a little late and sat down and my companion and I both felt very relieved.  He hasn't drunk coffee since we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he seems more and more sure about the church every time we visit him.

Liseth and Jessica are both still doing well even though they didn't come to church on Sunday.  

Today we went to Pairumani.  It's a park-type place outside of the city.  We went with the whole ward.  We had a pretty good turn out--about 125.  We played games and ate and hiked a little.  

 3 investigators.Gerardo 16, Ariel 14, David 12- in Pairumani

One member brought her younger siblings. She's a returned missionary living in Santa Cruz but she's back visiting her family for a while. She has a 19-year-old sister and 16,14, and 12-year-old brothers. Since the brothers were just sitting alone, I went and ate with them.  They are an awesome family. Very well mannered and the 3 brothers all like American music and basketball.  I hung out with them pretty much the entire day. They are gonna start coming to play sports with us in the mornings when we play.  I especially talked a lot with the 16-year-old during the day.  He seems really interested in the church.  We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon.  He recently switched schools and he said that there are a lot of Mormons in his new school.  He said he'd come on Sunday to church too.

We also had a training with Elder Waddell of the Seventy this week.  It  was only 4 zones of missionaries so well under 100 people were there.  He speaks Spanish well and is a great and engaging speaker.  I enjoyed all of it even though he spoke for about 5 hours.  I was amazed at his ability to invite the Spirit through what he shared with us.  We talked a lot about getting people a testimony before they get baptized.  He also talked a lot about obedience and using the Spirit as missionaries.  

A couple of interesting things he said that got me thinking:

1 The Spirit is the most important part of everything we do as missionaries and also everything we will ever do not as missionaries too.  Absolutely everything we ever do--he told us.

2 What we do here will determine how we live after this life.  Then it naturally follows that what we did in our pre-mortal life affects our life now.  He told us that being in this mission at this time is a result of decisions we made before we came to the Earth and that our decisions before this life have very little to do with our nationality.  He then told us he doesn't know exactly what parts of our life are a result of our pre-mortal use of agency and didn't tell us anything else specifically as to what is or isn't.

Another fun thing was that he asked the zone leaders to stay after.  There were only 8 of us so it was neat to get to talk to him in such a small group.  We mostly talked about how we can make sure what we learned gets implemented in our zones but then he gave 10 or 15 minutes to ask questions too. One of the interesting things we talked about at that point is that he believes that there are too many less-actives because we focus on baptism rather than the temple when we teach non-members.

 

me my comp and Gerardo.  He came to accompany us on visits but we wound up helping some investigators move.  That's why my tie's tucked in.

I love being a missionary.  Its pretty crazy that I've been here for so long.  I'll finish my mission in less than 6 months now.

Serving a mission has helped me realize that living the gospel really makes life a lot better.  People who are obedient to God are always more content with their lives. 

I hope everyone is going to the temple.  It's a great opportunity to think about the covenants you've made. Being faithful to those covenants is what will get you to God's kingdom.  It's the only way to get there.  Don't forget the promises you've made with God.  And just as important, don't break those promises.  Going to the temple also gives us the strength to keep our covenants.

Love,

Elder Howlett

P.S. Job 14:14