Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Hola!!

Hey family!!!
   Well how are you all doing!?!  I am doing just fine and I hope that you all are doing really well!!!  I can`t believe that a week has gone by!!! The time really just flies down here and I can`t believe that Hermana Tirado and I are in our last week of this transfer together... The time has just flown by and we are a little too happy together... I think the president will change us.  It seems like when you are with a companion who is a really good friend the president likes to change things around.  I was with Hermana Romero for four and a half months, that's three changes!  I loved Hermana Romero and maybe I'll get to stay with Hermano Tirado one more change... Speaking of Hermana Romero... She finishes her mission this coming Monday!  I am going to miss her!  But from what she is telling me she is ready to go home and see her whole family!  It is crazy how fast time flies because when we were together I celebrated her year mark in the mission field.  And I will celebrate my year mark in the mission next month!!! Holy Cow I can`t believe it! 

Well what happened this week.... My companion and I have been teaching this guy named Jackson for about three weeks now and he had a baptismal date for the 26th of this month... Well on Saturday he sent us a three page text message saying that he didn`t want to get baptized and that he couldn`t go on with the lessons... Well what did we do... We went to his house that same day.  When he opened the door he didn`t seem too happy to see us and he basically told us the same thing as he did in the text.  We explained to him that we went to his house to ask why he couldn`t keep meeting with us.  He told us he didn`t know but now was not the time.  We asked when would be a good time. (I know we are so annoying... But this guy is ready I don`t know what is holding him up!) He couldn`t give us a good answer and then we asked if the things we are teaching him were helping him.  He told us that they were and that he liked what we were teaching him.  Then we told him until he could tell us the real reason why he didn`t want to visit with us we were going to keep passing by his house.  So we are still looking for people to teach and we are searching hard to find people who want to listen to us... 

It is raining a lot down here.  It rains every two days and when it rains it pours.  It is like nothing I have ever experienced.  And everything is turning green, it is so pretty.  With the beauty comes the pain, it is so humid I just can`t take it anymore!!!! Ha ha! But we are getting used to it.  With the rain I feel like we are reliving the plagues with the Egyptians. With the rain comes the crickets and the frogs... It is so gross!!!! Here the crickets are huge and they fly and jump on you when you are innocently walking along and before you know it you feel them creeping and crawling on your neck and it is all you can do to not SCREAM!!!!! I just get so creeped out it is hard to contain myself!  There are frogs everywhere and every time we come home there are a couple of frogs on the stairs.  We always have to push them off the stairs with our umbrellas... (yes we are using umbrellas... -___- we look like Jehovah`s Witnesses... which I hate-- I would rather get soaked!) 

Well the worst thing about the crickets, besides them flying on me when I am walking, is they invite themselves into our house and I always have the bad luck of finding them in my clothes. Today when I was grabbing my bag that I use on Mondays I put our cell phone in the front pocket of my bag and a big cricket crawled on my hand.... Ahhhhh it is so gross!!!!  I have killed about seven already.... I still don`t know how they find their way into our house. 

This week we have been extending baptismal dates to everyone we are teaching and I still get so nervous every single time!!! I feel like my tongue gets caught on the Spanish words and my throat gets all tight and I just can`t function!!!! I get really frustrated with myself!!! Why am I so freaked out.. My purpose is to... "Invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel." All I do is Invite and Help these people... so why is the inviting part so hard?  Sometimes I feel like the conversations with our investigators go in circles and circles until we land on the topic of baptism and when it finally comes we are too indirect and our investigators can easily brush the topic away.

My companion and I have been talking a lot about making direct invitations so that our investigators have to give us a yes or no answer... But it is harder than you think.  We have been looking at a lot of examples at the way that Christ taught and he was so direct and he just makes it look like a piece of cake!!! For example when he invited the Disciples to follow him it just looks so easy!!!, "18 ¶And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were afishers.19 And he saith unto them, aFollow me, and I will make you bfishers of men. 20 And they straightway left their nets, and afollowed him."  When we invite people to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized... Why don`t they just drop their nets and jump in the water... Well we seem to have a problem finding these people who are prepared... I imagine that these fishermen were extremely prepared to follow Christ. 

In another occasion Christ asks a rich man to follow him, " 17 ¶And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none agoodbut one, that is, God. 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit aadultery, Do not bkill, Do not csteal, Do not bear false witness, dDefraud not,eHonour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and agive to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and bfollow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. 23 ¶And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! " 

Sometimes I feel like my companion and I just pull and push until we can get our investigators to accept this baptismal date... But what we are working on is inviting them and if they are not willing to accept our invitation we are just going to keep looking until we find someone.  Jesus didn`t fight or try to persuade this rich man to follow him... He knew that it wasn`t the way to work with this "investigator" I think that is the way that we should work with our investigators... So we are learning every day... 

Well I don`t have much time to write... Sorry this letter was so lame!!! But I only have a stinking hour and I am so scrambled!!!! But I know that this church is true and I am so happy here with my companion I hope that the president doesn`t change us!!! (Crap I forgot to write the President... Okay I am cutting this really short!!!)  Well I love you more than I miss you! 
Love Hermana Welch #1 (jess) 

P.S. I was going to include this awesome talk in my little email but there is no time.  So here is the gist of it... 

In one of the most profound verses in all of scripture, Alma proclaims, “If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?”

Today moral deterioration has escalated. One prominent writer recently said, “Everyone knows the culture is poisonous, and nobody expects that to change.” The constant portrayal of violence and immorality in music, entertainment, art, and other media in our day-to-day culture is unprecedented. This was dramatically described by a highly respected Baptist theologian when he stated, “The spiritual immune system of an entire civilization has been wounded.”
It is not surprising that some in the Church believe they can’t answer Alma’s question with a resounding yes. They do not “feel so now.” They feel they are in a spiritual drought. Others are angry, hurt, or disillusioned. If these descriptions apply to you, it is important to evaluate why you cannot “feel so now.”  (Quentin L Cook, October 2012 Conference)
Love this talk!!! 

No comments:

Post a Comment