Our Eternal Potential and Missionary Work

 This week has been a week of many challanges on the mission but we have had many success as well including my first baptism, and find another person that has accepted to be baptized at the end of this month. However one of the things that really recharged my spirtual batteries was general confrence this week. I have never had a confrence session go by so fast and through out the week. Will be posting more of what is going on in my mission as well as more thoughts about this sessions general confrence.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about our potential. It is amazing how some days I can wake up and feel like I can do almost anything and other days being a victim of realism. Elder Uchtdorf had a great talk about Grace and how not only the atonement is to make us innocent before Christ but to progress and become like him.

Before going on if you have not listend to the talk by Elder Rafeal Pino and Gods Plan and Our Potential I would watch it.  One of the struggles I have is when reading the scriptures is that we are like the dust of the earth, yet we are children of God and his most beloved creations, or sometimes reading that with faith in him we can move mountains. I have come to the conclusion that we are as members of the Church of Jesues Christ of Latter day Saints are lucky to have the restored gospel. As we have been studying the gathering of Israel we really are a people of covenants, and i like how he says first got taught us the plan then gave us covenants to keep, and how really that is where are potential comes from. He has a plan and we may not know understand all of it but by following his plan we really can accomplish anything. I liked the part where he said the ¨¨lord knows what he wants and we do not have the right to council him. Why should we, we should be asking him what he wants and how to achieve it. Many do not realize but the church between the sessions gives the world report and shows great things such as church news, or faith counts and mormon messages. One of the mormon messages I have never seen is below and I really liked how it shows us just sometimes the simplest things that are holding us back from reaching our potential. 



What really stood out to me in the talk of  Elder Pino is the story he uses about the block of stone. Only the stonecutter knew the man was in there. Sometimes we do not really see our true potentail but God does and if we go to him in prayer, scripture study, but most importantly in faith he will help us see what we really can become.  Another thing i have learned besides how truely blessed we are to have the restored gospel, but that we do not have the right to determine who should and should not see no their potential. We do this in many ways by tearing people down instead of building them up, gossip, but one thing I have learned is we do not know who is ready for the gospel. I can not say how many times when that the most unlikely people have accepted to hear our message and some to the point of accepting to be baptized. There are countless times when I may have not felt to talk to a person and my past companions have started a conversation with someone when we are on the way to an appointment and are going to be late, somtimes they are great contacts and others may not have been ready at this time but we never would have known if we did not talk to them. We can not let our first impressions determine if they are ready to hear the gospel.  I want to invite all of you to think first learn your potential and I know as you reall understand the love god has for you, that you will be ready for the most unlikely moments to share the gospel and help someone understand their potential. The gospel of Jesues Christ is the plan to unlock our potential and happiness, it is also part of this plan to share the gospel.

Who We Teach and Why

 In this post you are not just going to find pictures that look like we are having tons of fun but a family that was really fun.  The family below is a family that were recent converts when I got to the area. They are one of the strongest famlies I have seen in the gospel. 

Hermana Otonelli is a recent convert, She was found by missionaries knocking doors. The missionaries past her house several times and were about to give up on her when she let them in and they found her and her three daughters two which are twins and the other in the picture below in the purple sweater. The one in the pink is actually thier cousin. Anyway with time they all accpted the invitation to be baptized including her husband who was sadly out of town when we took picures.

They are very faithful, and you can see that the gospel has changed their life. I don´t believe they had tons of problems before they were baptized becasue they are an amazing family but you can tell they went from content to a joy beyond all measure.  Hermana Otoneli reguarly gave us amazing food, but also would leave with us and has given us many refrences of her huge family that at the point when I left were just starting to meet with the missionaries.

One really cool thing, that Elder Call and Elder Muller did while teaching them was give them the challange of Elder Ballard and invite a friend or make a new friend and invite them to meet with the missionareis every three months. Every member in this family has beein doing that. I really liked how Elder Call explained it to them. That they willl have a new friend in the gospel or they will just have a new friend. Currently they are working with there family members and as you can see their cousin is enjoying the time with us just as much as we are enjoying the time with them.

 

Through the mission we have the oppertunity to talk to many wonderful people, and famlies like the family Otonelli. In some cases like them we have seen content families obtain more happiness, and some families who have had hard times come to this truth. In the end yes what we teach is important because the message of God and it is true, but just as important is the message is they why. We are teaching our brothers and sisters and so they can enjoy of the same blessings that we recieve. We are not teaching just to have more members in our church we are teaching and helping our brothers and sisters. If everyone in the world thought this way the world would be a whole diffrent place.

In the end I just had to put this picture of another family we taught in Dolores they are not members but are on the road to be members the last I heard they were progressing and I am hoping within the next few weeks they will be baptized. Best part is the little girl Mataina already told us she believes the Book of Mormon is true. Looking over this post the words can´t even describe the moments I spent with these famlies, and just seeing how the gospel can make a family happier even if they already thought they were happy.

In the end I invite you all to take on Elder Ballards challange and in the next three months find a friend you already have or make a new one and in 3 months the worst thing that can happen is you will have a new friend, but even better you will have a new friend that is enjoying the gospel.

No Fears, No Regrets, and Talking in Everymoment

Real quick. I am running out of time for the week to post but I wanted to talk about another experince I had with my night companion Elder Tolema. We currently have been focusing on talking to in every moment and we have talked to some really intresting people. Only in Uruguay where it is legal to smoke marijuana will you talk to 2 diffrent groups of people smoking and have conversations about life and and Gods plan for us. One  turned out to be a dud but the other was really great, and were with it enough to have a really good conversation. They did not accept our message but took a pamphlet and started thinking about things they have not really thought about.

We also ran into some really cool families one who had the missionaries visit her when she was a little girl and gave us her phone number to visit her family sometime next week. Another girl we meet was a young mother who has some really hard situations and she was with her new boyfriend and her  three year old girl was hilarious and really ended up helping the situation in the end but they were just making fun of us walking down the street, but we went up and talked to them and by the end had a little intrest and we will also try and have a lesson with them with them next week.

Other people we talked to ended up being a college student waiting for the bus, a man helping park cars, and many others that may not have really accepted our message but had a good experince.

Elder Teloma and I were talking about our amazing day and we talked about a District meeting where a another missionary had talked about what is worse the fear to talk to a complete stranger or the regret of knowing you should have talked to them.  For me Fear at times is the hardest but it seems after everytime not talking to them regret always follow. I have learned at times it is hard to talk to people, especially about the gospel at times but I know that if we overcome our fear we will have a amazing results and never have regrets.