Great Video about Change

Change is really intresting. I do not have much more time but I wanted to share this videol Throughout my mission it has been really amazing to see not only how others I have seen change from recieving the gospel and really understanding, and applying it but seeing the change in my life.

Just want to Share this video with everyone about a gangbanger that changed his life to be a good man.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/his-grace/from-gang-member-to-good-man

True Christianity

. I was just thinking what would the world be like if everyone lived what they believe. For a while i thought basically everyone lives the 10 commandments but after watching this video it really made me think what would the world be like if everyone really lived just these 10 commandments.

10 Commandments Video

I have decided we can not chagne society, but we can change what we do and we as latter saints really can live our beliefs and we may have friends that really do not want to be part of our church but we should encourage them to live there beliefs. For example we talk to many evangelicals and some are really great and others just using it as a label. I will be honest I feel we can find these people in our church as well but it should not be it. I have seen things where ward members here go out and do things openly that is not in accordance to the gospel, but then want us to teach there future spouse or friend.  These people have a wrong idea waht is a mormon because their mormon friends are using their fatih as a title.

I loved in confrence when the general authority talked about Nelson Mandela and used the story where it defined a saint as a sinner that is trying to live as perfectly as he can. I do now want to say I am perfect or ever will be, but if we all try and be true chistians, and true members of the church of Jesues Christ of latter day Saints we will see changes even amongst the polar oppsite beliefs of the world.

This video was on during confrence in the world report, but I have been thinking a lot about true christianity. It is really intresting I have talked a lot about multifaith events, and the faithcounts from the church and respecting everyone

True Christianity

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.

Repecting Others the key to changing the world

I am sorry for not using this blog for a long time i completely forgot about it and have decicded I am going to start using it again. I am short on time but here is a copy and paste of what I sent to my family this week.

As  contacting people in my time here in Uruguay  i am learning frist we can not judge others we really have no idea who is ready and who is not ready to recieve the gospel. Secound we just need to have respect for all relgions this week was a real hard experince with this i did division in another ward and i was helping a recent convert and we found her younger sister that is not attending. her plan was to lie through the lesson but i felt something was diffrent and i decided to take control of the lesson and changed it and it was something i can not explain but all i can say was what needed to be said was said and she cried a little bit but said then that she prefers her new relgion which is black magic..... her sister who is preparing for a mission was crying, and the missionary i was with understood mucical band not the band of black magic. (he later confirmied i was right later in the week). it was such a strong lesson and it was not teaching but it was showing we really care ane testimonies and inviting her to find out for herself. In the end we still have to be respectful, it would only have made things worst if not.  It would be amazing how things would chagne in the world if people just respected and lived there own beliefs. for example the 10 commandment keeping the sabbath day holy is in all christian relgions and really we know there are tons of things that break the sabbath. Respect for our own beliefs and respect for others.  Something that does not happen to much here or really in all of the world I am sure it is the same. Hopefully the elderes will respect her still talk to her but with love and kindness and one day through the example of her sister she will come back and obtain her own testimoney of the gospel of jesues christ.

You can also see some pictures of me this week on Elder Telomas blog

http://elderteloma.blogspot.com/2015/03/training-week-10.html

Hope you all have a good week and remember to be respectful to everyone even when there are big diffrences of opnion.

Somos Como Niños

This week has been a really long week. Good rough hard, exhausting but in the end always rewarding. In the offices we deal with a lot of problems....a lot of problems. I can not even explain because a lot of you reading this would not understand unless you were in Uruguay working in the offices.  I could list many titles that we could be called. An elder who is with us now becuase of a major sprain said, ¨I thought all you did was do reembolsos all day, but you literally do anything and everything that needs to get done, go work and teach and then you start your financial day at 9 o clock at night.¨    Elder Brown has also summed up this week with these statements. ¨The offices are just semi organized choas and if this was not the lords work and his hand was not involved in what we do it just would not get done.¨,   Instead of going of all the crazyness I want to compare it to the cool things how it has applied to my studies and what I have learned.


First I want to start with this really cool video.

¨http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001

This was a really cool video. We listen to the mormanchannel stream and I found and watched the video today but heard just the music and message and it happened to be while I was studying Mosiah 3.

First this is a part that really stuck out to me in the video

I work that they may grow. They trust so deeply. How i year to do the same. They know so little how it all came to be.never questioning only trusting.      

This is the verse that really stuck out to me this week. I have learned trust is a huge thing. We need to trust who we work with, but most of all trust in our heavanly father. He has literally given us everything and like the video says they know so little how it came to be. We can do everything we can do but in the end we have to hope we have been living accordingly and are humble enough to not only recieve the oppertunities but recognize them.  In my studies I was studying a lot about the premortal life and this a plan of happiness everything is for our success and our happiness. Now I am going to post the scriptures but instead of reading them in order we are going to ready them out of order.

19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been fromthe fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields tothe enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural manand becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full oflove, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflictupon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

18 For behold he judgeth, and his judgment is just; and the infantperisheth not that dieth in his infancy; but men drink damnation totheir own souls except they humble themselves and become aslittle children, and believe that salvation was, and is, and is tocome, in and through the atoning blood of Christ, the LordOmnipotent.
 17 And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no othername given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation cancome unto the children of men, only in and through the name ofChrist, the Lord Omnipotent.  

This really was intresting to me. Mainly because this week I have really been able to see it. I do not know how we got everything we got done. Yes in the end there were a lot of problems and there were days we were wondering when will this day end, but in the end it  always worked out and we really just had to have trust. It was crazy to see how he was answering our prayers this week. To end the week I had was looking and just had feeling to look at the scriptures before I went to bed even though I was dead tired and It was Jacob 4 verse 7 i do not even know how or why that came to my mind but this is what it said.

9 For behold, by the power of his word man came upon the face of the earth, which earth was created by the power of his word. Wherefore, if God being able to speak and the world was, and to speak and man was created, O then, why not able to command theearth, or the workmanship of his hands upon the face of it, according to his will and pleasure?

 10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.

 11 Wherefore, beloved brethren, be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God, having faith, and obtained a good hope of glory in him before he manifesteth himself in the flesh.

 12 And now, beloved, marvel not that I tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come?

This actually means the same but now looking at it in english does not mean the same thing that I took but all I can say is we have to become like little children humble, but trust in him in all things for in the end they are all for our benefit. Have a good week and remember to ask to find what gods plan is for you and you will be surprised. I have learned so much about myself and what I am going to do in the next year and I know I never would have learned it if I was not out here

La Doctrina de Cristo

This week we have been focusing a lot on the doctrina de Cristo, or the doctrine of Christ. This is really the most basic but most important part of the gospel. It is Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentence, Baptisim, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end.

We have been focusing on teaching just these principles and making sure the people understand them. A lot of them time we know of repentence, but do we really understand it, and do we live it? Those are the two biggest questions we ask.

The first is understanding. We can look in 2 Nephi 31 verse 2 it talks about how important it is to understand but what is it that we need to understand.

To really understand we need to know our purpose or what we want. For most people that is eternal life, and happines in this life and next. The question then is how can we recieve eternal life. We can look at many stories such as the Rich Prince in Mathew but for now we are just going to stay in 2 Nephi 31 because the response is the same. We will start reading verse 10 half way, to where it gets to our main focus and follow me.

Follow me how can we follow Christ. We can read many examples of what he did in the new testament but we are going to read in 3 Nephi 27 13 and 14 we learn he was doing the will of the Father.

Now how can we follow the will of the Father let´s go back and read 2 Nephi 31 verse 10.  We can continue reading and we find that the main focuses are the faith, repentence, baptisim, the holy ghost and endure to the end.

We have been teaching these to tons of people and have seen tons of changes in them when they understand. It seems that when we understand we actually apply what we learn. Being in the offices we get to hear tons of success stories of other missionaries and people who have been visted by the missionaries for years and not stepped foot in the church are now returning. 

One of the big thing is these is an example our mission president gave us along with a few other variations, but the goal is not to use the same over and over with the less active members we are suppose to study in our personal study and find other refrences of the doctrina de Cristo, and what we study in the morning use in the lesson that day. It has changed not only the mission but my studies and I can not say how important it is to really understand and live the doctrine of Christ all is for our benfit. It is simple and clear sometimes we make it more complicated then we have to but it it the only way. The refrence escaped me right now but in spanish it says you there is not another way to slavation expect through the means of Christ. then the next few verse says we can not live more or less the law. We have to live the law to exactness and luckily this law was made simple for all of us everyone in the world to complete we just have to understand it and live it.

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.