Week 69

¿Otra semana ya pasó?

This week definitely had its ups and downs. Lately we have been trying so hard to get  good handful of investigators progressing, but just about every new investigator that we teach, we aren’t able to find them on the return visit. It’s a little frustrating when you set a specific time and day to visit someone really cool, and you make the trek out to their house only to have one of their neighbors yell at you, shake their head and say, “No están!” (They aren’t home!) Sometimes I really feel like we are really just fighting the culture here in Tumbes, as they definitely aren’t the most commitment-making people I've seen.  They love to say, “If you find me in my house, I’ll listen to you guys!” That makes difficult life for two missionaries with specific-planned daily schedules, but we’re trying to have patience and not to worry about the things that are out of our control. However, despite the numerous appointments that fell through, we did happen to find two gems this week. 

On Friday, I had my first “bible-bash” session that actually turned out for our good. For the past few weeks, Elder Westergard and I have been teaching a 20 year-old kid named Jean Carlos, who is absolutely a nut with his Bible. This guy knows just about every single book, chapter, verse. and word of the Bible, and loves to share what he knows with everyone. However, when we knocked on his door the first time, he was actually pretty intrigued by our message and accepted to keep listening to us. We taught him for a few times, an he was actually looking like a solid investigator. However, on Friday when we showed up to visit him, he was sitting outside his house and he didn’t look too happy to see us. He started to give us the classic excuses that he’s "too busy to keep listening to us” and that he “never has time” and so on. We knew he obviously had some kind of doubt about what we taught, so we tried to dig it out of him. after a little searching, he finally came out and said that the problem was the book that we gave him. He said that the whole idea of “another Bible” just confused him, and that he just didn’t like the idea. The funny thing is, when I asked him if he had even read the book and as with most doubters he said that he hadn’t. I asked him how he could say the accusing things he was saying when he hadn’t even read a word of the book and then he started to throw at us a bunch of random Bible passages that didn’t have any relevance. After a little Bible-bashing I opened up to 2 Nephi 29 and handed him my book to read verses 7-10: 

7 Know ye not that there are more nations than one? Know ye not that I, the Lord your God, have created all men, and that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea; and that I rule in the heavens above and in the earth beneath; and I bring forth my word unto the children of men, yea, even upon all the nations of the earth?

8 Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another? Wherefore, I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.

9 And I do this that I may prove unto many that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and that I speak forth my words according to mine own pleasure. And because that I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another; for my work is not yet finished; neither shall it be until the end of man, neither from that time henceforth and forever.

10 Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be written.

After reading those verses out loud, my comp and I both gave powerful testimonies of the Book of Mormon and that God still speaks to his children today. After hearing our testimonies, you could see Jean Carlos change a little, and that he was feeling something. From the look on his face, it looked like he was asking himself the question that we constantly want everyone to ask themselves: what if this is all actually true? He then softened his heart and accepted for us to come one more time, with our given commitment that he would actually read  and pray to know if it was true. After about 30 minutes of intense Bible-bashing with Jean Carlos, we finally came to a productive end. I’m so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for not only its power to bring us to Christ, but also to confound false doctrine and ideas that we see in today’s word. It really is evident that it was written for our day.

On Saturday we totally had a miracle. In the morning we were chilling at the church waiting for the zone to show up for our choir practice for our zone conference, when Elder Westergard looks at me out of the blue and tells me he wants to go buy snacks. So, we headed out next door to buy a few small things, and then started heading back to the church. Right before we headed back in, a man on the street randomly stopped us and started to ask us some questions about the church and what time our meetings were. We told him the day and time, and then asked him if he would like it if we visited him in his home, and he said he would love that. As we started to take his name and address, he told us his name was Daniel Antón, and that he lives in an area of Tumbes called Las Malvinas, and then gave us his street and house number. It was at that moment that I totally remembered a reference from a member about a month earlier for someone named Antón, that we had looked for a bunch of times but could never find where he lived. I flipped through my agenda to our references and sure enough, found that the reference that we had received weeks earlier was this exact guy with the exact same address. Coincidence? Nah, miracle. He gave us a few references by his house so that this time we would’t get lost, and we told him that we’d pass by later that day. When we showed up to his house, he was sitting patiently at the door waiting for us. We taught him, about baptism by immersion to follow Christ’s example ad he gladly accepted a baptismal date. He so easily accepted to be baptized that we also invited him to go with us that same afternoon to a baptism that we were having in the zone, and he also accepted. We went with him and he loved it. Daniel is super excited to keep learning and to work towards his baptism. What a miracle. Sometimes, like in this case with my companion, being hungry can be a spiritual prompting, ha ha. 

Mormon 9:15:

15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed,  of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

This week I had round 3 with getting the in-grown toenails removed! I’m definitely not liking how often I’m having to do this, haha, Your big toe isn’t really the funnest place to get numbing shots. I’m highly considering just getting all my toenails completely taken off. The good news is I’m starting to become pretty good buds with the doctor here in Tumbes!

Have a good Thanksgiving! Love you all.

Avanza Su Verdad!

Elder Bailey