29: El Arrepentimiento

This week Hermana Wengert and I repented and changed a lot of things!

First thing is: teaching doctrine. We were talking with President Chase a few days ago about Lesson 1 The Restoration and he mentioned that he was worried about the way some elders taught it the other day. As he was explaining, we realized we were teaching it the same way, because thats what our trainers taught us, so we figured it was right. I wont go into explaining it, but the way we were teaching it we are under-appreciating the role of Jesus Christ and making it seem like Joseph Smith is someone that we worship. Not true! We dont want that! All of our studies the next day were devoted to fixing this problem, and we have already seen the fruits of this change. We are truly testifying of Christ as our Savior in every lesson and of the important role of prophets in preparing us for the coming of the Savior. We also realized a few other doctrinal things we had been teaching wrong this week and talked about how we can fix it and teach pure doctrine. We are grateful for repentance!

After thinking about all of that, we came to the conclusion that at some point missionaries came up with this new, easier, but mistaken way of teaching lesson 1 so that more people would understand. But that is not how doctrine should be, that is actual apostasy! We changed something pure to meet our needs and go against the will of God. What we should do is teach doctrine, always. If the people dont unsderstand, maybe it isnt their time to accept the gospel, or we need to simplify the way we teach. But never change the doctrine.

Another thing Hermana Wengert and I decided to do was have companionship inventory every night. We discuss what we did well that day, in what things we can improve, and how we can better manage our time and the needs of our investigators. This has been incredible! We are so much more efficient and willing to fix our mistakes.

We also use the Book of Mormon from the very first time we meet someone. That has been an emphasis in our mission for about a month, and we truly have seen the power of the Book. Like in DyC 4, it is the sickle! Or for us, es nuestra hoz!

Erick - still a bit of a rollercoaster! He didnt come to church and we got really worried. We visited his house and his mom said that he had left out of town without saying where or when he would get back :( After knowing him for some time and trying to help him with his difficulties, we are convinced he has either a psychological dilemma or he literally has demons that he cant let out of him life. We talked to our President about what we can do to help him. We want him to be baptized, but more than anything we just want him to be aleiviated from him burdens that may not be his fault. He shared with us many things, but the most important is the power of fasting. In Matthew 17 Jesus casts out a demon, and says the reason the disciples could not cast it out was for lack of their faith, but also...

"Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting."

So we decided we needed to explain to him better what fasting was. Erick, Our ward mission leader and us decided to fast yesterday specifically for Ericks problems. We are meeting with him tonight!

Jorge - Honestly a surprise. He has stopped drinking, smoking, everything. He reads everything, and he even showed us early to church without anyone passing by his house to pick him us. He even had a soda and chips ready for us when we went to teach him yesterday :)

Cesar - We made a calendar for him to have consistent goals as he quits smoking. He has been smoking around 6-8 every day for a while, so we just have to get him to keep decreasing little by little until he stops completely. But he is incredible, he also reads everything and has been going to church for about a month now.

This week President and Hermana Chase invited everyone in the office to have a family night with them, which was wonderful. They are always too nice to us. Before dinner President Chase told us "take out your scriptures, you all know your scriptures so well I want to hear about your favorite attributes of Christ". So we had an open discussion about Christ-like attributes for about half an hour. At the end of the night we all kneeled to pray and it was so powerful. We are led by an amazing couple, and surrounded by dedicated missionaries who love the Lord.

And HAPPY CONFERENCE!!!!! All of you eat some cinnamon rolls for me these next few weeks :)

Hast El Fin.