Thursday, November 28, 2024 12:00pm
Surprise! Happy Thanksgiving!
(DISCLAIMER: You probably shouldn't start reading this unless you are very bored and you've got a lot of freetime, you print this email out and use a bookmark, or you just love me a lot, because I'm about to write a novel. Sorry in advance. I don't plan on doing this again in the future.)
First thing when we got here, my mission president, President Watson took all of the new missionaries to the pioneer monument near the top of a mountain. From there we could see our entire mission area, which is huge, and President pointed out the boundaries to us. It felt like that scene from Lion King when Simba's dad tells him that everything the sun touches is their kingdom. That's what I got out of it, at least.
He also told us we were gonna be completely obedient, because "Obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles."
Then we went to the mission office, ate a bunch of pizza, and met our trainers. My trainer's name is Elder Haught, he's from Arizona, and had been on his mission for 2 transfers, about 3 months. Training is supposed to last 2 transfers, so usually trainers will have been out for at least somewhere around 4 transfers, if not more. We are having a lot of fun.
Right on my first night after getting there, Elder Haught took me to a member's house, telling me it was a referral. We get there, and he starts Bible Bashing us. Well, I should say me, because Elder Haught said nothing, as part of the joke. I have trouble putting my feelings about what happened into words. Don't get me wrong, I love my trainer and that member, they're awesome.
Once they had had their fill of watching me stumble through Elder Montgomery's testimony of the Book of Mormon, Spanish Edition, they fed us dinner. That was my second dinner that night.
Oh, yeah, that's another thing I love about this place. We're only allowed to have planned meals with members on the weekends, but we're also advised not to refuse food, because it is likely that our amigos will get offended, and possible that they won't want us to come back. So, we end up being fed a lot. It's a trial I did not expect to be facing.
Being fed so much has given me the opportunity to expirirence a blessing of a weakness becoming a strength: my ability to become hungry again 10 minutes after eating. It used to be a problem, now I only pray it will be enough.
Before getting here, I was told that there would be a lot of diversity between immigrants. It is true. There are people from Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Argentina, El Salvador, and more that my brain hurts too much to mention. They all have different levels of difficulty to understand, Venezuelans being among the hardest. A lot of the people here have not met missionaries before, or heard of the church, which tells you a lot about how many immigrants there are.
I was surprised to find out that the usual way we start a contact is to invite them to church, and if they say yes or maybe, we share a scripture about the importance of baptism and invite them to start preparing to be baptized. It is effective. We pretty much talk to every Latino that's outside, knock on every door, check under every rock; no one can escape us.
We've got a lot of awesome amigos progressing towards baptism, and I'm so happy for them! It's amazing to see how much joy people can receive when they start to transform their life to follow Jesus Christ and apply His Gospel in their lives!
A scripture I read this week reminded me about a principle that I think a lot of us tend to forget sometimes, because I know I do.
Ether chapter 12 has a lot of amazing scriptures, and I think it's part of the Come Follow Me for this week, so hopefully you have or will read it, but verses 6 & 12 say,
"Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith...12 For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."
These, along with James 2:14-18 (Faith without works is dead) teach a very important principle: faith is more than simply believing. I like where in verse 6 it says "Trial of your faith," implying that it takes real effort, intent, and trust in the Lord to produce a miracle.
They don't call it a 'Leap of Faith' because you wait until you can tell it is completely safe before jumping; rather it is because the leap itself is the testament to the belief you have that there will be something there to catch you. So without the leap, is there really any faith at all?
God always has our backs, and if we put our trust and faith in Him, doing all that He asks us though it will cause us to do things we might be afraid of doing, He will show us miracles.
I'm grateful for you, one of the reasons I love serving a mission is the support I receive. In a nice way, I hope you enter into a food coma this Thanksgiving, so you can understand what I go through almost every day out here. 😉
I love all of you so much! Be sure to read your Book of Mormon every day!
Éldercito Montgomery
(On the train heading up to Salt Lake City.)
Mi y my boy Elder Haught
I have too many kids
Cuando no sabo español
Got these from a random Samoan member whose door we knocked
(Mission President held a Thanksgiving 5k)
(We got to talk to both of our elders together for a bit on Thanksgiving!)
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