Another week full of excitement, we had quite a few good things happen like for example I ate a mountain of fried shrimp last monday and i think a few were still alive and all week long Ive been living with something in stomach, its been really fun. Ive dipped a little bit more in wieght on the parasite diet. But things are going well, weve been working with an excellent family Bastiaz who came to church, were hoping and praying a bunch that they can keep progressing because Ive seen a lot of firsthand witness that now in the last days, mens hearts are failing them. The family has a daughter whos 21 that suffers from schizofrenia, she has been improving but she has her moments. She understands what we teach her and has earnestly, with her mom more than anyone, looked for an answer about the Book of Mormon. Theyre starting to feel that yes, and that this is like her chance at a good future so she can get better and be in the right path and be able to go and study in the university. Theyre a way cool family.
The chapter from Mosiah 16 i was reading is one of the best as a example of the power of the testimony of christ that the Book of Mormon gives.
8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath novictory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light thatis endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a lifewhich is endless, that there can be no more death.
President had a little meeting with us this week helping us to plan better, and we mad these "fishbone" lists, where we listed all the things that we have on our side to help us complete our goals, have greater success, and on the other side all the things that might impede us from doing so. There are a lot on both sides, but it really helped me to realize that there is no challenge that an investigator may have that is out of our control. Obviously we all have the gift of agency, but we as missionaries have all the tools to help people use their agency to choose Gods plan. And that scripture is an example of the most powerful tool we have to have success...the light of the world, Christ. It was pretty cool looking at that list and comparing all our advantages and disadvantages, we have a bunch with the gospel.
Love,
Elder Crisp
Monday, July 20, 2015
Monday, July 13, 2015
July 13th, 2015
Its been going well, weve been working stilll with the Mendozas to prepare their wedding the next week, they were a little bit doubtful but the wife went up to Quito this weekend to get some papers done so things look pretty good. Were working, or trying to work with the people weve had coming to church, investigators and less actives but we havent had too much success finding them in their houses or even contacting them, so we met a couple cool new people this week too.
We were talking to this dude who claims to be the leader of the all the churches and pastors, his names andres hes a little bit off but hes way funny. He says he goes from church to church teaching people to heal so that they can make more money. He says hes purified and almost is ready for his angel wings to sprout out of his back. He said that God has money too, but its cash only not credit. And that God has a car and there are highways in heaven. And that he can measure how much energy one has by simply shaking their hand- my companion has negative energy and I dont have any energy at all. Ha we talked a good while with him, and some how the conversation got to how God has a body of flesh and bones...and he said he knows thats true because there was that one guy who was building ships and he knew itd be dark so he took rocks to the mountain and the finger of God touched them. Haha he was talking about the brother of Jared, this man had read the whole book of Mormon. And he told us he knew it was true and that he had read Doctrine and Covenants too and that book was super important to understand Gods communication with men. Ha so we asked why he doestnt get baptized and he told us that baptism went out of style, and that God himself baptized him. Ha he wanted to come to church to meet and instruct the Bishop and to heal all of the sick there to charge them. He never showed up.
Jacob 3:1-2 Look unto God with firmness of mind, and prayunto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you inyour afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and senddown justice upon those who seek your destruction.
2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads andreceive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love;for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.
Elder Crisp
Good week in the font ;)
We were talking to this dude who claims to be the leader of the all the churches and pastors, his names andres hes a little bit off but hes way funny. He says he goes from church to church teaching people to heal so that they can make more money. He says hes purified and almost is ready for his angel wings to sprout out of his back. He said that God has money too, but its cash only not credit. And that God has a car and there are highways in heaven. And that he can measure how much energy one has by simply shaking their hand- my companion has negative energy and I dont have any energy at all. Ha we talked a good while with him, and some how the conversation got to how God has a body of flesh and bones...and he said he knows thats true because there was that one guy who was building ships and he knew itd be dark so he took rocks to the mountain and the finger of God touched them. Haha he was talking about the brother of Jared, this man had read the whole book of Mormon. And he told us he knew it was true and that he had read Doctrine and Covenants too and that book was super important to understand Gods communication with men. Ha so we asked why he doestnt get baptized and he told us that baptism went out of style, and that God himself baptized him. Ha he wanted to come to church to meet and instruct the Bishop and to heal all of the sick there to charge them. He never showed up.
Jacob 3:1-2 Look unto God with firmness of mind, and prayunto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you inyour afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and senddown justice upon those who seek your destruction.
2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads andreceive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love;for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.
Elder Crisp
Good week in the font ;)
Monday, July 6, 2015
July 6th, 2015
Happy 4th of July, what a pain i couldnt be there, no one seems to celebrate that holdiay here im not very sure why. This week we got to go to the temple, and down in guayaquil we had a zone conference. It was way nice, in the conference we talked about helping people to be self sufficient, to help them to be able to look for answers on their own and reach their own personal conversion. A lot of people are only strong when "their" missionaries are around. I think knowing how to recieve personal revelation and to be self sufficient in what we can do (ovbiously our salvation is only available through Christ) can help everyone to be more converted to the Lord.
We visited the Mendoza family a few times, theyre doing super well and are still preparing to get married in 2 weeks, Leticia the wife is animated as well for baptism, she said she got an answer about the Book of Mormon. It was funny they invited us for dinner saturday night, and while we were eating she asked us, Hey am I allowed to invite my sister in law to church? Ha we were gonna ask them that night if they knew anybody that could listen too, but she was already a step ahead of us, that night she invited her to church and they both were there waiting for us at church when we got there Sunday. Its way cool to see investigators excited to share what theyre learning. We had them two, and also another lady Gerenalda with two of her kids come, ha were filling up the relief society. Weve been wanting to find men to help the ward grow, this wards way down in terms of prisethood holders, but were subconsciencly implementing plan Titanic - save the women and children first. But ya Angel Mendozas still super excited to return to church. Our man voltaire who were saving from being drunk is up and down.
I read this week from 2 Nephi 25, and I was thinking about how important are the last like 10 verses. 23- 30. I encourage you to read them. We use these a lot to help people see what the Book of Mormon talks about...Christ. Nephi states a bunch of reasons why hes writing for us, with confidence that we will have those scriptures....He gives us a few things to have in mind as we read them. We can change where he says "We write diligently" to "We study diligently" so that we can have faith in Christ, be reconciled with God, understand the grace of God, etc. In any study of the scriputres, Book of mormon, or the bible, we can stop and and ask, why did they write that for me? Why will that help me to believe more in Christ? Why should i believe in Christ? Its a way dope passage of scritpure. I have seen, in this week alone, the Book of Mormon touch peoples lives.So ya thats whats going on out here, things are going well. "Todo Posi"
Elder Crisp
We visited the Mendoza family a few times, theyre doing super well and are still preparing to get married in 2 weeks, Leticia the wife is animated as well for baptism, she said she got an answer about the Book of Mormon. It was funny they invited us for dinner saturday night, and while we were eating she asked us, Hey am I allowed to invite my sister in law to church? Ha we were gonna ask them that night if they knew anybody that could listen too, but she was already a step ahead of us, that night she invited her to church and they both were there waiting for us at church when we got there Sunday. Its way cool to see investigators excited to share what theyre learning. We had them two, and also another lady Gerenalda with two of her kids come, ha were filling up the relief society. Weve been wanting to find men to help the ward grow, this wards way down in terms of prisethood holders, but were subconsciencly implementing plan Titanic - save the women and children first. But ya Angel Mendozas still super excited to return to church. Our man voltaire who were saving from being drunk is up and down.
I read this week from 2 Nephi 25, and I was thinking about how important are the last like 10 verses. 23- 30. I encourage you to read them. We use these a lot to help people see what the Book of Mormon talks about...Christ. Nephi states a bunch of reasons why hes writing for us, with confidence that we will have those scriptures....He gives us a few things to have in mind as we read them. We can change where he says "We write diligently" to "We study diligently" so that we can have faith in Christ, be reconciled with God, understand the grace of God, etc. In any study of the scriputres, Book of mormon, or the bible, we can stop and and ask, why did they write that for me? Why will that help me to believe more in Christ? Why should i believe in Christ? Its a way dope passage of scritpure. I have seen, in this week alone, the Book of Mormon touch peoples lives.So ya thats whats going on out here, things are going well. "Todo Posi"
Elder Crisp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)