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