Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Monterrey, Topo Chico week 11

This week has been tons better. My companion and I talked about all our differences, and everything is going along smoothly. Our last interviews with Pres.Toris were this week. I asked him what's one thing that he's seen in his 3 years as a Mission President that missionaries fail at that would be easy to avoid or easy to do. He told me that was a very good question haha. Then, he said, Never confide in your own knowledge, and remember that two years pass very quickly. He went into a little more detail but that was the jist of it. I promised him I would always be aware of these things and be the best missionary I could. After that he gave me a blessing, as he did with all of us. While he gave it, the Spirit manifested once more that this man is called of God, and has the authority to be a Mission President. I'm going to miss him, but the new Pres will be awesome, I'm sure. We had our first bible bash session this week!!!! Some guy, who seemed interested, began talking to us, but eventually, the situation got heated and odd tangents began to come up. The base question was, "How do you know your church is the true church of God?". After about 45 minutes, he began saying that all Masons were homosexuals, and that the governors of Mexico and Barak Obama were in a Mafia. Congratulations, you just proved the Mormon religion wrong with that one. Then I remembered what they told us in the MTC: Always bear testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith. So I asked him if I could speak, because he wouldn't stop talking, and I began. I said,"Hermano, yo se que la Iglesia-" the he cut me off saying stuff like "you dont know anything" or, "prove it!" If he would have listened, we gave him clear instruction on how to know, but he cut me off and so I said, "okay,gracias" and walked away. My comp was having a great time with it and all the dates and Popes and everything else he was throwing out, and stayed. I went to the corner and just started reading in the Book of Mormon, and eventually my comp came. The Spirit was not there, nor was it a little bit after. These situations are spiritual murderers. There's no way in situations like this that we could have changed his mind. Even if there was a scripture in the bible that said "The Mormon religion is totally right, join it, thus saith the Lord thy God" The guy would have had some other point or date or something that he thought proved that its a different Mormon religion or something. It takes no faith to read the bible, but faith to understand it. Faith comes BEFORE the miracles, and those who seek signs will never know the truth. Anyway, it was a good learning experience :) We went to the temple again this week. I got to do a session, and its a lot harder to understand everything in Spanish haha, but I made it through. One of the members here, Hermano Pablo, is a temple worker and was there. Even though I've only been here 2 times, this is the temple I want to get married in. The Celestial Room is the most beautiful I've ever seen. The whole temple is beautiful. While I was in there, a thought came to my mind while looking at 20-30 other missionaries. "God is putting the growth of His one true church in the hands of 19 year-old boys. What is He thinking!?" Haha then I thought, we are here to do only Gods will, and learn for ourselves why God has put the growth of His church in the hands of 19 year old boys. When we are set apart to become official missionaries, we become 19 year old men, angels, soldiers, fighting in the one battle that's going on around the world. Its become apparent to me that this battle is very real. Satan is grabbing the hearts of man and is not letting go. But, with the authority of God, working in the name of His son, his grasp is loosened and the hearts of the lost are reclaimed. Only His True Word, turns the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Anyway that's that. We have transfers Monday and I'm positive I'm getting another companion. Im ready to learn more from a different companion. So ya. I love you all!!!Much LoveJAmes

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