Anyway. My week was swell. :) I hope yours was too.
On Monday, after having my ánimo tank filled to the brim by all of the peppy emails from your side of the missionary veil, we went down to the Montero Family's house for FHE with them and two other families in the ward! It was great! One of the members shared a message from the Gospel Principles book about family roles, and the importance of team work in our homes. :) Amen to that! It was well addressed, and was good for all of us to hear.
Then, we chowed down some Spaghetti and fried platanos before catching a ride home with a member. :)
Tuesday I officially completed 14 months in the mission. ha. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."
In the afternoon, while we were getting ready to head back out after lunch, the ZL's called and told us to meet up at the church for splits with them and the AP's. ha. One of the assistants stayed in the ZL's area with Elder Richardson, the other one went with Elder Melara and Elder De La Cruz (the Latins that live with us), and Elder Maldonado (ZL) came with us. :) It was a good deal. Elder Maldonado teaches really clearly, and asks lots of good, to the point questions that help investigators express themselves. I learned a lot!
Wednesday we had a really good lesson with Anni. We talked about her current situation (living with her boyfriend), and she told us how fed up she feels. She loves him, and she wants him to change, but she also wants to get baptized. She feels like she's waited around for him long enough, and she's ready to confront him. She wants to do what the Lord requires of her, and she wants the blessings of baptism!
Thursday was a day of crazy people visits... ha. We met one lady that was baptized in the LDS church as a kid because she fell for a missionary and when he left she went to a different church. She now thinks we're crazy because we baptize dead people...
Jarvi and Doris are an older couple. Jarvi was born in the DR, but both his parents are Arabs... ha. He says that George Bush was an Arab, and that Mooney is an Arab last name... He also claims that God made us white people to rule over the black people. Doris seems nice. ha. But she was caught up in her daughter's plans to move to the U.S. to marry some guy she met on the Internet... "They're just lookin for Visas; I ain't talkin credit cards, if you know what I mean...." haha.
Andrea and Miguel are Catholics, and invited us to come back because we're Mormons, and not Jehovah's Witnesses. ha. Apparently they hate those guys... They always come "joder" (I'll let you google translate that one) on Saturdays, which as any good missionary knows is washing day in Los Alcarrizos. ha. (Because that's when running water comes. The water comes twice a week and fills up the tinaco on our roof, so usually we're all right on running water. But for those that don't have a tinaco, they have to fill water tanks to use til more water comes, therefore we all do our washing on Tuesdays and Saturdays so we can use tank/tinaco water for other stuff).
Then in the evening, we went out to the Montero Family's house, but Dioni and Adriana were at a funeral, so we were able to sit down and have a good talk with Yoel about the Law of Chastity. It was much needed. He's a 19 year old boy with no job, a new smart phone and LOTS of time on his hands... So, we explained things as clearly as they can be put, and made a big deal about the dangers of pornography. I hope some of it stuck with him. He's a good kid. He just needs to take the plunge and utilize the Gospel, and our ward family to get some direction in his life! I am SO blessed to have been raised in the church! I've always known who I am, and more or less (sometimes I'm fickle) exactly what I want. ha.
Friday we found ANOTHER inactive lady that got baptized as a kid. Luckily she's not in another church, she just had a job that required that she worked Sundays, so she stopped coming. But now that we found her, and told her to come back, she's gonna start coming to church again! She just needs a little push, and maybe some clarifying on Church doctrine. ha. That's what we're here for!
Then, we went over to teach Rosi. A lady we've been teaching for the last couple of weeks. She's come to church once, and she's really good about reading and studying the things we leave with her. She has an open mind, and has been praying for an answer. Well... We got to her house, and she was sitting in a chair out front SURROUNDED by her Evangelical neighbors... They were saying lots of mean things about the Mormons... We told her we'd pass by another time because we thought it best to avoid the fight... It gets to me sometimes how unfair it is that someone so open and accepting gets attacked like that. Satan has no shame... He will do whatever it takes and use whoever he can to lead people astray.
Luckily Rosi is solid. :) We called her later to check up on her, and she said she was really sorry for what they were saying. She doesn't believe them, and knows that we aren't what they say we are. Plus, she told us a funny story about later that afternoon. ha. She was in the salon (owned by one of those Evangelical's mother) talking to Maria (that same Evangelical guy's sister, who is also taking the lessons from us), and the Evangelical Brother came in and told them that we were walking Demons... ha. Maria snapped back and said "Well if demons all look like that, send me down to hell!!" hahaha. We laughed.
Saturday we had a Zone Meeting. Four different companionships got up and taught us about how to better our teaching, reactivation, how to use our time wisely, and the 7 focuses of our mission. It was good. :) I took notes, more or less. So you can all read them in ten months, if you so desire.
In the evening we visited Hna Jisela. She's a great old lady that NEVER misses church. We talked for a while, and then she introduced us to her inactive daughter, and told us about her other two inactive kids. She wants her family to be with her FOREVER! So we're gonna start visiting with her two daughters and see what we can do. ha. I feel like she's one of those eccentric Mormons, and may or may not have driven her kids away in attempt to help them... But we will see. I'll let you know how our visit goes this week.
Yesterday we had a tranquilo time in church, and had some good lessons in the afternoon. One of which was with Edward and Sandra (that family I keep talking about). They didn't make it to church, and profusely apologized for it. They want to go SO bad, but keep having things come up! And they're legit excuses too... So we shared a scripture with them from 2 Nephi 2 and talked about the opposition in life. We told them that Satan doesn't want them to join the church, and he's gonna do all he can to dissuade them from it. They nodded and agreed to keep fighting the fight. They aren't that easy to beat! Then we talked to them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the importance of Baptism. :) They know what we are teaching them is true. It's just gonna take some time for them to hit the water... :)
Last night we had a great lesson with Dioni and Adriana. In Elder's Quorum, they've been going over the performance of Priesthood stuff (like blessings, baby blessings, baptism, sacrament prayers, etc.), so Dioni asked us to help him with that. :) Cool. :)
Then we taught Santos and his family. It was an incredible lesson! I read a scripture I found in personal study this week, in Helaman 7:7-9. Nephi is wishing that he had been born back in the times of the first Nephi (the one that left Jerusalem), because back then the people weren't as wicked as his people... But in verse 9 he says that it is his commission to live in his time, and to feel the anguish of his wicked brethren. We likened the scripture to ourselves, and shared some of the "if only's" and "I wishes" that we've thought or said before. Santos told of how his dad always used to tell him that with one shili (sp?), which is the olden days Dominican currency (worth a small percentage of a peso), he could buy food for his family for the whole day! Santos wanted to know why he had to be here and now, raising his family in these rough economic times. And I feel like we all do that! Sometimes I think "If only they had changed the missionary age from 19 to 18 a year earlier! Then Taylor and I would both be coming home in two short weeks!" or "If only I got called to a state side mission where they have 24 hour electricity, running water, giant wards with lots of helpful, active members, etc... Then my life would be easier." Well my friends. It's ok. Because Nephi (the boss son of Helaman) thought things like that as well. We just need to realize that we have all been sent to this earth, at this time, with these challenges for a reason! God told us it would be hard, but we accepted that call! Maybe we're right; maybe if we had been born in a different time or place, life would be easier. But easy won't make a God out of you! We have trials to make us stronger. We've just gotta keep on keepin on, trusting in the Lord, and everything will work out "for our good." (D&C 122:7-8)
Anyway. I love you all! I hope your week is great! Keep pressing forward! We are children of God!
Love,
Elder Cade Mooney
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Pics from/on a bridge in our area. 6/6/13
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