September 19, 2011

     To start out that is amazing about the song and everything.  I don’t think that was just a coincidence, this week we had ward conference and I had prepared a special number for the baptism with all the elders here in Acayucan, there were six of us.   I played the piano and organized how we would sing.  One person would read the first line while I was playing the piano, the 2nd two missionaries would have a duet and the third , then the fourth with each I would play louder and at the end a solo on the piano.  The Bishop heard it and asked if we could do it during the conference, so we did!  I played Come Thou Fount  but we sang Oh My Father..., it was very spiritual but I think at the end I played a little hard because the Stake  President gave me some looks, haha!!  He said it really brought a good spirit though.   I was so nervous that my back started cramping like crazy haha.
     Anyway, this week has been really really hard for me.  We worked really hard with this lady and I arranged the nicest baptism I have ever prepared for someone and she didn’t show up to the baptism.  It was hard for me and we did everything possible.  We even went to her house to get her and she said no.  At times it’s like that.  I had an overwhelming feeling when we were cleaning up.   The church here is completely different.  They say it’s the same in the whole world but it’s not.  At home missionaries have a calling to be missionaries.  Here we have a calling to be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  To be the bishops, to be the teacher in priesthood, to bless the sacrament, to get the investigators, not kidding everything!!!  It’s hard!  My comp and I brought 10 investigators to a ward activity by ourselves TEN!!!!  5 members showed up to the activity.  It’s been a hard week but I know that I will be blessed for my work.
    I felt the spirit so strong with this lady that didn’t go to her baptism.  I was guided by the spirit to take her to the baptismal font and show her because she still wasn’t really sure about 4 days before her baptism.  We had a plan to teach her, my comp and I, when we got to her house this day but when I sat down I don’t know why but I asked her if she had anything to do and if she would accompany us to the church.  She said yes and we opened it because we have the keys.  It’s a long story that I will have to write you  later but I have never felt the spirit so strong since I got here in Mexico.  When she set foot in the empty baptismal font for the first time tears filled her eyes and in that moment she knew without a doubt that the church was true.  But just like thousands of people, like other investigators I have had, like Martin Harris, like Oliver Cowdry, people just forget.  The thief of thieves, the father of all lies and master mind behind the secret combinations rips the lives down of others and the testimonies of others to a point that they just don’t want anything to do with our Father who is in Heaven.  It’s hard, it’s really, really hard but if it wasn’t easy for the Savior, I like I said dad, why in the world would it be easy for us.  That’s why we need love.  That’s why there is such a thing as LOVE and Charity and Hope.  We have to press on, we can do it, we just have to start.
    I love you all so much! stay safe, read your scriptures, and pray always and everything will be okay.
     I love you so much you will never comprehend it in the rest of the life you live.  You will never understand!
Love your son