Donna: So we had the last appointment with Donna that we are going to have for a while. On Monday night we went to the visitor's center and watched the two new movies about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One is called Days of Harmony, and the other is Day for the Eternities, about the translation of the Book of Mormon, the Restoration of the Priesthood, the Calling of the three and eight witnesses, and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. After we watched this movie we continued with a lesson, and she told us something. After a lot of discussion we finally figured out what was going on. She told us that she knows all of the information, of Prophets and Apostles, of the Restoration, of the Book of Mormon, but it is all in her head, and it hasn't moved down to her heart. She told us that she is not ready to take action because it hasn't moved down into her heart. She knows the truth, but does not believe it, and because she does not have a sincere heart, she will not at this time receive an answer of the truthfulness of the Gospel.
Tuesday Night: Tuesday night was pretty interesting. It started off after dinner heading all the way to the border of our area, about 20 minutes away, to help a less active move. He has only been there for about 6 months, and we had done other service for him a week and a half ago, but now he is suddenly moving. We helped him move until about 8:10. During this time, we knew that we were not going to make it to the correlation meeting for one of the stakes with all of the ward mission leaders and so I did something weird. I presented what we were going to share with them, over the phone, while helping someone move. The presentation went well, and then we continued. We eventually had to leave because we were very late to another appointment with a member, had to go to that member's home, change, and reschedule. After that we drove down into town, to give a Sister Missionary a blessing. She had surgery this past week. Then we finished for the night. And on the way back into town, the check engine light came on, and so we had to go pretty slow.
Zone Conference: Wednesday morning we got in the car, and the check engine light was off, yeah! So we get to Zone Conference. It started with our Mission President talking about this past week, Holy Week/Passion Week. Then after he shared his testimony and opening remarks, we had some presentations from the housing coordinators, vehicle coordinators, mission doctor, and Sister Nelson. Then Sister Hall spoke about developing Christlike Attributes, from chapter 6 of preach my gospel. This is something that I have studied quite a bit on my mission, and after reviewing, she talked about Diligence. Diligence is something that I now know that I need to work on, to be working hard and doing effective work. Then after the break was when I really learned quite a bit. First, President Hall spoke boldly about retaining a remission of your sins. The way to do that is that after you repent of your sins and are cleansed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you immediately go and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is how you do it. Paul was the main example that he used. Right after he was baptized, after everything that happened, he immediately (or straightway) went and preached Christ Jesus. Then our mission President spoke about being a consecrated missionary. A consecrated missionary is a missionary who is willing to lay everything on the altar of sacrifice and to hold nothing back. It is a willingness to give every ounce of energy, every conscious thought, and every drop of passion to this work--to submit our will to God's will, whatever it may be. This was followed by great instruction my other mission leaders, and helped me know what I needed to do to become more like my Savior Jesus Christ and to give everything to this time and to my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father, who's work this is.
Loreina & Arnulfo: These are people that we taught quite a bit ago, but were kinda interest but never set a firm return appointment and never answered our calls, but.... Elder Velarde felt we should stop by them when we were in the area. And they were home, and they let us in. Towards the beginning we talked about the Temple, because of the open house, and they didn't really want to go, so we stopped talking about. Our lesson then turned into the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was amazing because both of them are in a very similar state that the Prophet Joseph Smith was at the age of 14. Confused over all the different sects, and searching for the truth. The way to know is to ask God, and if anyone reads the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, the truthfulness of it will be manifested by the Power of the Holy Ghost. After committing to read and pray, they then wanted to go to the temple open house so we set up a date. The spirit is amazing and changes peoples hearts.
Branch Party: We had a branch party on Saturday where we invited a lot of investigators, but none of them could come. There were carnitas...they were good.
Pascua: Yesterday is by far the craziest Easter I have ever had in my life. It started out at 8:00 in the morning, where we met with a bishopric and the ward mission leader of a ward to plan for Spanish work. Then we spoke in the Osgood Ward at 9:00. My talk was focused on what happened after the Savior's death. After Jesus Christ died, he went and preached the gospel unto the spirits in the Spirit world, and when he appeared to the Disciples on the shore of the sea of Galilee he told Peter that if he loves him, to feed his sheep. We had a lesson after the Spanish branch and we had to find a member. Finding a member to take us took about 50 phone calls and about an hour, but we finally found someone even thought they don't speak Spanish. This lesson that we had was about 30 miles into the middle of nowhere. When we finally got a member, we were able to get out to the lesson. His name was Lucas, and we taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He became a new Investigator!!! He is away from his family in Chiapas working for them, and has a lot of Faith in Jesus Christ and understands the need for a Restoration. On the way back from the appointment, the member we were driving with had a little problem. His tire went flat, and so we had to change out his spare, then got to dinner very late, but it was carne asada. After a wonderful dinner we had one m ore appointment that night because we ended the night.
That's all for this week. For my studies I would say that I understand Ether 12:27 a lot more than I have in the past, and would invite each of you to study that scripture for yourself. Love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!!
Love,
Elder Carson Maurice Baker
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