week 65 talking with the devil, the best story in the last 7 months
Mon, Dec 11, 2023
for anyone wondering, we are fine here, like we are having a blast, and now that we are living in 2 i can now control the quality of this house a lot better now, last pday despite having spent the whole thing cleaning i still only ended up cleaning half the house, we no longer use the black mold room, both the secretaries, and our mission president are aware, we are both healthy here, and god is going to protect us to, i am indeed aware black mold is a serious thing, but also i know my mission president isn't dumb, and is also the most guided person by the spirit I've ever met, bro reads my thoughts through the spirit, like there is a legitimate reason we are here, i just don't know it yet, maybe its because the 4 people that we are teaching and have baptism dates all live in this neighborhood where otherwise we wouldn't havent worked here if we didn't live here because its the farthest neighborhood from the church and no one has cars here, either way its in gods hands and I'm doing my part,
we got a new sink that was cool, i had to do my own matainence after they installed it because all the water drained directly to the floor but in the shower the thought came to mind as to what happened and what should be done, so i went and fixed it, and put more silicone on the stripped threading and now we chilling with a new sink, i made our house shiny and clean too its actually pretty enjoyable here now, i don't even see that many cockroaches anymore,
now its time for some actually cool stuff,
Monday night it poured rain super hard on us, but luckily i have a new raincoat which helped a ton, we taught a man named rodrigo and he teachers like MMA stuff in the neighborhood of our house, and has like 3 dudes in the UFC or something now, but when we said the opening prayer the rain started pouring so much harder to the point it was difficult to communicate inside his house, and helaman 5 12 came to mind about how Satan is gonna send all his tempests and chaffs in the whirlwind to try and break us down, and i just could tell that if its hard to communicate with rodrigo it means its important we talk to him, when trying to think of what to share or teach that would relate to him i remembered ether 12 27 about how god will show us our weaknesses if we come to him, and how if we are humble and have faith, our weaknesses can become strengths, i related it to what he does for work in training people to fight, how is it that they get better? well its when the other opponent chokes them out and they lose, that's how they come to know their weaknesses so they can work on them and make them strengths, and how its the same thing with god, he can make not just our physical weakness strong but all weak things strong whether they be spiritual or physical or intellectual or emotional, and the first thing he does is show us our weakness, and he really was able to understand the message, its awesome how the spirit was guiding us to be able to teach in the way he needed to here, and that i had a comp who choked me out and put me in armbars so i could know what i was talking about haha
we then went and visited sirlei right after in the pouring rain, and she noted that she never sees anyone else crazy enough to walk in this rain to do what we do, its because we know its true, ( I'm sure there are other churches and people who do the same relax) we invited her to prepare to be baptized and she was excited and accepted to prepare, why? because she could feel through the spirit that the message is true, and that she doesn't have to just believe what we say but can find out for herself, and know for herself if our message is true,
Tuesday was really cool, it wasn't actually that good workwise but i got to help out the elders in colonia to become better and overcome their problems a little better, it was awesome to be able to know what to say and do as the spirit brought the things to my mind and i was able to use what i had studied,
Wednesday was awesome because we had zone counsel and after almost 15 months i finally learned how to plan,
Thursday was even cooler because after a long time of not so successful work, and the end god lifted us up by allowing us to help maria do soccorro by teaching the gospel and she accepted to prepare to be baptized and we put her on date!!
but then on Thursday begins the best story in the last 7 months, that night after doing a visit we went back towards our house to use the bathroom and drink some water, and i sat down in front of our fan, and honestly thought about wasting time because the day had been exhausting, but stood up because i decided god would bless me for this miniscule act of faith,
we then went out and began to search for people to teach, and Elder Blanchard said lets find a family! so we began our search, and after a couple door knocks i looked at one house and hopefully thought this is our family right here! well i clap my hands at the front gate and some guy a good 20 ft down the drive is just standing there, he goes and gets his keys and comes out to talk to us, well not a family but its chill, we start to talk to him and his name is Washington and he told us he is pagan and doesn't believe in any religion but believes in god and Jesus, its funny how we started by talking about the premortal life we had before birth and the creation, but then he just kind of cut us off talking about how all churches are wrong and corrupt and just want money, so we jumped and decided to just talk about the restoration of the church and gospel of Jesus Christ because what better topic to talk about and we got all the way to the end and he just kind of like mildly intrigued but didn't seem overly interested until we invited him to be able to find out for himself if what we said is true, not just believing in our words but truly find out for himself, he then seemed kind of interested but when we asked him if he would pray tonight and find out he told us he doesn't have time, but he would eventually do it, and then we asked when we could come back and he just told us that he's busy, but we should show up sometime and wouldn't mark a day,
well Friday night happened after one whole rough day of work, we decided to pass by Washington's house, and when we started walking towards his house some guy standing in his open garage calls us over saying "oh look at these two big strong men come over here come to talk to me" motioning with his hand to come over, and this guy like just had a weird vibe, like it felt mischievous he like asked us "oh people don't really talk to you guys huh, or they don't really open their doors huh? well i like talking with you guys, im talking with you guys" but it was honestly just a creepy vibe from this guy, but he seemed interested for whatever weird motive he had, i thought maybe hed had a drink but i couldnt really tell he seemed pretty sober, he asked us what church we are from and we told him boldly we are from the church of jesus christ, and he was like well duh its jesus but what church? and again i told him the church of jesus christ, and he kind of shrugged it off again, wanting us to say a different response like he didnt want us to say its christs church, but it clearly wasnt an innocent doubt like oh what church is it? but it was more mischivious, he was like " you guys share messages about god and that he lives huh? then he shouted " or does he?!?! answer quickly?!?!" and he did that like two times, specifically targeting my comp who has 5 months on his mission, because he noticed i had the answers to his pressing questions quickly and boldly while my comp took just a little longer to respond, he asked us what is the message for today? like three times, and i was trying to like lead into "why is it that we said the church of jesus christ instead of somehting else" and talk about the restauration but bro kept just ignoring me and pressing more into my comp,
in that moment the clear and direct thought came to mind "he is just trying to waste your time"
we knock washingtons house and washington came out, but he came out more excited than i could have imagined, so excited my comp thought he was drunk but he wasnt, he came out and expressed for the next 20 minutes how happy he was that we actually came back, and that his neighbors and close by churches had never come to visit him, but we came from so far all the way form the us to talk to him, and that he could see that we are really guided by something different and that he can see our light, it was remarcable to see the change in him just because we showed up, he told us we would always be welcome in his house that he really really really wants to hear our message and learn more, id never seen someone change so much, id never seen someone so excited and happy with a stronger desire to hear our message, he told us we would come back on a different day and eat lunch with him and share a message with him, because he wants to hear our message, because he can see that what we do is different than anything else he had seen, he expressed so much gratitude so so much gratitude words cant express it, gratitude because he could see we are truly representatives of Christ, he even kissed my hand, we asked if he had done the prayer we invited him to do, and he told us he hadn't because he doesn't wanna do it just to do it, because it would be to easy to just get it over with to get rid of us, he really wants to learn more first and do this prayer at the right time, but that he will do this prayer, he even told us he would go to church once he had the chance and it was all genuine, we could feel the spirit like a fire was burning the whole visit, during the opening prayer i heard the words this is the person you are looking for in my mind, it was truly and experience words can hardly describe only spirit can testify,
i look back on the experience and can see the way god is working and the way the spirit was working and the way Satan tried to stop the whole experience from happening, its not the first time I've seen Satan talking though other people to try and stop us in my mission, his words are clever and mischievous they are quick and strong and loud, used to make you shake to make your words stumble to make you doubt to make you fear, what was most marking for me was that in the other times something similar had happened to me, it did take me a couple seconds to respond sometimes, i didn't have to think a little, it did scare me a little just how intelligent his words were that had made all my responses the wrong one, but that this time the spirit gave me the words to say every time, i didn't have to think, i could speak boldly and confidently, and i shook not, his mischievous plans and words had no effect to make me stumble, it had no power over me, to the point that he ignored me and would only talk to my companion, not that my comp was fearful, but simply had less experience, and this time i was prepared with my foundation on the rock of my redeemer where if men build they cannot fall, and i was able to hear the words of the spirit and leave, and see what amazing experience and miracle Satan was trying to stop, imagine if i decided not to stand up from the fan, we wouldn't have even taught him the day before, its been really amazing to see the personal and spiritual growth I've had on the mission and how merciful god is with us as his children,
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