Thank you everyone for your prayers and your emails! I can’t really receive letters because of the strike, but apparently packages make it through the mail system just fine. So I expect a package from everyone.
Spring is here! Which doesn’t mean much, because the temperature is pretty much the same. But it is beginning to rain more. I haven’t yet worn my rain pants yet (which also resemble parachute pants) but a look forward to the day when they are needed. I will walk proudly through the streets of Quillon looking absolutely ridiculous, but I won’t be wet, so it is worth it.
First I want to bring something to your attention. Something that is a little bit more serious. I will explain through a STORY (cause who doesn’t love stories), plus that how Christ taught, and has my favorite.
So my companion and I have been teaching this family since the first day on my mission. (Literally the first day we went to their house and taught them) they were progressing very well and had a very strong testimony of Christ and of the book of Mormon. They read together, often and personally studied the scriptures and prayed every day. They are such a great family and were eager to learn more of this gospel. The Father (boyfriend), however was not progressing very fast, and had many doubts about our message. Don’t get me wrong questions and doubts are not bad to have, but he was not willing to ask God and resolve his doubts. Tambien, he refused to go to church with the rest of the family saying he had other stuff to do.
We gave one of the daughters a baptismal date and she was very excited and very ready to take this first step to follow Christ in her life. The father didn’t think his daughter was ready, and also his doubts were making him very cynical of our message. During lessons he would rather fight and argue with us instead of allowing the spirit to teach him through humility and faith.
So 2 days before the baptism, (I think as an eager attempt to stop his family from going through with this) searched on the internet, searching for everything bad people have to say about this gospel, and especially about Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon.
I am telling you this because I want everyone to know that the adversary is real and is out there, and he is trying very hard to stop anyone from knowing the truth, especially families. He entered into this family through small doubts and then worked and worked on one person and now all of the family have been blinded by doubt and lose sight of the truth and their testimonies (that I know they still have in their hearts).
They way to know the truth is not through the lies on the internet; it is through reading the word of God and prayer.
Now don’t worry we will not give up on this family. They mean a lot to us, and I know they mean even more to the Savior.
As of now they want us to visit them (because they still like us, who wouldn’t right), but they don’t want us to talk about the gospel. Well that is not gonna happen, we are representatives of Christ THATS ALL WE TALK ABOUT.
Never stop praying and reading the scriptures, also continue to ask questions and expand your knowledge of Christ. Just do it his way.
This week we also had Zone Conference! It was so great and they fed us the biggest bread bowl I have ever seen in my life, it was literally bigger then a pumpkin.
Hermana Arrington shared an awesome story about her son who served his mission in Ukraine.
In Ukraine at the time of his mission (5 years or so ago) the church was very small. I think the specific mission he was in averaged about 1.4 baptisms a year...I don’t know how that works but that are what she said. because the church was so small pretty much all they did every day was contacting, knocking on doors, talking to anyone who was listen. Elder Arrington was on a mini cambio (change/transfer) in a city he had never been in, and was only there for one day. But during that day all he did was contact in some park and had out pass along cards to people. Fast forward 3 years later, his mission was over and was studying at BYU. A girl sat next to him in one of his classes and they started talking and she said she was from Ukraine! she said she was from that same city that he only spend 1 day in.. So he didn’t remember much.
However when the teacher called role and said his name, this girl started crying and said to him, you’re elder Arrington? ¨
She then proceeded to pull out a pass along card from her purse, the same pass along card that he had given to her that day so long ago. He had written a short testimony on the back and signed it with his name before handing it out. She had forgotten about the encounter for months, until cleaning out her purse one day and saw it, and contacted the missionaries. Now she is a student at BYU.
Sometimes we do not see the fruits of our labors, but does that mean we should stop trying? We need to always be examples and always share the gospel, because we don’t know who it will affect in the future.
Also if you haven’t seen the movie The Testaments, watch it because it’s awesome. We had a ward activity and watched that movie, most people here in Quillon have not seen it, and had no idea what was coming. We had some criers that night. Even though so parts are defiantly out of date it is worth watching.
That night we also ate popcorn. But in Chile they don’t eat popcorn with butter and salt, it was cooked with powdered sugar and who knows what else...but it was divine.
Hey if anyone has questions about my mission and the work here in Quillon you can email me and I will try to answer then in the next post. (sayre.stewart@myldsmail.net)
Love you and I pray for you!
Spring is here! Which doesn’t mean much, because the temperature is pretty much the same. But it is beginning to rain more. I haven’t yet worn my rain pants yet (which also resemble parachute pants) but a look forward to the day when they are needed. I will walk proudly through the streets of Quillon looking absolutely ridiculous, but I won’t be wet, so it is worth it.
First I want to bring something to your attention. Something that is a little bit more serious. I will explain through a STORY (cause who doesn’t love stories), plus that how Christ taught, and has my favorite.
So my companion and I have been teaching this family since the first day on my mission. (Literally the first day we went to their house and taught them) they were progressing very well and had a very strong testimony of Christ and of the book of Mormon. They read together, often and personally studied the scriptures and prayed every day. They are such a great family and were eager to learn more of this gospel. The Father (boyfriend), however was not progressing very fast, and had many doubts about our message. Don’t get me wrong questions and doubts are not bad to have, but he was not willing to ask God and resolve his doubts. Tambien, he refused to go to church with the rest of the family saying he had other stuff to do.
We gave one of the daughters a baptismal date and she was very excited and very ready to take this first step to follow Christ in her life. The father didn’t think his daughter was ready, and also his doubts were making him very cynical of our message. During lessons he would rather fight and argue with us instead of allowing the spirit to teach him through humility and faith.
So 2 days before the baptism, (I think as an eager attempt to stop his family from going through with this) searched on the internet, searching for everything bad people have to say about this gospel, and especially about Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon.
I am telling you this because I want everyone to know that the adversary is real and is out there, and he is trying very hard to stop anyone from knowing the truth, especially families. He entered into this family through small doubts and then worked and worked on one person and now all of the family have been blinded by doubt and lose sight of the truth and their testimonies (that I know they still have in their hearts).
They way to know the truth is not through the lies on the internet; it is through reading the word of God and prayer.
Now don’t worry we will not give up on this family. They mean a lot to us, and I know they mean even more to the Savior.
As of now they want us to visit them (because they still like us, who wouldn’t right), but they don’t want us to talk about the gospel. Well that is not gonna happen, we are representatives of Christ THATS ALL WE TALK ABOUT.
Never stop praying and reading the scriptures, also continue to ask questions and expand your knowledge of Christ. Just do it his way.
This week we also had Zone Conference! It was so great and they fed us the biggest bread bowl I have ever seen in my life, it was literally bigger then a pumpkin.
Hermana Arrington shared an awesome story about her son who served his mission in Ukraine.
In Ukraine at the time of his mission (5 years or so ago) the church was very small. I think the specific mission he was in averaged about 1.4 baptisms a year...I don’t know how that works but that are what she said. because the church was so small pretty much all they did every day was contacting, knocking on doors, talking to anyone who was listen. Elder Arrington was on a mini cambio (change/transfer) in a city he had never been in, and was only there for one day. But during that day all he did was contact in some park and had out pass along cards to people. Fast forward 3 years later, his mission was over and was studying at BYU. A girl sat next to him in one of his classes and they started talking and she said she was from Ukraine! she said she was from that same city that he only spend 1 day in.. So he didn’t remember much.
However when the teacher called role and said his name, this girl started crying and said to him, you’re elder Arrington? ¨
She then proceeded to pull out a pass along card from her purse, the same pass along card that he had given to her that day so long ago. He had written a short testimony on the back and signed it with his name before handing it out. She had forgotten about the encounter for months, until cleaning out her purse one day and saw it, and contacted the missionaries. Now she is a student at BYU.
Sometimes we do not see the fruits of our labors, but does that mean we should stop trying? We need to always be examples and always share the gospel, because we don’t know who it will affect in the future.
Also if you haven’t seen the movie The Testaments, watch it because it’s awesome. We had a ward activity and watched that movie, most people here in Quillon have not seen it, and had no idea what was coming. We had some criers that night. Even though so parts are defiantly out of date it is worth watching.
That night we also ate popcorn. But in Chile they don’t eat popcorn with butter and salt, it was cooked with powdered sugar and who knows what else...but it was divine.
Hey if anyone has questions about my mission and the work here in Quillon you can email me and I will try to answer then in the next post. (sayre.stewart@myldsmail.net)
Love you and I pray for you!
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