Alma 26:36...I
love that scripture and it’s exactly how I feel. I love boasting about the
things I love and it is even better to boast about the person I love most and
has given me everything I have. The entire chapter is exactly how I have felt.
Ammon and I are twins and this chapter is how I feel here in Uruguay!
My companion, E'
Xavier, wants to say hello and that I am ´´un capo´´ (stud). I don't know if I
have said it before but he is going to BYU in a couple months and is ending his
mission in one month. I seriously love E' Xavier because he is just so
realistic and tells people how it is with the gospel. He also teaches in a way
for people to think that it’s normal, funny and spiritual (which is what I have
been trying to do!) We have been doing very well and he tells me that our area
is the best to work in but also the hardest to work in. He was very scared at
first to work with me here but now he is used to Cerro and loves that I know
where to go to for success and safety.
One day, we were
walking to meet a family that has a daughter who is 9 years old and ready for
baptism, but I felt like we needed to try to speak to a family who has been inactive
for a long time. E' Xavier didn't want to because the family always has an
excuse for why they can't listen to us. (There’s a phrase in Spanish called
bajar la caña which means drop the cane of in English kind of like, lay down
the law, calling people out, or just penetrating souls with the truth) Well,
the husband of the inactive family came out with an excuse of why his family
didn't have time to listen to us. I said; ´You don't have time to listen to
what God has to say to your family to make them happy?´´ after this he let us
in and we started the lesson. As we started the lesson, E' Xavier and I could
just feel something wrong in the house. We looked on the faces of every member
as we spoke and they just...I can't describe it any other way than by saying
their faces looked like they had been soaking in sin...darkness and it just reeked
like sin. E' Xavier asked the mother why she won't take her family to church.
She responded with ‘because the people in the church are judgmental’...(I HATE
THIS REASON!!!!!) After a while of listening to her story, yo bajé la caña and
I said...´´Hna. Lopez, this isn't the reason why you aren't going to church. I
know for a fact, that the reason you have no desire to go to church, is because
you are stuck in your sins, and because you need to repent. You have been denying
your children of blessings that they DESERVE, because you refuse to repent of
your sins´´ after explaining a little bit more, she just started to ball...she
sobbed and told us her true story. Her family went to church this Sunday and we
had a lesson with them again...I felt like I was in a completely different
house. A clean house. A house of love and a house of God. That night I couldn't
sleep because I couldn't stop thinking about how happy I was for that family. I
hope that I never have to walk into a family's home and feel the darkness and filthiness
that I felt in that house. I am so glad that Jesus Christ has given us the
opportunity to renew our baptismal covenants during sacrament so that we don't
have to feel like that woman our entire lives. It truly is incredible...
Other than that,
nothing really cool happened. I love having more Americans in my district now
because I see that I am actually progressing in the language compared to the
new Americans. At the same time, I get frustrated when I can't say what I want
to say.
My camera stinks
and I can't take off photos from it so I'll try to see what I can do about the
picture. I advise that you read Alma 26 tonight because really, it’s a great
chapter about Ammon expressing his feelings to his brothers. I'd also like to
express my feelings to my brother and say get done with high school early so
you can serve a mission as fast as possible. First, you have to do well in high
school. I told my companion about some stories I have with my friends and he
noticed that in a lot of my best stories, I was hanging out with my little
brother. He thought it was weird that I would hang out with my little brother
and I told him that I would always hang out with Gavin and that he was
basically another best friend. I see how it’s not as fun since me and all of my
friends are leaving on missions, but that’s why Gavin has to do well in high school
so he can go to BYU with me after his mission!
Love you all!
E' McRae
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