For the month of December, President Porter has printed a
different talk for us to study every day. Each talk is about the
Atonement. I love it. I love that we get to study the Atonement of Jesus Christ
every morning. My faith, gratitude, and love for the Savior has grown deeper
and deeper. It truly is a blessing to have several hours each morning as a
missionary to study the gospel. I know that the rest of you at home don't
have that kind of time, but daily gospel study is an absolute must. Even if it's
just a few minutes, we have to set aside time to rebuild and reignite the fire
of our faith. Faith is a principle of action, but it can also become a
principle of power (Jacob 4:6) that allows us to cause a change in
ourselves and others. There are a limitless number of things that can
occupy our time in the world but we need to spend a few minutes each day
and become "God's investigators", so He can teach us
through the spirit and build our faith.
You asked about the Zone conference with the Member of the
Seventy. His name was Elder Perkins and I learned a lot. At the
beginning of the meeting they had everyone write down two questions that they
wanted answered. The idea was that if the spirit was there throughout the
meeting we would each be able to have our questions answered, regardless of the
words spoken or the messages taught. I wrote my two questions down and within a
few minutes I got both of them answered; revelation is pretty cool! We
have another Zone conference tomorrow as well, this time for
Christmas! It's going to be another big surprise cut to our
allotted miles this month, but that's okay, the buses really haven't been
too bad.
We had quite a miracle last week. When we got back from the zone
conference with Elder Perkins we noticed that someone had tried to call us
several times. We didn't recognize the number but we called back and talked to
a guy named M.... M... said missionaries had come by in the past (which is
how he had our telephone number, but the missionaries were transferred and
contact was lost) and that he wanted to meet with us again. We set up an
appointment for the next day, Friday afternoon. We met M... and his
girlfriend, C.... We learned that he was a recent convert
that went less active. He had problems with drinking but had found power in the
Book of Mormon. He bore testimony to us that when he read the Book of Mormon he
didn't have any temptation to drink. He and his nonmember girlfriend had been
reading the Book of Mormon every day for a week before they had called us. They
don't have a car, nor any seats in their apartment, so we taught them sitting
on the carpet :) But we had another one of our investigators drive them to
church. They both dressed very nice and the members did such a good job at
fellowshipping them. It was C....'s first time at church but she and M... had a good experience. They are very special people and they are
going to make such awesome members. They need to get married
before she can be baptized but we are going to invite them to be baptized
in our lesson with them tonight! Pray for them that it will go
well! We and the branch are very excited for them. It seems as if
they came completely out of no where but we know Heavenly Father's hand
has been in it the whole time.
Friday night we had a branch Christmas Activity. In line
with Hispanic fashion it started 2 hours late. M... and C... couldn't
come but maybe it's a good thing they didn't. The members love to
"baile", or in other words, dance. After a while of
peaceful socializing and the completion of a cute but awful
nativity reenactment (we never practiced it beforehand), the reverence of
Christmas spirit was replaced with someone's iPod played over a
concert floor speaker. After that we left. We had to leave anyways
because of curfew; it was getting late. But overall it was a good thing. Even
without the pig leg we had dutifully prepared, the food was plenty
and delicious and we had lots of less actives and investigators come.
Here's a last few words. We can gain a testimony in several
ways, my particular favorite and perhaps the most direct is through the Book of
Mormon. But another way we can gain a testimony is by looking at the fruits of
what we are doing. See Matthew 7:16-20. So even if all we know of the church is
that we feel peace and it makes us happier, then we can know that it's true.
Those "good fruits" of the spirit that come from God wouldn't be
there if it wasn't true. Simple as that. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints has all the good fruits to offer because it's the only church
with the fullness of the gospel. And it's within this Church that we can
be healed, find peace, and bind families for forever. I love this
Church, because it's His. Christ stands at the head of it. I know that
with all my heart and I leave that with you until next week! Enjoy
Christmas break, look forward to talking to you all soon! Les Quiero!
Elder
Graf
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| I (Sydna) am Facebook friends with this nice member. She takes care of the missionaries and posts lots of pictures on Facebook. I really appreciate her. These are her pictures. |
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| The picture is of two stuffed pig legs. We jousted it with knives and then filled the holes with pineapple, ham, bacon, and prunes. It was the main meat for a branch Christmas party we had at the church on Friday. Unfortunately it didn't finish cooking in time so we ate it for lunch both Saturday and Sunday at Sister C...'s house. (Spanish culture fun fact - the branch doesn't really refer to people by their last names. So it's like saying Sister Sydna or Brother Curtis. Kind of weird but that's how they do it). So I don't know sister C...'s last name but she has a son serving in Chile, so that's probably why she's so keen about taking pictures of missionaries. |
