Everything went wrong this week. But, whatever; we are still alive. None of our investigators want to go to church. They want to do everything but go to church. And the people that we have who went, for difficult situations with the members, have quit going also. We went we went to pick up investigators, and they were not at home. They almost never do anything if we are not there forcing them to act and learn.
:( We also got kicked out of a mall where we were preaching. The
guard was a Jehovah's Witness and didn´t want the Mormons preaching.
My head hurts all the time.
On the bright side, people have started accepting when we offer help. We cut grass and trees with blunt machetes for three hours Sunday, cleared a lot (as in the area, no `lot`), cleared ground where part of a house burned down (it turns out that it will be reconstructed as a church--interesting, and various other jobs.
We have started teaching a psychiatrist, and it is really interesting because he actually knows religious information and history--the Council of Nycea, how churches began, founders, and back stories--and he is actually reading the book of Mormon! That's awesome, man!
But really, other than this I have nothing to say. This week will be better.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
Friday 22 May 2015
Wednesday 13 May 2015
May 11, 2015 -- I have nothing to say.
Talking with you all yesterday was great, and I have almost nothing that I need to say.
So, basically this week nothing interesting happened. I received cake from four different sources, and we had the baptism of the husband of my Relief Society president.
He was baptized and confirmed by people who had absolutely no part in the process, which kind of made me mad, but apparently that is due to a power struggle that is happening between the mission president and the stake president here. All the missionaries might get pulled out of Matamoros due to this. It is because the bishops have started taking control of converts, and they do not have that authority (one even tried to prevent a baptism of the elders in that ward). Basically these wards have begun to reject the missionaries. So President is going to pull out his elders. It is strange to think about that. I guess I have to remember that everyone has free will, and sometimes they use it to hurt themselves, or the people around them, for no more reason than because they do not want to change their perspective. Oh well. All of that is part of the plan god gave us, so I can deal with it.
Still alive and kicking,
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
So, basically this week nothing interesting happened. I received cake from four different sources, and we had the baptism of the husband of my Relief Society president.
He was baptized and confirmed by people who had absolutely no part in the process, which kind of made me mad, but apparently that is due to a power struggle that is happening between the mission president and the stake president here. All the missionaries might get pulled out of Matamoros due to this. It is because the bishops have started taking control of converts, and they do not have that authority (one even tried to prevent a baptism of the elders in that ward). Basically these wards have begun to reject the missionaries. So President is going to pull out his elders. It is strange to think about that. I guess I have to remember that everyone has free will, and sometimes they use it to hurt themselves, or the people around them, for no more reason than because they do not want to change their perspective. Oh well. All of that is part of the plan god gave us, so I can deal with it.
Still alive and kicking,
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
Tuesday 5 May 2015
May 4, 2015 -- My Throat
is really sore. I spent the week blowing up balloons, and then I fasted. I guess I should have figured that would happen. On the bright side, I can now do three different types of minions, and depending on how many eyes I give them, that means 6 different minions. I didn't need more because those were enough. I also did many other balloons--many--because I did two children's activities in the chapel in addition to the kids in the street and the Medina family.
In other news, with elder Phelps we reactivated a guy who went to church three times, went to the temple, went to church one more time, and then was in a car accident in which he ended up in the hospital in a coma. He had a vision in his coma. He had forgotten the things that happened during his life, and Moroni showed him things. He was very interested in everything. The angel kept asking, "Ok, you ready to move on?" And he would said yes. But at one point one of the sisters in the ward started yelling at him that he had to come back. He was super confused because he remembered nothing of his life. Three times she implored him to return for his family, and finally he said he wanted to stay. Moroni let him go. He went back, talked to the sister and found out about himself--about his life, his family, etc.--and he decided he would go back because they needed him. Then he woke up from his coma. This man remembered that he was a worthy priesthood holder. He has forgotten almost everything; the only things he can remember are the ordinances he has done, the covenants made, the temple, us, the missionaries, and church--basically all the important stuff. He does not even remember being inactive. I believe this to be a tender mercy. He literally has a clean start and doesn't have a memory of any of the things he didn't do so well. And he is Super grateful for his blessings.
We were doing service (making posters) for an investigator one day when, wouldn't you know it, the house in front of where we were got set on fire. The house we were in was made of wood (normally they are made of cement here), so the fact that we were there was helpful, because we feel that the house was protected because we were there. We had not known why we needed to go with this specific person, but we were on a bus headed to visit someone else and felt we should visit her instead. Then we could not leave and didn't know why. Then that happened, and afterward we could leave. I think they were safe because we were over there. Maybe I am just crazy, but when bad things happen around elders, generally they do not get affected and neither do the people they are with.
That's what I have right now. See you all next week.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
In other news, with elder Phelps we reactivated a guy who went to church three times, went to the temple, went to church one more time, and then was in a car accident in which he ended up in the hospital in a coma. He had a vision in his coma. He had forgotten the things that happened during his life, and Moroni showed him things. He was very interested in everything. The angel kept asking, "Ok, you ready to move on?" And he would said yes. But at one point one of the sisters in the ward started yelling at him that he had to come back. He was super confused because he remembered nothing of his life. Three times she implored him to return for his family, and finally he said he wanted to stay. Moroni let him go. He went back, talked to the sister and found out about himself--about his life, his family, etc.--and he decided he would go back because they needed him. Then he woke up from his coma. This man remembered that he was a worthy priesthood holder. He has forgotten almost everything; the only things he can remember are the ordinances he has done, the covenants made, the temple, us, the missionaries, and church--basically all the important stuff. He does not even remember being inactive. I believe this to be a tender mercy. He literally has a clean start and doesn't have a memory of any of the things he didn't do so well. And he is Super grateful for his blessings.
We were doing service (making posters) for an investigator one day when, wouldn't you know it, the house in front of where we were got set on fire. The house we were in was made of wood (normally they are made of cement here), so the fact that we were there was helpful, because we feel that the house was protected because we were there. We had not known why we needed to go with this specific person, but we were on a bus headed to visit someone else and felt we should visit her instead. Then we could not leave and didn't know why. Then that happened, and afterward we could leave. I think they were safe because we were over there. Maybe I am just crazy, but when bad things happen around elders, generally they do not get affected and neither do the people they are with.
That's what I have right now. See you all next week.
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
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