We had transfers last week! I completely forgot to tell you, our district is basically the same except Elder McEntee is here in place of Elder Bos, nothing else really changed.
I don't have a lot of pictures this week, but I am really excited about what I am sending because we found some mountains! It felt so good to be back!
I did divisions with Elder Ellis this week, he helped me take out the marriage papers on Friday so that went pretty well. (Elder Ellis is the one I took some pictues with in Semuc when we were standing in the water, he was in the black shirt.) It looks like we will see two marriages and two baptisms this Friday, so we are really excited about that. The first is Edgar, who I told you about last week. The second couple are named Santiago and Marta, Marta is the baptism. People have been working with them for awhile, they just never quite wanted to go to Panzos to take out the marriage papers so it was impossible for them to progress. Santiago is already a member, just super inactive, he baptized junxil (a really long time ago) and then went inactive right after, so something tells me he doesn't know what his baptismal covenant meant. We are trying to work with him to help him relearn, the problem is he is always sick so it is hard to get him to church and stuff. Nobody here can afford to go to the doctors so they just try to treat themselves and it doesn't always work that great for them. But it is super awesome to see people taking this big step in their lives to complete Gods commandments for us. I am excited to finally see some baptisms, it has been since I baptized in that river in Seranx. It is just great to see people finally accepting the Gospel.
My companion is doing alright I think. After we did divisions he kind of came back really confident, because he knew a lot more Kekchi than the guy he was with. I think that is the first time that has happened, it was good for him. We taught like twenty lessons in total this week. That is pretty average, it was a little hard with divisions, but we did alright. We tried to visit with the man who asked for the prayer for his dad. We found out they are pretty hardcore Catholics. That is the confusing thing here, everyone recognizes we have power from God and can bless them, and they will say our church is true, but they won't join us.
I guess I must be feeling really strongly about obedience lately because I have a similar thought to what I shared last week. It is the same thing that everyone has heard in church or school assembly, that we need to make the decision now to do what we are supposed to do. We shouldn't have to decide every time we are faced with a choice, because we should have already decided that we will do the right thing. I don't know how many Aaronic Priesthood holders read this, or Melchizedek for that matter, but we have a pretty sweet power and responsibility to bless in the Lord's name, we need to be worthy and ready to use it at any moment.
I love all of you! Have a good week!
Love, Elder Toolson
That is a powerful message Joe. I think there are many people who take some time to make that decision right out. Sometimes I think younger folk are challenged by this, but then I think about it some more and realize... There are older folk as well.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think the decision to do good by God, from the start, is easy... Until faced with a challenge where one must then carry out the good, inspite of temptations. You are very wise Joe.