700 COPIES OF THE BOOK OF MORMON - AUGUST 1, 2016

Ulises, Manuel, Samuel y David and their Book of Mormons

Hey everyone!!! How are you guys doing!? I am so stoked to be able to talk to you guys today! This week was such a great week of growing for me... let me tell you all about it!

This week was a week of setting and achieving goals! We had 60 super powerful lessons and we are constantly passing our weekly goal of 50 lessons a week. We also had... 7 investigators at church! All 7 are progressing WOOHOO! Wow sometimes I just marvel at the way the Lord does his part whenever I do all I can.

President and Sister Ruiz

So this was the first week of my 9th transfer in the mission. When we all showed up to zone counsel on Tuesday I got to take a look at the new zone and it was super crazy when i realized something.... I am the ONLY gringo in the zone, aka only American missionary in the zone! It made me feel super special and different hahaha. So my companion and I were praying a lot to be able to do something super special as a zone, really make an impact and think of a special goal to put as a zone. We decided to put a goal to give out 700 copies of the Book of Mormon as a zone in 6 weeks! When we presented the idea to the zone, we had a great discussion about how we can accomplish it and WHY. We all had some great ideas of how to accomplish it. One of which is every day when we leave the house, we have a Book of Mormon in our bag to give away, and always have a book in our HAND! My testimony grew big time with this idea. Every day that I left with a book in my hand, literally within 5 minutes max I found someone who needed The Book of Mormon in their life. I also felt more desires to share the book and contact people with it. Like on the bus to Sacalum, our other little pueblo, i always contact the people instead of just sitting there. I am really improving on all the small things as a missionary right now. This was a great goal and we gave out 19 books this week in our area and 171 as a zone! It was super great to see them work so hard :)

Also this week, i have had so much more desire to set and make goals. My companion and I had a 3 hour goal making session. We made personal goals, companionship goals, zone goals, proselyting goals, house goals, and branch goals. We are really striving to hit our goals and I am seeing a huge difference in our work because of goals written on paper that we see every day. I have learned so much about goals in my mission.

So on Sunday, we had 7 people at church like I said! We had Ulises, Manuel, Samuel, and David again! (picture below walking to church). Also Davids sister Lili went, who is 14. They are all so interested and loved the church! Then a miracle happened. Iliana and Maria from SACALUM showed up! That is such a miracle... to have someone have the faith to come 1 hour early in a bus to make it to church on time. It was so amazing to see all of them in church.

So i wanna share with you guys a story. Last Monday we went to buy food in the market and I usually buy a huge bag of frozen strawberries that lasts a transfer to make smoothies for breakfast and it usually costs me like 200 pesos (12 dollars), but when i went to buy it they literally charged me 5 PESOS (25 cents...) and the guy was super confused and called his boss over and she said the price was right and I literally couldn't stop smiling from such a small thing: like i wouldn't shut up to my companion about my 5 peso fresas. Small blessings from God that is for sure.

So I want to talk about a small thing I have been studying a lot about lately. Jesus requires us to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I have been studying this past week about the broken heart aspect. What is a broken heart and why is it necessary? I have learned a broken heart is being submissive to Gods will and not ours. SEARCHING to do Gods will. Also I learned something... our heart has to be broken in order for us to understand, feel, and see how Jesus Christ can fix it, and through that experience we will rely on Him in all things. I love Jesus Christ and know he can fix our hearts through everything.

3 Nephi 9  20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.

Elder Martinez y Elder Plowman