Hello there everyone! We had a great week working super hard here in the Mexico Merida Mission. Something we always teach is something called "The Gospel of Jesus Christ" which has five principles. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of The Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end! It is something we always teach to everyone and a way of life! But the last step, enduring to the end, in Spanish is called "perseverar hasta el fin" which wants to say "persevere to the end" and honestly in my whole mission I have thought of which word I like better, persevere or endure... I really like the word persevere because it gives the idea that we are going to keep working hard and getting better to the end. Also I really like the word "endure" because it gives the idea that it will be hard and we will have troubles and trials, but that we must work hard to get through it! I read something that Elder Holland said:
"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary."
I absolutely love this because honestly the mission has never been easy but it was never meant to be easy. As I am finishing the last few weeks of my mission I am really trying hard to persevere to the end and give it my all!
This week we walked a ton! My companion and I are trying our hardest to find new investigators and sometimes it takes a whole day without hardly sitting down to do it but it is all so worth it! This week we had a great experience. We were teaching Sauli, a girl that will be baptized soon, and all of a sudden her older brother sits down and decides he wants to start listening to us. His name is Manrovi, he is 13. About two weeks ago we heard that he never goes to school and that he always ran away before going to school, and I guess he was going to live about 5 hours away and just work every day with his dad. I told him that if he stopped studying that it would be a decision he would regret for the rest of his life. He has had a change of heart and is studying again and also listening to us as wants to be baptized, too! Miracles!! Also the weirdest thing has been that when we have been finding new investigators, the baptismal dates that we set with them are dates for after I go home.. but I am trying to hard to help as many people as I can to come unto Christ before I go home!
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| Elder Alvizures |
Also a fun story was that on Friday morning we were studying and all of a sudden my comp goes running to the bathroom and starts throwing up a ton. It was a fun experience. I was surprised it hadn't happened earlier because usually when a missionary is new the food always takes a while to get used. I learned the importance of taking care of him and he was a trooper because we left to work 2 hours later! Hahaha. On Sunday Sauli came to church but honestly we were feeling pretty bummed out because a lot of people let us down and didn't go to church :( Honestly I felt super deceived, but there is a promise in Preach My Gospel which I love that says if we work hard, we might sometimes still feel deceived, but we will feel that way with other people, not with ourselves. Honestly I know we did everything to help people come to church! Sauli was going to be baptized this week but all of a sudden there is a special district conference this Sunday so we aren't sure what is going to happen. But the work is going well here! If someone can´t endure to the end in the mission, they will never be able to do it at home! Have a great week!!! Happy July 4th!
Elder Plowman
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