Alright!!! A lot of changes....McPhee went to the Capital and Drach went to Coban. So Sayaxché 2 got white washed (that means that two new missionaries are there that don't know the area). Elder Toolson is still my comp. and he is also the new district leader now!!! Crazy and cool huh! Our whole district is super young! There are 3 elders that came out with Toolson: him, Godfrey and Portillo (all have 9 months). Then there is Me (almost 8 months). Then there is elder Castro and his comp Elder Tanner and also Elder Matus, (6 months) and then there is Elder Thacker (5 months). Our district is really fun too. So I'm pretty excited about that.
It will be really good to hear from Bronson. I don’t even know where he is at!
Who asked Jake to Sadie’s?
Wow that just sucks a lot about BYU. The defense hasn’t been good in long time. I'm glad they are getting a new defensive coordinator. Are there any good coaches so far that have been offered....or in better terms, who are coming to Provo to help out our D? Yeah, Lehi football is screwed, until they get a new coach. Oh so what’s up with the Pac-12? I have heard a lot about it, but what’s actually going on over there?
I’m not sure what we can do to continue teaching and going to Familia Caac. No one in the branch speaks Kekchi....there are probably members that do, I guess but they are inactive and we have no idea where they live.
The follow up with Wendy went great! Her mom was just kind of in and out the whole time because she was busy, but Wendy was super pilas (awesome). We taught her the end part of the Plan of Salvation and she had questions that even I haven’t ever asked. They were really, really good. A couple were, “How many worlds are out there” and “Are there people like us on them?” “What does God look like?” “How far away is heaven and how big is it?” “How can the earth fit so many people on it if everyone is going to resurrect?” And more! It was really neat to have someone so into our teaching and so eager to learn more about the things of God. It was kind of hard to answer these questions because a few of them are still mysteries that God has not revealed to us in this time, and probably won’t while we are here on this earth. But we explained to her the importance of having faith and relying on the things we do know and following those counsels and answers, and not hanging on those doubts and questions she has. She was really understanding about that and said it was a little bit frustrating but could understand the purpose of not having the knowledge of ALL things. The importance is that we have the knowledge we need in this life to make it back to live with our Father in Heaven, and the power of the Priesthood to be able to perform those sacred ordinances that that knowledge pertains to. So that was really neat teaching her....
We really don’t have any other investigators sadly....
Elder Toolson said, "After the hurricane the river rose a TON! It's gotten a little worse and we were almost not able to cross the river to get to general conference. The river is about 2 feet from the street and if it goes over (which it will because October is the rainy season) we will not be able to cross the river. Which is really scary because we have zone conference in 2 weeks."
I really loved General Conference. I didn’t see Harry in the MTC choir, but I definitely saw Tanner Boyack like 3 times. That was pretty sweet. And I’m pretty sure I saw Jacob in the audience in the Sunday afternoon session. You should ask him about that. It was really interesting how so many talks were about faith and following the prophet. I wonder if that is a heads up for some new revelation. I really wonder if something big is going to happen soon....What do you think? That is just my opinion. Who knows right? But yeah, the talks were great!!! I really liked President Monson's talk, I think it was in Priesthood, I can’t remember, but it was really good and had guidance about staying on the straight and narrow and not straying even a tiny little inch. It was really good.
I really like Boyd K Packers talk too. I really liked all those voting analogies, especially the first one about the kids voting on the gender of the teacher’s cat. And also how it's like saying we could change the fact that the sun came up today by voting on it but it doesn't change the fact that it’s wrong. He said what the people need to hear. Hopefully they will understand the importance of his teachings in that talk.
Everything that President Uchtdorf said about Pride is true. I have seen it here over and over again. That people are too prideful to pray to be able to receive an answer, or they are too prideful to change their beliefs even if God said so. A little while back we were teaching this lady about baptism and tried to ask her to be baptized. Of course she said that she had already been baptized. So we started talking about the importance of authority and asked her who performed her baptism...her pastor. And we also asked her where he got the power to baptize. She said that he got it from praying and fasting a lot. We tried to explain that that’s not how it works. And we challenged her to pray to find out if our church was the only church that had the proper authority for that so important saving ordinance. She said she didn’t have to do that because she already knows that the priesthood was given to everyone on the earth after the death of Christ, and that even if God said it to her personally she would not change that belief! It’s tough to be able to teach people as prideful as that. Pride really destroys any spiritual progress. Pride does not allow the Spirit to touch your heart about the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pride is thinking that you are better than someone else – or even worse – better than God. It is also a really horrible sin for members of our church. With pride we separate ourselves from God by allowing that natural man to creep in. I have realized in myself lately that I have a lot of pride in me. And that I need to work on that A LOT! Hopefully I can become more humble, and I also hope that I might be able to find humble people to teach, who are willing to do things we ask them to like simply pray. That is the key in progress. We can teach people for their whole entire lives, but if they never do anything with that teaching, nothing will ever happen. ¨Faith without works is dead.¨ We need to use our agency for the better and try to leave behind pride and improve the lives of ourselves and those around us.
And yes I was able to watch Conference in English. I also saw Winn and his parents there. That was fun. Thanks for the packages!! I can’t wait to try out those micro fiber towels!
I’m doing pretty well! I have a little cold right now, but its not too bad. Nothing I can’t handle really. Socks are good, only one pair of my shoes are getting worn out, but they are still working just fine. And I still have 2 other pairs.
That’s pretty much all the big news from this last week! I love you all!! Have a great week!
Stay Strong
Keep the Faith
Elder Jordan Smith
Guatemala City Time
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