9/15 Yet another marvelous week here in Burgos! Our investigators are doing marvelous. Juliana and her family are as excited as ever, along with all the members of the branch. We are getting the baptismal program all put together, and have her interview scheduled already. She is so happy and can hardly wait for Saturday to come. Souri is also looking like she wants to get baptized the same day. We aren't 100% sure yet, but from the last visit we had with her about the Word of Wisdom, she is ready. Having two baptisms in one day would be such a big help for the branch here! We are really looking forward to this weekend, and praying hard that everything will turn out right.
We found a person in the streets this week with a really interesting background story. His name is Mohamed. He and his mom are refugees from Iran. He along with most of his family are actually Christians, and they had been going to an underground Christian church in Iran. One day while he and his mom were running late to church, they learned that the police had found the church and were arresting everyone inside. With the help of their uncle, he and his mom were smuggled out of the country, leaving all they had behind. From what he told us, it sounded like his family was pretty successful as well. That kind of reminded me of the family of Lehi leaving all they had behind when they left Jerusalem. Unfortunately his father, cousins, and friends were caught at the church and are now in prison. Anyway, long story short, he showed interest in visiting with us and actually ended up coming to the Saturday session of stake conference. He stayed for the whole two hours! My experience with Mohamed has really strengthened my testimony that the Lord is truly preparing all of His children in every diverse part of the world to hear His message.
One thing I have learned this week is the importance to using scriptures in teaching. I have been re-passing a lot of talks by Elder Holland, and I have come to notice the main thing that all of his super powerful talks have in common is that he uses a story from the scriptures. In fact, almost all the prophets I can think of quote scripture often to clarify and give validity to their teachings. Even Christ himself often quoted scripture. The Guide to the Scriptures defines scripture as "Words, both written and spoken, by holy men of God when moved upon by the Holy Ghost". That means that scriptures are literally words from God. No wonder they are so essential in teaching! If we can read or quote words from men inspired by God to teach the gospel, what better way is there to do it? Scriptures are essential for our learning of the gospel, and therefore, we must study them thoroughly and quote them often in our teaching not only as missionaries, but as home teachers, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, etc. I know the scriptures are the word of God, and He has given them to us for our benefit and the benefit of those we teach.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
P.S. Finally starting to get a little cold here. I actually like it a lot!
We found a person in the streets this week with a really interesting background story. His name is Mohamed. He and his mom are refugees from Iran. He along with most of his family are actually Christians, and they had been going to an underground Christian church in Iran. One day while he and his mom were running late to church, they learned that the police had found the church and were arresting everyone inside. With the help of their uncle, he and his mom were smuggled out of the country, leaving all they had behind. From what he told us, it sounded like his family was pretty successful as well. That kind of reminded me of the family of Lehi leaving all they had behind when they left Jerusalem. Unfortunately his father, cousins, and friends were caught at the church and are now in prison. Anyway, long story short, he showed interest in visiting with us and actually ended up coming to the Saturday session of stake conference. He stayed for the whole two hours! My experience with Mohamed has really strengthened my testimony that the Lord is truly preparing all of His children in every diverse part of the world to hear His message.
One thing I have learned this week is the importance to using scriptures in teaching. I have been re-passing a lot of talks by Elder Holland, and I have come to notice the main thing that all of his super powerful talks have in common is that he uses a story from the scriptures. In fact, almost all the prophets I can think of quote scripture often to clarify and give validity to their teachings. Even Christ himself often quoted scripture. The Guide to the Scriptures defines scripture as "Words, both written and spoken, by holy men of God when moved upon by the Holy Ghost". That means that scriptures are literally words from God. No wonder they are so essential in teaching! If we can read or quote words from men inspired by God to teach the gospel, what better way is there to do it? Scriptures are essential for our learning of the gospel, and therefore, we must study them thoroughly and quote them often in our teaching not only as missionaries, but as home teachers, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, etc. I know the scriptures are the word of God, and He has given them to us for our benefit and the benefit of those we teach.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
P.S. Finally starting to get a little cold here. I actually like it a lot!
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