Dec. 11, 2017
What a week!! This week was crazy ha, we had so much stuff going on each and every day. Wednesday, we had our Christmas Conference with both of the zones here in Monclova! Before the conference, Hermana Cahoon prepared a big meal for all thirty or so of us missionaries. With ham and funeral potatoes, and to top it off she gave me a bag of chocolate chip cookies for my birthday! After we ate, we had a brief zone conference and then proceeded to exchange gifts between all of the elders. I gave a Gucci watch hahah and I received Jenga, lol we have three Jenga games in our house hahah. It’s all good though because I’m going to give it to one of our investigators for Christmas!
After we finished the gift exchange we all went over to the center of Monclova for a huge contacting activity. Each ward from both of the stakes here in Monclova brought two tables to the activity, one with winter clothes, and another with sweets and hot chocolate. While the members gave out treats and clothes, all of the Elders contacted around the park. We talked with the people about the church’s Light the World initiative, which consists of twenty-five different ways to serve others over the first twenty- five days of December leading up to Christmas! As we talked with people, we invited them over to watch the videos that we had projected in the middle of the park. Oh, and we also sang some Christmas hymns, and we sounded pretty good ha! Altogether, the activity went really well besides the fact that it was way cold ha.
Monday and Tuesday, I was totally fine with my short sleeve shirt and then all of the sudden Wednesday during the Christmas activity it was way cold. I had a sweater on and a suit and I was still freezing ha. Then Thursday it was nice and rainy all day and really cold. Around like six or seven on Thursday night it started to snow for like two seconds but that was about it. After we finished up with our last appointment Thursday night we went back to our apartment, and Elder Carreon went to sleep. I was about to go to sleep, when I looked out the window and there was a couple of inches of snow. I told Elder Carreon, who had never seen snow in his life, and he thought I was just joking around. Then after he looked out the window and saw all the snow he grabbed his camera and ran outside haha. I’m not really sure how to describe the look on his face lol but let’s just say he was somewhat amazed, and really excited. When we woke up Friday there was about a foot of snow, and tons of snowmen in front of all of the houses! Elder Carreon and I went over to the church Friday morning to clean the baptismal font for Sunday. We were supposed to meet the Elders from Bellavista there at the church, because we needed their keys, but they were running late, so we made like one hundred or so snow balls and when they came around the comer towards the church we had a little snow ball fight. I definitely had a huge advantage, considering the fact that none of the other Elders had ever seen snow in their life ha.
Saturday night Elder Carreon and I bought cakes for the baptisms and then finished preparing everything for the baptisms Sunday. Then Sunday morning we went and picked up one of our investigators Izabell for church. she works Sundays, so we haven’t been able to get her to church, however, we went to the early ward with her and then payed for her taxi so that she could get to work on time! Then we filled up the baptismal font for Yoxan´s and Genesis’ baptisms! After we filled up the font, we went to our ward’s sacrament meeting, and Elder Carreon and I gave talks! I finally used the talk that I wrote a couple of weeks ago ha, and it went pretty good considering that it was my first talk in Spanish ha. Then after church we had the baptismal service for Yoxan and Genesis! Both kids come from less/non-active families, so it was great to help their families start coming to church again over the past couple of weeks. Yoxan asked me to baptize him (my first baptism in the mission) and Genesis asked Elder Carreon to baptize her! After the baptism, we ate some tamales from Yoxan’s Grandma, and then we had some of the cake that Elder Carreon and I bought! If everything works out this week, we should have another baptism this next Sunday on my birthday!
In the midst of this crazy week, I finished the Book of Mormon again! I remember the first time that I read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover, when I was a young kid. I remember telling my mom that I wanted to read the whole Book of Mormon, and before I proceeded to start reading it, for the first time, I remember my mom sitting down with me and reading Moroni 10: 4-5
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would
ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
After we read these verses my mom explained that this was a promise for every person that reads the Book of Mormon, and that if I read the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and real intent, I would know that it was true through the power of the Holy Ghost. I then proceeded to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover, and then I prayed and asked if the Book of Mormon was true, and by the power of the holy ghost I knew without any doubt in my mind that the Book of Mormon is true, and because I knew that the Book of Mormon was true, I knew that it was the word of God, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, and that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same church, with the same authority/priesthood, that Jesus Christ himself established here on the earth. This experience I had as a young kid has been the foundation of my testimony for as long as I can remember, and over the past couple of months, as I have read the Book of Mormon, my testimony of the truthfulness of this book has grown each and every day. This past Saturday, as I finished the Book of Mormon again, I pondered the words within Moroni 10:4-5 once again. Then I proceeded to pray and humbly ask once again if the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. As I knelt down and proceeded to pray, I looked back at how I have felt each time I have read the Book of Mormon over the years, more specifically how I have felt each and every day over the past couple of months as I have read the Book of Mormon once again. As I continued to pray, the Spirit was so strong as the Holy Ghost proceeded to strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon to the point that I know that I can never deny that the Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. I know that through Joseph Smith, the gospel; the same church that Jesus Christ established, was restored once again on the earth. Today I started reading the Book of Mormon again, and I would challenge all of you to do the same.
Hope everyone is doing good. Thanks for all the birthday emails!
Much love,
Elder Ceb
Yoxan and Genesis before their baptism!
Yoxan!
Christmas activity!
Thursday night after it snowed!
Chilling with a snowman!
No comments:
Post a Comment