Week 87

20 Months

This week was probably the week that has gone by the fastest for me here in the mission. I can´t believe that I have 20 months in the mission and that I only have 3 more weeks here in Galápagos. This week has been normal. I can´t complain. On Saturday I did indeed get a new companion. His name is Elder Hidalgo. He is from Lima, Peru. He has a year in the mission. We are getting along okay for now. It is always like that at first.

Anyways, this week was pretty good, but at the same time we had a whopping 18 people that went to church yesterday haha. I don´t know whats up here. The people aren´t very strong in the gospel here. The only person that we are teaching who came to church is Paúl Yépez. His wife is a member and he has come to church 3 times. He said that he wants to get baptized, but not yet. He wants to read the Book of Mormon first. Also, we haven´t yet been able to visit the girl that went to the baptism. We haven´t found them in their house. This week was pretty interesting. We had 2 english speaking experiences. One of them was yesterday. We went to remind an investigator about church and their were 2 gringos on the balcony. They told us that our investigator was asleep and that they were agnostics and so we were wasting our time haha. Also, today we got a call from president´s secretary saying that a woman who is here on vacation had an accident and was in the hospital and wanted a blessing. We changed our clothes because today is p-day, and we went to give the blessing. She is a member from Logan, Utah. She was scuba diving and went unconsious and stopped breathing. She basically died for a second. They started doing CPR and she came back. So we gave her a blessing. She is going to be fine. Not gonna lie, it was a great experience but it was kinda rough doing it in english haha. Her son who was there asked me where I was from. I told him that I was from Utah, and then he asked where I was originally from. I said Utah. He was like Wow, you have a really strong accent. It sounds like you are a native spanish speaker with english as a second language.  It was pretty funny. He said that my family won´t be able to understand what I say when I get home haha. This week we found 9 new people to teach, and most of them at Seventh day Adventists. Something like that haha. They are really hardcore that the sabbath day is Saturday. We just kept inviting them to read the Book of Mormon as evidence of the restoration. It is super surprising how many people aren´t willing to read the Book of Mormon, but are super fast to judge it. Many people here reject it saying that the bible is the only book of scripture. However, my testimony keeps growing stronger and stronger every day.

This week I have been thinking a lot about how we harvest what we sow. Many people here don´t get much out of church because they don´t put anything into it. They go with a negative attitude or an attitude that there aren´t many people. They don´t go ready to learn with a yearning to get something out of the meetings. This gospel is not a gospel for the lazy. It is not about doing our will. True disciples of Jesus Christ don´t find physical rest. I love D&C 107:99-100.

99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen.

We reap what we sow. This is the church of Jesus Christ. He directs it. If we want to get something out of our church meetings or if we want to be edified and strengthened by our scripture study and our prayers than it depends on us. We are agents to act. I know that this is the truth and I love it. I love you all tons and hope that you have a great week. Keep on the covenant path. Repent everyday. Love the Lord because He sure loves you. We love Him by keeping His commandments. Love you all tons...

Love, Elder Black

Photos

sea turtles from last weeks p-day

 We have a joke here on the island with the missionaries that this is a statue of Brigham Young haha, but it is really Charles Darwin. He discovered the island.