Can He Trust Us?

The Lord asks us to do things all day, every day and then leaves it up to us to do it or don't. If you don't, he still loves you.  He still helps you. He still watches over you.
But if you DO what he asks you to do, then he trusts you. And he will give you more and more inspiration of good things to do as long as you are willing to act on it.  If you don't act on it then the time will pass and he won't be sending you anything new for awhile.

That is where the parable of the talents comes in.  If the Master gives you talents and you use them and increase the value, then he can trust you with more. Talents can be skills, gifts of the spirit, and inspiration of what to do and who to do it for.

We have seen this happen in our Spanish Branch over the last 1 1/2 years.  We are now having baptisms weekly. New converts are leading and teaching others.  Branch missionaries are going out to find the less actives and visit the members. And they are holding family nights together.

When the members became strong enough and willing to act, the Lord sent us new members. When he knew the Branch was ready to teach each other, friendship each other, and give everyone a calling then he sent us people prepared to be baptized.

It has been a real joy to see this Branch grow and the members take care of each other. Some of our newest members are Ramon and the Chavez family.

Just Pinch Me

At church today we had an attendance of 63. It is so fun to stand at the chapel door and just look at all the benches filling up. But here is the amazing part.  Three people came to church today for the first time in a long time. One was for the first time since we have been here. They are people that we have visited at least 20 times each over our time on the mission. And suddenly, they were there. One sister with her son.  One sister with her three children. And one young woman that we have invited for forever. If you could have seen how their faces shone.  They knew they had chosen to do what was right and they were loving it.

And along the same lines, we have completely run out of space to sit in our Relief Society room! We have 20 seats. And we have 20 sisters that come each week and three young children in a double classroom. We have 30 sisters that attend at least once in a three month period of time. What will we do when they all come at once? It is a wonderful problem to have, but it is a problem. While discussing it with the other ward that meets in the same building at the same time it was decided to ask if we can knock a wall out of the back of the room to make it three classrooms large! Amazing, we now have so many sisters attending that they have to knock a wall out to fit us all in. Seventeen months ago there were six sisters attending. The Lord is blessing us beyond measure and beyond seats!

This past week we worked toward taking the newest members to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead. Elder Pack helped some of them find family names to take, got them all interviewed, made appointments at the Temple, found rides for all 13 of us going, and got us all through for the baptisms! One sister is deathly afraid to go under water.  She panicked at her own baptism. But she had her grandmother's name to do. She let everyone go ahead of her.  We told her she could just do the confirmation if she couldn't do the baptism.  But in the end she said she wanted to do it, and she did it. The Spirit of Elijah has hit her so strong that she went right home and looked on her computer to find another family name to do. We worried who would continue to help this Branch with their family history after we leave, and now we know. We will train this sister and even though she has been a member only a month, with the Lord's help she will magnify this calling.

Another sister in the Branch actually has a car that runs fine. And she needs friendshipping. So when the Lord directed us to her name to give the Relief Society sisters a ride to the Temple each month, it was such a perfect blessing! He is helping us fill every need and responsibility this Branch will have after we are gone. It is amazing to watch His plan unfold. We are so relieved and so grateful.

Here are three of the four brand new church members that we took to do baptisms in the Fresno temple today. Elder Pack helped them find and do family names. It was a great day!

LikeLike ·  · Share

Taken for a Ride

I cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough for carrying our car in his hands throughout this whole mission.

In one three day period we were asked to take a missionary that serves 1 1/2 hours south of our city to a doctor's appointment 1 1/2 hours north of our city. We took advantage of the travel to stop on the way home and teach an investigating family that we met months ago at a restaurant.  They really like us to visit but they live 40 minutes away.  We played the "I'm thinking of a color" game, which the six kids loved! We have long since passed the family referral on to the missionaries serving in that city and they visit to teach each week. The oldest son was very interested in lds.org.  You just never know how things will turn out!

Then Sunday some Sister Missionaries in a city north of us asked if we could take them to a city two hours south of us to a baptism in Visalia.  Both of these young sisters had taught the investigator who was now finally being baptized. It was amazing to see these missionaries' joy in seeing their previous investigator get baptized and to visit again with the ward members they knew who had come to support the baptism. They felt the Spirit so much there that they said they felt completely drained on the ride home.  It was well worth our efforts.

However, this week has been very hot. It has been like 110 degrees hot. Our car, tires, air-conditioning, and every part of the car has continued to work perfectly as we serve in this mission. We have put 27,000 miles on the car just since we have been on the mission. And the car is ten years old.

 It is a miracle to me that the Lord is carrying our car through this mission. It is needed to take the Relief Society sisters to the Temple in Fresno each month, an hour away.  And it is needed to pick up people who need rides to church each week, sometimes making the trip back and forth to the church multiple times to pick up everyone. Every week there is a Missionary District or Zone meeting and we drive to the next city to pick up missionaries and bring them here. And we volunteer to drive the missionaries that are on bikes to across town appointments when the temperature gets over 100.

And somehow it all gets done because the Lord is carrying us-and our car.

Jesus is the Christ

We had a fantastic activity recently.  It was the Missionary Music Fireside! It involved our Branch and the YSA Branch and the regular ward that all meet in our building. Anyone could perform and our Branch had a new member sing a Spanish song with his guitar. Yeah, I know.  But apparently that is OK for a fireside.  He was so nervous but it was wonderful. The spirit was so strong in that fireside. There were some very talented performers.  And then as our zone leaders pointed out right before they sang "it isn't always about the singing. Sometimes it is about the Spirit you bring."  The whole evening felt so good!

We had recently found and talked with a Jewish man and since he was a singer and had performed in numerous plays and sang  the National Anthem in 50 ballparks across the states, we invited him to sing at the fireside. Included in the fireside were two short church videos, I Am A Child Of God and Because Of Him. So Christ was sang about a lot and viewed a lot in the videos, which he accepted very well.

The next day we had an appointment with him and reviewed all that we have in common with the Jews themselves and the House of Israel. It was amazing.  When we moved onto Christ we said that many people were confused and disappointed at the time because Christ was killed.  We said it was necessary and he cut in and said "Yes, for the resurrection and to pay for people's sins".  Wow. We were amazed at how ready some people are to feel a testimony that Jesus is the Christ.

We love this work.

Racing against time.

For some reason I am late writing this month.  I have taken on a couple of extra projects that require a lot of time; studying Spanish more and something that I can tell more about next month.

But our Missionary work is still going strong. We were able to go through the Temple with the sister we found over a year ago in Chowchilla.  She went for her own endowments and she was so receptive and loved every single thing there. It was a real joy to see everything again from a new patron's eyes. Then we turned around and took her again a couple of days later so she could understand it all better.  We took her when we took the Relief Society sisters in our Branch, which we do monthly. This week we will be going to the Temple with our Missionary Zone which is always great.  And best of all- the Lord showed us who can take the sisters in the Branch to their monthly temple visit after we are gone! The Lord has a perfect plan for everything!

The fact that we have less than two months left is affecting our work a lot.  We are racing to get many more things done or started before we go. We are trying real hard to have no regrets of what we missed when we return home. And we are trying to line up the members and teach them to do what we have been doing for them.

Elder Pack has been working very hard to get all the members called to callings in the Branch. And he is succeeding! Everyone is being called to a calling that fits their needs and abilities. Some members are so proud to be a greeter, to pass out the Spanish hymn books, or make up the programs etc.We now have more teachers called for the Gospel Principles and Doctrine classes. And more sisters have been called to help in the Relief Society. When you realize that only two or three members had callings before, then this is a big step for this Branch. We know from the Prophet that everyone needs a calling!

Elder Pack is also working very hard to get the Branch membership list cleaned up.  We have known for a year that many people have moved away or even died but the Church requires an intense follow-up before you can take them off the list-or they just send them back to you.  So we have been working very hard to assure everyone is accounted for so they don't fall through the cracks and someone, somewhere, can find and fellowship them.

It was a huge relief when our past mission president, Pres. Gelwix, told the missionaries and us that God doesn't want you to worry about your mission when you go home.  If you have done all you can to serve them then leave it to Him.  He knows them and how to take care of them. It is His mission, His area, and His people.

Missionary Work

As a reminder to ourselves of how we passed the time on our mission, I am including this month's  Stake report we send in each month.

This past month we focused a lot on individuals in the Branch.  We helped one sister that was being displaced from her home qualify for a different apartment and helped her find furniture from other kind members of the church. We then helped her move into her new home.  She was so happy to have a really good place to call her own.

Edgar Lopez, baptized last December, was moving home to Tijuana and so we helped him get his fork-lift training and certificate before he left so he can get a better job there.  We also lined up and helped him receive his patriarchal blessing before he left and took him to do baptisms for the dead with his wife for his deceased parents. 

We were able to get the information needed and ordered the Missionary Plaque for Susanna Montoya, our first missionary from this Branch in years.  It is displayed now in the church building and sets an example for the youth in our Branch.

In his calling as Executive Sec. Elder Pack has started the paperwork going for the advancement in the Priesthood of two of the men in our Branch.  They will soon become Elders in the Priesthood.  One brother, Pastor Infante,is almost 80 and Julian Mariscal is about 70 and one of our strongest Branch missionaries.

Julian recently had emergency surgery.  He only has one kidney and that is from a transplant.  He was told that he wouldn't survive a surgery but his gall bladder had to come out.  Elder Pack and the missionaries gave him a blessing in the hospital and the surgery went very well.  He is recovered and back at his missionary work.  His non-member daughters were very impressed with the blessing and have been attending church with him now.

We have had one baptism this month.  Francis Enriquez prayed to Heavenly Father to find a church to be baptized into.  A week later the Elders went by and started teaching her.  At missionary transfers sister missionaries continued teaching her and Elder Pack baptized her two weeks ago.  We have started meeting with her and her five children for Family Home Evenings and it is going very well.

The missionaries in our Branch did a missionary activity that was very successful.  We showed short videos at various areas in the church house and talked a little about each station.  For instance, at the baptismal font we showed the video of Jesus being baptized.  We ended up in the chapel for the video "Because of Him" and then had a couple of people bear their testimonies.  W asked one investigator how he felt after and he said he felt good and happy.  We pointed out that was the spirit. Besides members we had about nine investigators there. And then we served ice cream after so everyone had time to visit and fellowship.

We worked hard on supporting the Primary Temple Activity in Fresno and had members and one investigating family and one family who is just starting to come back to church activity show up.

The missionaries taught the fifth Sunday combined meeting last week on Patriarchal Blessings.  We are hoping to have several of the members of the ward receive their blessings in Spanish in the coming month.

Our Missionary Committee Meetings are going very well each week.  Elder Kulbeth, our Branch mission leader, is using role playing each week to teach our new Branch missionaries how to teach the lessons.  We also have the Branch missionaries go out and teach the New Member lessons and visit investigators and less active members.

Of course we can't forget the other missionaries that are serving here with us.  At last month's zone activity we served them up a potato bar with all the fixings, which they loved because it was food.  And this week we gave them rides to the zone activity in Yosemite Park, where we enjoyed watching them use up so much energy.

We love the work here and the people we work with.

Overwhelmed With Opportunities

The question was asked," What would you do if someone gave you $86,400 each day.  However, you must spend it all in one day because at the end of the day your bank account would be wiped clean and it would go back to zero.  And then the next day would repeat with $86,400.

It is interesting to see how much stuff you could buy in one day, for yourselves or others. Would you finally learn how to use it wisely? Would you learn to share?  Would you look for people who could use your help?

Well, every day we are given 86,400 seconds of time. That is more valuable than cash.  What do we do with this time?  Do we use it wisely? Do we share our time with others? Do we look for people who could use our help?

  We all get the same amount of time in our daily account but everyone chooses to use their wealth of time differently. Some people are hard workers and some people are hardly working. It is interesting to watch two fishermen go fishing.  One meanders around and while he fishes all day, his line is only really in the water two hours.  But the other fisherman knows ahead of time where the fish are biting and what kind of bait they are biting on.  He actually has his line in the water for ten hours a day.

If you are asked to raise your hand high above your head, it is amazing when asked to raise it just a little bit higher to find that you can.

Planning is important. We need to be "administering sound" to be "spiritually in tune". It becomes not "time management" but "priority management". As a missionary our responsibility is to work smart and with the spirit so we can get done exactly what the Lord wants and needs us to do. You will feel overwhelmed when you see the opportunities the Lord will give you.  But that is exactly where you want to be.