My scriptures are my most prized possessions here. Sometimes I just open up my Book of Mormon and flip through the pages of it, just thinking about the thousands of hours that I´ve spent studying and teaching from it. It leaves me full of peace and happiness, and gives me even greater desires to master it. Someday I´ll know it like the back of my hand. I´m getting there. ;_).
No talking about home. President Arnold said I could think about it when I stepped on the plane. If it´s something spiritual from before or after the mission, that´s great. But the mission´s too short to think about much besides being here. October´s already halfway gone! October´s going by faster than the last few months. Bad news. Lots of work to still be doing here.
We´re a Preach my Gospel and Book of Mormon mission. I love it. President Callan is a fundamentalist. He sticks to the books. He pounds in the basic truths, and if we stick true to them, we have success. He´s my kind of a Mission President. ;_).
God is a God of Miracles. During the Sacrament Meeting last week, I started to cry. I was feeling the weight of the calling. The words came to my mind, “Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” His yoke IS easy, and His burden IS light.
It´s true. I can´t rush God. When He, in his eternal wisdom, sees fit, miracles will happen.
Sebastián got baptized last week. There was no reason to make him wait. He was confirmed on Sunday. In one and one half weeks, everything happened. From meeting him for the first time to watching a beautiful baptism, one and one half weeks. Try telling me that Heavenly Father doesn´t have his sleeves rolled up, making bare His holy arm, working and sweating right alongside us. He´s fully invested in the eternal life of His children.
We had actually set his date for the 22nd of October. Heavenly Father had other plans, and for good reason. We visited him this week, and his mom told us that it was a miracle that we changed the date to when we did. She said there was a complication on the 22nd, and that she knew that he wasn´t going to be able to be baptized then, but was embarrassed to say anything and didn´t want to create any problems. But, Elder Wray followed the spirit, and put a lot of faith forth, and set the date for last Saturday.
Haha, Elder Wray asked me the other day, “Wow, did you notice how well we were teaching together in that lesson? I laughed, because I hadn´t noticed anything different. We then smiled and laughed, realizing that it was just like that during lessons now. ;_). We´ve really grown together as a team. I have no hesitations in keeping quiet, and letting Elder Wray take the lesson in a certain direction, because I know that he´s listening to the spirit. I have full confidence in him when he´s teaching. And he gives me that same level of trust back. It´s VERY fun to team teach like that.
Want to hear another Miracle story?!
Natalia Servín. Her child was blessed on Sunday, receiving a name and a blessing. She received it from her father, Pedro, who, 3 weeks ago, came back to church after being inactive for 4 years. We passed by his house that Sunday evening and taught one of the most spiritual lessons that I´ve participated in during my mission. Natalia will be baptized next Saturday, the 22nd of October.
It was beautiful. I believe that it was the most spiritual, spirit-guided lesson of my life. We entered, she hadn´t read (nor her husband) the assignment we had left. (Alma 32, Faith). We were Devestated! (Elder Holland ;_). Nothing that we could teach would be more powerful than the Book of Mormon, so we read from verse 21 to the end of the chapter, with very mininimal commentaries from the part of Elder Wray and I. The spirit slipped in during that focused reading time. ;_). We asked her to sum up the chapter, to explain to us the relation that she understood between faith, and a seed. She did so, with astonishing depth of understanding. Then, “Natalia, ¿What changes have you made in your life since you´ve come to know your husband Pedro, and the Church?” She responded that from the time she first met Pedro, she loved their lifestyle and their morals. Their Standards. She´s followed it, and her greatest desire is that her kids can grow up in an environment like that. No smoking, drinking, parties. A focus on family, prayer, scriptures, Church and Christ.
“Natalia. THAT´s repentance. Making little changes in our lives to be in agreement with what God has commanded. To do so with a willing heart, because we´ve felt that “seed” within us, that it is good. Natalia, you´ve showed your faith today as you went to church for the first time, and that act was also a form of repentance. We´ve shared the commandment of Keeping the Sabath Day Holy with you, and today you made antoher little change, you´ve started coming to church. These small changes prepare us for baptism.”
Pedro came in at this point. He explained that he had taken his wife to the temple grounds to drink Tereré together. As they did so he explained what the temple sealing meant. He explained that one year after her baptism, Natalia would be able to enter into the temple, and they would be married together for time and all eternity. She loved it. She chimed in that she especially loved the part where any children they would have together after that intial sealing would be automatically sealed to them. (Just writing about it, it almost seems like an amazing fable, doesn´t it?!) Almost like it´s too good to be true. ;_). I love it.)
Shortly thereafter, Natalia asked me a question that caught me off guard, hitting me like a good kick in the stomach. “And Claudia? Does Claudia have to get baptized? I want her sealed with us too.” Before I could fully process the question, the spirit overwhelmed me, and I was crying, testifying to her that baptism and repentance are necessary only for those who are capable of sin. “Los sanos no necesitan al medico, sino los que están enfermos.” Claudia, her sweet, loving, down-syndrome Little sister would, of a surety, be awaiting the rest of her family, with her onw spot secured in the Kindgom of our father. I told her with all of the energy of heart, that I try EVERY SINGLE DAY to live a good enough life so that one day I´ll be able to enter in where I KNOW Alex will be.
And that was the invitation that we had for her that night. To look beyond herself. To see the baptism simply as a step towards fulfilling her deepest desires of having an eternal family. To show faith, though action, accepting that obtaining a perfect knowledge isn´t necessary, nor possible, before baptism. “Siendo así, Natalia, ¿Se preparará para ser bautizado el 22 de octubre?” And Natalia Servín, with the full suport of the spirit in the room, accepted.
Dad, you´re the best. I bring that little photo of you and your MTC comp around with me everywhere in my little photo book. Everyone sees you and asks if you´re part latin! Tiene la pinta! That´s what they say at least. You look pretty Yankee to me though. ;_). Haha. That´s what they call us. Yankees. And I don´t even like baseball.
I like you all though! Have a great week!
Elder Stewart
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