We had a great week. My favorite experience came during an intercambio. Like an idiot, I put my companion and Elder Porritt back on the bus to Oviedo after making the switch... and then 20m later I realized I still had the Oviedo phone! No big deal, because when we planned the day before, we only had 1 lesson planned and the rest of the day just finding - contacting and door knocking. I told Elder Weiss something I don´t usually say. I said, "As you´re out doing finding, if you need a short break and you´re by a member´s house, stop by unannounced and ask if you can share a 10m message from the Book of Mormon, get a glass of water, and bounce. It will help them realize our work ethic and you´ll get your water. Kill two birds in one throw."
So as I was sitting down in a lesson with Elder Saltzman in Gijon, my pocket started buzzing and I realized someone had texted me on that phone. And I looked, and it was Angel, wanting to meet that night! After silent cursing for being that dumb, I said a quick prayer that everything would work out all right and told Angel, yep 7 at the church sounds just fine! Then I called Mateo and an American Exchange student Steve and they both said, sure we can make it over there and resurrect our old teaching skills with an hour´s notice. In the meantime, I didn´t know that my companion needed that drink of water and had passed by Mateo´s parents´ house looking for that drink of water. They weren´t there, because Giacinto is in the hospital and Mateo´s mom was visiting. But then, (this is about 20m after I said my prayer in Gijón) my companion said he felt prompted to go look for them at the hospital, even thoug it was out of the way and wouldn´t help much with finding. They said... "but isn´t Mateo with you? He said he had a lesson at 7 at the church and it was a big emergency." So Elder Weiss ran as fast as he could to the church to help finish off the lesson, and everything went swimmingly. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father took the time to answer a forgetful missionary´s prayer! I know that it helped Angel a lot.
I was struck this week by the need for an eternal perspective. One investigator has now gone for an entire 10 days without a sip of alchohol!! We are super excited for him. Since our efforts in the past haven´t done much we asked him what had changed. He told us that what we´ve been doing - reading the book of Mormon, teaching correct principles, and helping him apply the atonement - has helped a LOT. (I know it´s helped more than he thinks, but whatever.) But his secret this time is a pill - a pill he takes every morning at 9 oclock with his doctor who makes sure it actually gets swallowed. And that pill, he says, will kill him if he drinks alcohol that day. (Or if he doesn´t die, he´ll spend a couple painful days in the hospital getting his stomach pumped.) I know it sounds a little preachy, but - How different is it when we know and have the eternal perspective that what we do every day, if it´s not right, will kill us in the afterlife? I thought that our investigator´s sucess from the pill was great - and we´re excited to help him meet his baptismal date. But how much different would it be and how much more would he progress if he actually understood the plan of happiness and how this life is a chance to prepare to meet God?? I guess that´s my job.
Life is good and I´m not getting fat yet.
Love,
Elder Stew
Men can get nearer to the Lord, can have more of the spirit of conversion and conformity in their hearts, can have stronger testimonies, and can gain a better understanding of the doctrines of salvation through the Book of Mormon than they can through the Bible. … There will be more people saved in the kingdom of God--ten thousand times over--because of the Book of Mormon than there will be because of the Bible.”
Bruce R. McConkie, quoted by Pres. benson.
I like this simple little poem:
All the water in the world
No matter how it tried
Could never sink the smallest ship
Unless it got inside.
All the evil of the world
And every kind of sin
Could never damn a human soul
Unless we let it in.
I know it might seem like I'm preaching to my family from across the ocean, but really I just find cool quotes and hit the share button. These maquinitas are pretty darn cool! I love you.
Elder Stew.
A member made this for me because of I'm not sure why.
The American flag because I love making jokes to my foreign companion
about how America is the promised land and showing him patriotic talks
given at conference.
The very complex picture of the temple because we gave her a temple prep class
The Asturian bagpipe for obvious reasons.
The "siblings forever" because a somebody else told her it was the
best way to say "hermanos para siempre" it's not, but whatever.
The words, "oh chacho" because it's something common I say thanks to
serving in the islands.
Anywho, that's pretty cool, right??
The American flag because I love making jokes to my foreign companion
about how America is the promised land and showing him patriotic talks
given at conference.
The very complex picture of the temple because we gave her a temple prep class
The Asturian bagpipe for obvious reasons.
The "siblings forever" because a somebody else told her it was the
best way to say "hermanos para siempre" it's not, but whatever.
The words, "oh chacho" because it's something common I say thanks to
serving in the islands.
Anywho, that's pretty cool, right??
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