A Day for the Eternities

Mosquito bites make a nice smiley face :-)

 

I GOT ROBBED?!

I hope you are all doing so well!  This week was absolutely so incredible for me.  

We got called to see if we were going to be transferred yesterday.  Elder Pano thought I was going to go and I thought he was going to go.  When we got called we definitely got what we least expected.  We are both staying!  The was definitely a big shock hahah.  We thought for sure one of us was going but I'll be here in Salina Cruz for 6 more weeks and with Elder Pano and I'm so excited!  We have lots of exciting things coming up and I love the people here!

This week I had such a truly life changing experience that I truly believe I will remember for the Eternities.  We were doing intercambios (exchanges) so I was with another Elder.  This Elder and I have around the same time in the mission.  This was my first time in my area with someone who knows about the same Spanish as me.  So I had to put a lot more effort it to understand everyone and to teach.  But I'm so glad I did!  When we truly focus on people and their needs the Spirit will guide us to help them.  We were teaching this one Lady about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We invited her to be baptized and then she just completely opened up her heart to us.

She shared things that she has been struggling with for 20 years, that she hasn't shared with anyone.  She has felt like a bad person for years.  When I shared of God's love for her and the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ the Spirit was so incredibly strong.  All three of us were crying.  It was such an incredible experience that I can't accurately describe but it was such a blessing to have the opportunity to be their with her and testify of our Savior.

The next day we went to Morro.  Morro is a super tiny town 30 minutes away from Salina Cruz that has a small branch of the Church.  Because of everything with Covid we haven't had a chance to go, but we finally got permission to this week!  We took a community taxi there so basically they just fit 6 people including the driver in the taxi.  3 in the front 3 in the back.  However this ride There were two adults in the back and like 4 kids so Elder Pano and I went in the front.  All of the cars here are stick Shift, I was the lucky guy that got to be squished next to the driver by the stick shift.  Let's just say that driver and me are good buddies now

In Morro I had another really cool experience!  We visited a ton of families who hadn't seen missionaries in over a year and a half.  It was so nice to be able to visit them.  Most of them live in very humble conditions.  Some of them I just wanted to help so bad and change their conditions.  As I was thinking this I got the distinct impression that no I couldn't change what they were going through nor understand completely what they do, the Savior does.  I know there is no wrong that Heaven can't fix thanks to the Savior.  I truly do stand all amazed.  This week I feel like the complete magnitude of Savior's Atonement has started to click and I am so grateful for this.

Also a kind of interesting story that happened this week.  Our chapel got broken Into at night.  We don't think they stole anything valuable because the offices have really good locks but Elder Pano and I felt like detectives finding where they broke in and how they did stuff.  They weren't very smart criminals but as my brother Clay would say no criminals are  They broke in through a window but the kinda cool thing about that is I saw a few days ago that the window was open, so I got the feeling to close it and lock it.  Well I did, but they just broke the lock to get in so no I didn't stop them from breaking in, but I did save my conscience from feeling like it was my fault 

I don't have a lot of pics this week because we were pretty busy but I have a few!