November 3, 2014

hi. this week was a pretty good week. it rained a bit this week, and was generally a bit cooler, which had its pros and cons. the shower in our new house doesnt work (it doesnt heat the water). while it was really hot, we didnt have any problems with that, as the water wasnt actually that cold because of how hot it was, and we all wouldve showered in cold water anyways. but this week weve had to shower in cold water and it doesnt da gusto. but its chill.

we havent been able to teach martin and giseña again, as her baby still hasnt been born so shes having a lot of pain and cant concentrate well.

last week we were contacting and we found an old guy (Gregorio) sitting outside his house, and he told us to come in (the gate). we taught him, he said he went to church before and almost got baptized but then the missionaries stopped visiting him. we taught him and he wants to get baptized, but his only doubt is that he lent his cane (which he needs to be able to get to church) to his neighbor and his neighbor doesnt want to give it back.

i also learned a bit more fully this week that you really cant teach a testimony. last week we were looking for an inactive family from the ward list and we found a member of the family that had never been baptized. he said that his aunt and cousins (that were members) had moved but that we could go and share with him one day. we went on thursday and at the beginning he expressed his belief that all churches take you to the same place - to God. so i said in my mind okay i'll just teach him from the bible that Christ established one church with specific doctrine and a specific organization and that that's the only church that works. i did it, asked him again what he thought, and he said that he still felt that all churches lead to God. he then mentioned how he had seen on discovery channel the story of Joseph Smith and that he believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet. we explained a bit more the story of Joseph Smith and the restoration of the priesthood and how we have a prophet today with that same priesthood and the same organization of the church. he again expressed that he thought that all churches were good, and i kind of just gave up with the teaching. i asked if he believed that Thomas S Monson was a prophet, and he said yes. i asked if he thought that if God had a representative on the earth in our church, that God would want him to go to that church, and he said yes. we asked if he thought that if that church had the authority of God that God would want him to get baptized there and he said yes. so i realized that even when people have doubts, they'll often still feel the Spirit and want to get baptized. nobody can rationally explain how or why they have a testimony. we dont know that Jesus is the Christ because somebody expounded the scriptures to us, we know it by the testimony of the Holy Ghost. and people can recieve that testimony, and feel that they should be baptized, even if they dont understand fully why. so we should invite everybody, and not exclude people from recieving the invitation because they have a different opinion about one of the principles or doctrines of the church.

and yeah that's pretty much what happened this week.

Elder Woodfield