"Sol" Searching: Monday, July 27, 2015 - Diciendo adios a Julio!!!!

Well it has been a rollercoaster of a week that is for sure! But its been the funnest rollercoaster ride I have been on!

On Tuesday I did an intercambio with my new zone leaders. Elder Vargas, from Argentina, was with me in my area, while my companion Elder Camacho went to Los Girasoles, which was his old area. Let me just say this was the best day I have ever had in my mission! Elder Vargas is an amazing missionary. As soon as we got out, everyone we saw we were saying hello to and contacting, just how I like to do it! We didn't let a single soul pass us. Elder Vargas has such an amazing way of teaching. I learned a lot from him. He likes using symbolisms, or basically making people do stuff by interaction so that they remember the actions they did in the future to remember a principle. For example, making them touch the bible and put their arm to the square and promise they would come to church that week. Something simple, but when Sunday comes around, they remember touching the bible and saying they would come. And it worked! With all the people he did that to, they all came to church this week. So ya, it looks a little silly, but I have added that into my teaching because I know it works! haha Also, Elder Vargas really liked stopping to talk to people that had a bible open and share scriptures with them from the bible they were reading to prove our doctrine correct. At one point we even stopped a Jehovah's Witness who had a bible out and we read with her a scripture saying Jehovah is Jesus Christ. She got offended so fast she said "My question is why do you go out of your way to prove me that what I believe is wrong??" and Vargas responded saying "We proved nothing, it was the scriptures, your very own bible, that proved that. But we are here to show that Christ's perfect church fell in Apostasy and that there are people that have changed that doctrine, but our message is the hope. That this world once again has the true church. We want to share that message with you!" I thought this girl was going to get more offended, and say GO AWAY, but to my surprise, she was so interested in the fact that we had just showed her that Jesus was Jehovah she said "Well my whole life I thought Jehovah was God.... but you showed me I am wrong using my scriptures. Show me that your church is true. I want to know more about your message." Then she said "God sent you here to show me that, didn't here?" I freaked out. Here I was thinking that we took that all the wrong way from the beginning, but Elder Vargas was so in tune with the spirit, he knew that that was what the Lord wanted us to say to her. It was harsh, and we started with something we knew would make her blood boil, but it was exactly what that girl needed. We have passed by throughout the week, and she is one of our strongest investigators and I believe she will be getting baptized very soon. Her name is Rosa. And she came to church this week. :) Anyways, Tuesday was amazing, I learned a lot with Vargas and loved every moment of the day.

We have finally caught up to Franklin and have been able to teach him, and his girlfriend Nixa, about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity this week, and after some very strong spiritually guided lessons, they promised to keep those commandments. I am again and again humbled by peoples decisions to follow the commandments of God. I know they will be blessed for their decisions.

I am sure you are all wondering, but no, I am not cured from my gripe, or the flu as they call it in Utah. I've had it for 3 weeks now and I am, sick of it, but living with it. It is definitely better than last week, but the cough still remains, but that doesn't stop me from working! :)

My companion and I are doing alright. I am still adjusting to the change. But ya know, that is the mission life!

I got a book called The Great Apostasy by James E. Talmage and I love it! It talks about the great apostasy in full detail and in one point he says, that rellying on prophecies is better than relying on a historical counting in the scriptures. For example, with the great apostasy, we see countless times that the prophets forsaw the apostasy in the church and prophecied of it. Little is given as history (which means someone says what happened afterward) and what is said is unaccurate. He says we should trust prophecies more because they are direct from God and they are a word for word truth of what will happen. History can be changed by opinion, peer pressure, lack of knowledge, or just general unawareness. So as we read the scriptures, we should focus more on what the prophecies say rather than what they history tells us what happened. I liked that a lot.

I pray that you all have a great week! I love you all and I pray for you daily! May we all do the commandments of God so that we can be blessed eternally with the promises God has given us. LOVE YOU ALL!

Con amor,

Elder Weiss :)