This week was great! I would like to start with the success
Elder Rosas and I had this week. And all this success came from one thing.
Exact obedience. The whole time I have been here Elder Rosas has not been able
to get out of bed at 6:30, and I had some days where I did not as well. It is
hard to wake up at 630 every day. But I talked with him over a week ago and we
decided that this last week we were going to be exactly obedient. Two weeks ago
we only found 7 new people to teach (the goal for the mission is 12 a week) one
person attend church and a baptism fall out...
Marisol - Marisol told us she wanted to ¨try other flavors¨
that she wanted to attend other churches before deciding to get baptized. But
that is fine because I know this church is true and in time she realize by the
spirit that is the right decision to make. It is actually really good because
she told us, she wants to join a church she knows she can defend and speak for
knowing it is true!
This last week, with exact obedience, we found 26 people to
teach and had 5 people attend church!
Acting in Faith - I have been struggling the whole time I
have been here to teach with the spirit. I have been praying to know why, and
if I can have it. I asked my parents what I needed to do to be able to be more
in tune with the spirit. My dad sent me a talk by David A. Bednar that really
helped me. In there he says
¨The first experience occurred as we entered a dark room and
turned on a light switch. Remember how in an instant a bright flood of
illumination filled the room and caused the darkness to disappear. What
previously had been unseen and uncertain became clear and recognizable. This
experience was characterized by immediate and intense recognition of light.
The second experience
took place as we watched night turn into morning. Do you recall the slow and
almost imperceptible increase in light on the horizon? In contrast to turning
on a light in a dark room, the light from the rising sun did not immediately
burst forth. Rather, gradually and steadily the intensity of the light increased,
and the darkness of night was replaced by the radiance of morning. Eventually,
the sun did dawn over the skyline. But the visual evidence of the sun’s
impending arrival was apparent hours before the sun actually appeared over the
horizon. This experience was characterized by subtle and gradual discernment of
light.
From these two
ordinary experiences with light, we can learn much about the spirit of
revelation. I pray the Holy Ghost will inspire and instruct us as we now focus
upon the spirit of revelation and basic patterns whereby revelation is
received.
Sometimes but rarely
we will get our answers like turning on a light, but that is not usually how it
works. It takes work and time to learn and recognize when the spirit is talking
to you.
Something that really
helped me this week was from Elder Jensen. I was studying how to recognize the
spirit in chapter 4. And he asked me what I was studying. And I told him that I
was struggling with finding the spirit. What he told me helped me a ton. He
told me I need to become more like Christ. That I should be studying chapter 6
of Preach my Gospel which is how to develop Christlike Attributes. And maybe
that it is my pride that is stopping the spirit from talking to me, and leading
me in the lessons. So what I did is I fasted for Humility, Patience and Virtue
on Wednesday (all Christlike attributes), to become more like Christ. And then
I started acting in faith, I started opening my mouth and speaking more and
more everyday. Started trusting in the Lord that even if I make a mistake in
Spanish, everything will be alright. And Saturday night in a lesson, is when I
realized I could teach with the spirit if I acted in faith and trusted in the
Lord..
Patti y Paulina - The
beginning of the lesson I felt as they were not ready for baptism. Then I got a
small prompting to share a little story about my mom. The husband of Patti has
a lot of problems with health, and never can sleep. Which made me think of my
mom. Because I know when she is able to sleep she is so much healthier. And I
shared how she has been putting her trust in the Lord and has been able to do
more and more every day. We were talking about faith and what they have learned
all this time from being taught by the missionaries and why they like having
the missionaries. And I got prompted to share my personal story of this with them. Of acting in
faith, of how I could not really share how I felt and could not share how I can
help. Or speak the language until I started trying to. I had the gift of
tongues, it was amazing, the words were coming from my heart, not my mind. I
knew it was the spirit talking through me. My spanish was perfect (or the
Lord´s Spanish.) Patti with her jaw dropped said to my companion ¨El puede
hablar in Español¨ It really was a great experience for to realize that the
Lord is with me helping me. And that when we fast for stuff we can receive it.
Afterwords I had the feeling in my chest to invite them to be baptized. And they
said yes! And they made it to church yesterday, so that is even better. Because
they are showing their faith! It is so great how our prayers can be answered
after we act in faith. After we are obedient and act in faith we will receive
blessings and receive the spirit.
After receiving the spirit
this last week and being able to use it everyday, I have been able to have the
best week of my mission. The joy that I have right now is indescribable. I am
happy I have the opportunity to share a piece of that joy with you every week.
You can find this joy for yourself as well. Just act in faith.. Pray.. Read the
Book of Mormon... And go to the temple as much as you can. If you build
yourself spiritually you will have more joy in your lives. Hope you can have a great
week.
Love you -Elder
Stokes.
Pics
We
found a cool skull on the road.
All
the missionaries in Buenaventura got shirts.
Laundry
day
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