Week 47

Hola,

This week I've been trying to be like The Apostle Peter again (More on that later though).  This week we had a lot of really cool things happen.  For one, Rosario came to church!!!  At the same time, we've been able to find a ton of people that really want to progress and receive the blessings of the gospel.  

WE also had an awesome district activity today.  WE went to a small town called Cocorit.  There we found Iguanas the size of cars and metal monkeys.  We also ate Mexican pizza and bishops (the type of ice cream, not the ordained member of a ward), and made predictions for who would leave the district next week in transfers,and who would stay. Everyone says that I'm going to stay, which makes sense, but at least two people are expected to go.  We'll see what the verdict is though next week.

As I said though, this week I've been trying to be like the Apostle Peter.  Partly because, I read through first and second Peter this week in my personal study of the bible again.  The other part is that I'm looking at the context of these letters into perspective thanks to the bible dictionary.  

So what we need to understand from the context of these letters, is that they were probably written around the end of Peter's life.  In First Peter we Read that he is writing from Babylon,which is probably an illusion to Rome.  So we can probably assume that in addition to being the only words of the apostle written by him in the bible, they were also the last words that he ever wrote to the members of the Church near him.  In it what he does is he focuses  on the need for the members to be faithful to the gospel in spite of heavily persecution and apostasy.

With one of our investigators this week, we were talking about the importance of attending church, and how partaking of the sacrament fortifies us from worldly temptations and spiritually uplifts us.  Specifically, we told her that taking the sacrament would help here in her desire to keep the word of wisdom.  The problem for her was her work schedule. She works nights every day of the week, and going to church would require her to stay up one hour extra to attend sacrament meeting.   

So we did as Peter does in his epistles, and reminded her of the importance of obedience and faith to receive needed blessings.  She ended up coming to church with us this Sunday, At the end of Sacrament meeting, she was still very tired, but enjoyed the meeting a lot, and told us that she wanted to do everything possible so that next week she could stay for another hour of church.  If we do our Part, the Lord gives us the blessings we need to obey his commandments.

That's all the time for today though,

Elder Gooden

Week 46

Hola todos,

This week as always went by super fast here in Obregon.  This week we had Zone conference, back to back exchanges, and a lot of walking.  As always, I learned a lot from zone conference and from my zone leaders during exchanges.  During the zone conference, we talked a lot about the promises of striving to work with the spirit, and the Sabbath.  As I've already written in several of my earlier letters, the Sabbath is extremely important.  it is the truest sign of conversion we have in our investigators, and is the best way for ourselves individually to draw closer to God.  However, I've already spoken on that topic extensively, and so I'll any further commentaries to what I've already written.

This week, even though I didn't write it at the start of my letter, I've been trying to be like Sister Myers.  During the zone conference, she taught us a really effective way to teach about the atonement, and how it relates to the Sacrament.  My favorite way to relate them that I've found is in John 6: 51-57: 

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

I'd love to get into why this is such a great scripture, and it's relation to the sabbath, but The Internet here got cut, and I lost a lot of time, so I'll just have to leave my letter for this week as it is. I'll try to give a better explanation next week.

That's all for now,