Week 089 - And There Was My Answer Like You Guys Said

Hay family,

So we had a really great week. I’m glad you guys had already been getting all the updates from the Sister Gaitan about the baptism of Axel and Damian. So that’s what we spent the last week doing, preparing for the baptism for these two fellas. Sister Gaitan is actually the aunt of Axel Rojas, and Susanna Rojas is his mom. Damian is the son of another family who are already members of the church. But we put a lot of planning with the ward and the ward was able to put on an awesome baptismal service. So pretty much the entire Rojas family was inactive for years until 6 weeks ago, so it’s was pretty great to see all of their family together at sacrament meeting, their mom with a calling now, and brother who was all dressed up fancy and worthy to prepare and pass the sacrament. 

Damian Ramayon is a special case, he goes to church with the Ovelar family, who invite him over for family home evenings and activities in the church. The parents are a total mess; actually Damian's entire family is a mess. and the saddest part is that Damian is a 10 year old that is not ignorant about the things that go on in his family. He understands that his parents are separated and don’t really care about anything but their smoking and alcohol addiction. He wanted his baptism to be on his birthday so that his family could come as a birthday present, and when the time came around, it turns out that no one was up for the task. Anyways he’s a fantastic kid and it’s really hard to make the decision to baptize a young boy with no family support, but he really wants to be baptized and become a member, and he doesn’t want to become like his family. He receive tons of support from the ward that have been able to take him in and take care of him and visit him. 

Damian is really smart and really funny, he always asks really complicated questions that don’t really have a purpose to what we are talking about. 

A lot of investigators came to the baptism and all of them talked to us about how they really enjoyed the baptismal service and the how peaceful and joyful it was.  The Molina family came. I think I mentioned them in my last email. They are pretty awesome family, super kind and I really enjoy talking to them. The father is a member and the wife Fabiana and her two other kids, Kevin and Valentino all want to be baptized.  They’ve been making some big decisions in the family in order to be baptized including the father who quit his job working at a bar. He felt like the bar was holding him back from living the way he should and working late nights causing him to miss church. So he quit and is now working with leather which is a side job that he had before. He's actually really talented in making leather products with designs on them. 

We recently started teaching the cousin of family Niz. The cousin just started living in the Niz's home a couple months ago and he and his daughter have started coming to church the past two weeks. The father is named Leonardo and his daughter is name Barbara. Leonardo goes to institute and is always asking about Elders quorum activities. On Monday we taught him about the restoration, and we invited him to read the book of Mormon and pray about it. He´s quite enthusiastic about the invitation. The family invited us for lunch that Friday, so we came back Friday and while eating we asked if he had read the book. And he pretty much said "Oh yeah, that night I took the book into my hand and prayed about it, and in the morning I woke up opened up the bible and there was my answer like you guys said." Great response I thought. And so I asked what scripture he had read. He read the fist first verses of Jeremiah chapter 42 which says:

1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near,

2 And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us).

3 That the Lord thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do.

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us.

So he said he "could not deny the truth of the Holy Scripture. And when I read it I knew it was true because I felt at peace." I was very impressed by his answer and his ability to recognize that it was an answer from God. That through this scripture God was trying to say to him that he calls prophets and talks to his prophets and we should follow the teachings of his prophets. I was also impressed that he took the initiative to read the scriptures to find his answers, because it requires faith to receive answers from God and that requires the initiative to look for the answers through the scriptures and attending church. So while we were sitting there eating some good roasted chicken, Leonardo and his daughter asked to be baptized and become members of the church. 

Our good friend Elias a.k.a. 'El Chino' has been working a lot with us as well. This kid knows the entire city for some reason and he’s a convert from a year ago. There's a girl that he likes name Sheila that he invited to a dance and El Chino invited us over to her house. It turns out she lives with a family who are members of the church. She only lives with them and we taught them all Saturday and got to know them and Sheila and the family she lives with all wanted to come to church, so they came to church yesterday and Sheila also said she wants to become a member of the church. So right on, it’s time to get busy.

I love you guys tons, you’re the best!

Elder Greene

p.s. So I switched companions the other day to be with Elder Konold another fella in my district. I was getting to know him and turns out he's from the Redhawk ward from Temecula and has lived there his entire life, so that means we were in the same ward for a good 7 years right. So I assume that you might know his family maybe, because he knows the Gilberts, Hollingsworths, Carpenters and so on.