We went to bring Jeimy and Astrid and Ivan to church and,
after fishing through all of the excuses of no clothes and whatnot, they just
said they don’t want to come. They [told us] we can go visit them every day if
we want, but they don’t want to come to church. It was pretty hard to listen to,
but we can’t change the desires of their hearts. At lunch, we took some time to
pray as companions and we just plead that the Lord would let the Spirit touch
their hearts and help us to know what we could do so that they understand why
they need to go to church.
At night, we went to teach them and, without even asking,
Astrid said that they will never ever miss another Sunday in their lives. They
said they promised to be in church no matter what happened. We were super
shocked and so I asked Astrid why. She said the whole hour that they would have
been at church she just felt something in her heart. Jeimy said the same thing
and they said they knew everything we had taught was true. I was literally
amazed. That’s the lesson I learned this week: That if we have faith in the Lord
and put our trust completely in Him, He will work the change of heart in the
people.
There is an older couple that we have visited on a regular
basis, probably the first couple that we visited when we got here. She
has waited on him hand and foot every since we got here. She is 89 and
has been a complete angel in her care for him. That is what I call her
when I see her, "an angel". He hasn't appreciated it too much
because he has wanted me to call HIM an angel also. He has been a very
nice man, but he hasn't been the angel. Sister Ricks hasn't known what to
do when we visit, so she has always prepared a song to sing and they have
always enjoyed that very much. When we visited he always said, just before
we get sat down, “Where is my Botschaft?” which means message. When the
message was finished, then he would ask for his song, which they always enjoyed;
then he would get tears in his eyes and bear his testimony.
We got a call yesterday evening…that Brother Meyer had
died. We went and got the elders and took them to the hospital where he
was. We had wanted to visit him on Wednesday, but had not found the place
before we ran out of time for our next visit. So we missed them, kind of
sad. Anyway, we found the place this time. He was lying there and
had been dead for a couple of hours. A wonderful young Relief Society
president and her husband were there and were tenderly attending to Sister
Meyer’s every need. They had gone
to visit and it just so happened that Bother Meyer passed away while they were
there. Otherwise, Sister Meyer would have been alone. What a tender
mercy, and example of a Relief Society President responding to a prompting.
The spirit was so strong there. Elder Fialho said a
very heartferlt prayer, and then said, "He is still here." And
his spirit was there. We could still feel his presence. He was a
very faithful, endowed man who loved the gospel with all of his heart.
His wife is a non-member, but always read the Book of Mormon with him every day,
and came to church with him before he became too feeble. Like Elder
Ricks said, “She is an angel.”
I felt like we should sing a song. The feeling was
just as if we were in his small apartment again and he said he wanted the
"singen". The Elders are very musical and had been having the
same feelings. Elder Fialho even had the song running through his
head. Sis Meyer said that would be nice and walked over to her husband
and patted his cheek and said, "Sweetie, they want to sing you a song
before they leave." She was really touched and full of joy for the
song. Dad said we did a wonderful job of singing Naher mein Gott zu dir, Nearer my God to thee.
We all left together. It was a very humbling and peaceful experience. The
Elders will have impressed on their hearts for a lifetime.
So we had a lesson with a guy last night named Billy Jack.
He ran up to us while we were getting in the car to go home at around nine at
night and asked us to teach him. Not many people more prepared than that! He
wants to quit drinking and wants to fix up his life. He has tattoos all
over him and looks like he has had a rough past, but the Atonement of Christ
will fix that. He wants to be clean, and to be free from addiction and from Satan.
The greatest miracle I have seen on my mission is the
softening of even the hardest heart to hear the word of the Lord and to change.
Change is not easy for people! Billy Jack is super sincere! He accepted a
baptismal date [during] the first lesson! So we have him down hesitantly for July
11th! He is a funny guy! But he said the closing prayer and it was super
genuine! He is ready to change! He said after the prayer, "Yep,this is my
church!"
This week, we found a new investigator named Rosa. She is 14
years old, and like I have always said, there is power in children. She
basically invited herself to church before we even mentioned anything and she
showed up in a cute black and white dress and was so happy to be there. More
than anything, I can tell that there is something extremely special about her.
When you look at her, you can just feel the desire she has to do good. Her
family is pretty wild and her mom is absolutely hilarious. She is so sweet and
she is now preparing to be baptized. For some reason I feel like I know her,
but really know her. They always say that sometimes that comes from friends we
had in the pre-existence and I feel like it goes back to then. And like I
said... poderoso ninos... it’s the way to go. Five of the investigators we
brought to church are under the age of 18. Finally, Jeimy Astrid and Ivan came
to church. We have been teaching them for several weeks now, but they finally
came with us yesterday. They sure walked as slow as possible as they followed
us there and walked in with forced smiles, but I know that they felt the spirit
there. They are so sweet and I have come to love them so much.
....little funny story to make you laugh as you imagine it. We have to wash our
clothes downstairs in a pila outside. On Saturday, we noticed a whole herd of
giant ants. I have seen them before, butI didnt think much of it. As I went over to start to wash, the ants
attacked me... literally attacked... I got bit a good 20 times and then
we just ran. My companion went to get a chair so she could sit while I washed
but as soon as she set it down we were both on top. In the middle of the night
with only a flashlight surrounded by attacking ants. I’m sure it looked quite
funny... the problem is I still had to rinse my clothes or rescue them. With
both of us on the chair we hopped a couple yards over to the pila and iII quickly dumped a few buckets on my clothes
and we headed out. It was quite a night of experiences but something fun to
remember about life here in Honduras! Haha!
This past week was really good. Jade, a recent convert, was
able to baptize someone! The baptism was for the sisters in our district and
Jade was asked to give the baptism. Why? He holds the Aaronic Priesthood. Jade
has been improving so much! He is only been a member for about a month now and
he is reading the Book of Mormon like a champ. He is helping others with their
questions. He will just pull out a scripture and, I swear, it fixes the problem
or their question. He was really nervous to give or perform the baptism. He did
great! I was so happy for him. It was great! We want everyone to participate in
the Work of Salvation!
