Another week down!
This week was tough, I won't lie. I pray for trials, things to help me grow, so my faith can grow. Which in the moment, always seems like a noble thing to do, but in hindsight sometimes you wonder what you were thinking asking for trials. It was the challenge of the week to clear my mind and focus, I feel as though Lucifer knows he can not tempt me, so my mind is the primary target and Heavenly Father is allowing me to grow, and find his light on my own. Just another level of my growing faith! The lord wants me to be humble, and that even comes down to my spiritual progression, and realizing I'm just starting down the road of a lifelong journey. Double hindsight, thanks the lord for trials, and I hope you guys seek to grow your faith and find him when you feel like he's not there. Maybe that's 40 40 vision jaja.
My favorite thing here is the sky. It's the clearest sky I've ever been blessed to be under! No pollution, anything of the sort. I'm in a little town in the middle of nowhere, and when I'm walking around in the dark after a long day and I look up at the sky, I can see every star. Every constellation, and the brightest moon I've ever seen. When what would make most people feel so small, to see something so vast, I feel so grand, knowing that the Lord loves me perfectly, in the midst of all those stars, and everything under them. And he loves you all the same too.
This week has been a week of animals haha! We bought two little baby chickens. If you were to ask us why, we'd tell you that they're to eat, for eggs too every week, seems like a logical investment for a missionary. Come to find out these chickens don't lay eggs, and were going to be transferred out of here before they're big enough to eat, so now our house just smells. But, I made a comment to one of the members, I said,
"Did Elder Cline tell you guys? We bought 2 little chicks"
Well in my limited Spanish vocabulary I forgot chicas means girls in Spanish. And my actual sentence was, nosotros compramos dos pequeña chicas, or what they understood, we purchased two little girls. They started dying laughing and my comp told me what I had said then I couldn't stop laughing. Now I say it to all the members and they all have the same reaction and now my comp hates me cuz he has to explain everytime I say it again with confidence.
There was also this dog this week that I fell In love with, and I'm devising a plan to bring her home. She's a little puppy who started following us and never stopped. We're not allowed to have pets so we don't bring her home, and to get away from her we have to run around a corner and hide to get home. Her only frame of reference for where we will come back to is the church, so she visits there until we take her on a walk while we are looking for people to teach.
There was one family this week, who we felt was progressing well enough to be invited to baptism. When we did, there was suddenly a lot of hesitation, questions, about the book of Mormon. And where it says in short terms, thou art a fool if you believe there would only be the Bible. My comp said he had never been so confident to share it because it's very blunt, and I was a little worried too. But they were very receptive and they're all continuing to read.
Speaking of the book of Mormon, we met a man last night who spoke English too. He was deported from the states haha, born and raised in Texas and had the accent to show for it. Guy has many problems, might have killed someone for all I know, but he seemed very level headed, and he is very well read. He acknowledges God is there and believes the Bible, has read every word of multiple bibles, he just knows he's doing, and has done wrong. But is confident there's a day where he gets his head screwed on straight and he's getting there. He talked about how the Jehovah's witnesses tried to talk to them, and he hated it because he knew their Bible had changed words, and were trying to tell him things he knew were not true. I took the opportunity to hand him the Book of Mormon, and I told him what it was. How it works with the Bible and expands our knowledge on all Bible principles and more. He said there is so much in the Bible he has wanted clarified forever, and he had never been given such a book. He looked at how many pages there were and said, give me a week. And was all smiles and excited to read and learn more. Again an example of how people with any sort of knowledge, and logic, willing to learn, is who the spirit can work on the most. And who the gospel makes all the sense to. If it doesn't make sense to you, may I be so bold as to say you lack knowledge and logic. But if you have an open heart at the very least, the lord will open your eyes with the rest. It just so happens to be the fact that these people who are most willing to hear the message of the church, are those who have been around, are well read, and are searching for truth.
Lastly, we met another American man. This guy lives in a beautiful big red house that doesn't belong with the houses around it. He spoke English too, and he was a nice guy, but his arrogance exuded from him like he had sprayed it on like a powerful cologne. He acted as though we were like him, almost better than the rest here. He said if we need anything, they've got connections so we can get away from this place a little. Normally, I wouldn't have had anything to think about it, but his arrogance, even the slightest just because he had some money, left such a bad taste in my mouth. He laughed when we offered a lesson and said he was alright. I was so scared that I had ever come off that way to anyone in my life before, because he had no idea. In reality, he's probably a great guy. But I couldn't shake the arrogance. I wrote something about it I'll share and then I'll end this email. I love you all, thanks for supporting me and reading my unnecessarily long emails.
The red home
Owned by those whom everything has been shown
That live in a state of abundance
Where blessings are solely that of substance
When those who have it all
Are the ones who worship none at all
You might begin to wonder
Why there are those who live asunder
But the eyes of the observer know
That blessings are things you don't always have proof of to show
It is harder to convince a man of fortune now
That it took more, than the sweat of his own brow
While the humble man can see
Without Him, he would not be
So then the question might arise
Who holds the blessing of greater size
And are blessings the finding of treasure
Or something of a greater measure
As light shines brighter in the valley
There are some who are too blinded to see reality
But those who were born without the light
Learned to appreciate the little they had with all their might
And thus we can see
It is the man who knows the Lord made him be
Who looks toward of the light
No matter how bright
That can melt his heart of ice
He, is who holds the Pearl of Great Price
-eb
