Dear family,
Merry Christmas! We're doing well here, and really excited for Christmas.
Final plans for the skype call. I will call at 10:00 AM, Dicember 25, Salvadoreñan time. I'm not sure what time zone you guys are in, but I hope that works for you guys.
We had a Christmas dinner here for the branch last Saturday. It's kind of interesting, here the missionaries have a little bit different role. The Elders quorum was put in charge of set up and clean up. That's fairly standard, but there's no elder's quorum here. Some that just leaves us. So Saturday was a bit crazy. We ended up hauling all the tables and desks from our house to the church by hand. Then we set up, decorated, put some Christmas music going (the blue-grass Christmas was perfect). Then we picked up the food, helped get the activity started, helped served it, and then afterwards cleaned up. But it was fun, and a great activity. We had investigators there, a lot of less active members, and some non-members. We really get a unique experience serving here in a small branch. It's great.
So I want to tell you guys about M. I wrote about him a little bit the last time.
So about a month a so ago, we were teaching a lesson on someone's doorstep. We were about to finish the lesson when an old man showed up and started listening (it was M). It was kind of funny because he was like, "I'm sorry I'm late guys. I was watching TV and didn't know you were here." We just thought he was a really nice old man so we got his reference and told him we'd come back the next day.
When we came back, we explained that we like to start our visits with a prayer. He said that he would offer it, and during his prayer he asked God to bless "los élderes." After the prayer, we were like, "Hermano, are you a member?" It turns out that yes, he was a member. He had been batised about 50 years ago. He hadn't had any further contact with the church until now.
So in that first lesson, we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church. We told him we would pass by him Sunday morming to go to church together. But when we got to hims house Sunday morning, no on answered the door. That was kind of disappointing, but Elder G said jokingly, "Maybe he just got so excited he couldn't wait for us and is already there" We laughed, but when we got to church, he was there! And he's come almost every Sunday since then. He's actively reading the Book of Mormon.
There was just one moment when things looked really bad. We had that one lesson where everything just went wrong. The next Sunday he didn't come to church. I basically told us that he didn't want anything more to do with the church.
Then a few days later we saw him in the street. And everything had changed. He was really happy, up to tears. He said he now knew that the church was true, and that we were true representatives of the Lord, and that whatever we said, he would do it. Apparently his brother appeared to him in a dream. Still not entirely sure what happened in that dream, but now everything is different. He basically woke up with the desire to be baptised for his brother. He is now one of the most active members of the church. He comes to church every week, stays all three hours, participates in the classes, and comes to all the church activities.
Every time we see him, he talks about wanting to be that baptisms, and he tells us of more people who's work he wants to do. He's preparing to go to the temple. He is awesome. I'm so glad we got the privilege to meet him. We really didn't do much. When every I think about my time here in Nueva Concpecion, I'm going to think about him.
So I know that I've never written this much. Or said much about anyone. But I really wanted you guys to know about Max. And I basically copied strait out of my jounal for my letter. Made things much easier.
Well, I love you guys!! I'm excited to see you in a few days!
Elder Hilton
No comments:
Post a Comment