el 1 de junio

i feel like i say the same thing each week, but where is the time?!
it's already june, and i have almost been out five months. but here 
we go!

a great success this week, would have to be helping anai, julissa,
and francisco into the waters of baptism, helping julissa make her 
dreams come true with her wedding, and having lots of people at 
church, nine! the standard of excellence is to have 6 
people at church, and consistently right now, we are having
more than that every week! gooo loma linda uno!

 

hermana anai, tuesday, at her baptism. we had to have it tuesday
because we weren't sure if jefri,  her husband, would be there to 
support her friday or saturday. so off we went tuesday to fill the 
baptismal font, but guess what?! there wasn't any water! problem.... 
but we figured it out, and even if we did end up having to have 
the baptism with her kneeling in the font, it happened.
never a dull moment with baptisms here. never....

​example number two of crazy things that happen before
baptisms: the lawyer for julissa's wedding was an hour late because 
of traffic, but thank goodness we had all the papers in order. here 
the lawyer marries you, and then after you have your act, you have 
to go and inscribe it, or let the law know that you are married. 
because julissa is a minor and is pregnant (almost half way through!) 
the lawyer has to inscribe the wedding.. 
one less thing that we have to worry about!

crazy thing about this baptism? we weren't the one that taught
hermano francisco the lessons, but he is our baptism. why? because 
the elders taught he and his girlfriend together, and he is none the 
wiser that he is actually our recent convert... sshh! 
it's a secret, kind of.

really big challenge this week was my stress level. for some reason,
i have been feeling a lot more stressed than i have yet to feel while 
out on my mission. well, besides maybe the last saturday night of 
the mtc, but that's besides the point. i don't know if it's the stress of 
having three baptisms, but  first "difficult" companion,  i  don't know. 
but prayers that it gets better?

most significant tender mercy, would probably be the fact that there
was actually a full baptismal font saturday night for the baptisms of 
fransisco and julissa. it could have been very interesting, if we didn't 
have a full font to baptize a full grown man 
and a pregnant woman... very....

a goal for this week would have to include reading and studying the
book of mormon each day. president russell, my mission president, 
has mandated a 15 minute study time each night specifically for the 
book of mormon, and speficially for us as individuals. it's been 
amazing to read and study topics personally, and see the way that 
it all of my studies lead into each other and manifest themselves in 
our lessons.

a favorite teaching experience would have to be with douglas, a
man with a little bit of autism, and reining in his rants about visions 
and revelations... like i said, never a dull moment.

this week i studied about the parables of jesus christ, especially the
ones listed in matthew 13. parables so simple and clear, yet profound. 
james e. talmadge makes clear the lord's statement of why he taught 
in parables (see verses 9-17 of aforementioned chapter). paraphrasing, 
he writes that those that have open hearts to hear the word, will 
hear it, apply it, and will go about doing good with the word. then 
there are others that will hear it, not understand it, but will remember it 
and later will apply it. and yet there are others who will hear it but not 
remember i t and won't allow the word to grow. ​those that have ears to 
hear will hear it and the word shall be added upon them. 

what kind of ears do we have?

hermana graves