Hey-o what's going down! Wow today is February! Happy Birthday tomorrow to Grandma Dowdle. Don't party too hard ;) How weird is that! January absolutely flew by! Tomorrow is my 5 month mark too! Time is starting to pick up it seems! This is week five of the transfer, so we find out about transfers a week from this Saturday. I don't feel like much happened this week, but there is actually quite a bit I wanna tell ya! Let's see where to start!
So one of the Spanish sister missionaries, in our Branch, went home this past Saturday, for health reasons. For this, her comp went to another area and we were able to get their CAR. It's kind of sad how we got it but yes we do have a car now and oh it's such a blessing. We're able to go see more people and use our time a little more efficiently. It's also a super nice rest for my knee. So WHOOP WHOOP
Starting tomorrow there will be a huge change in the Facebook rules. The guy from the missionary council in salt lake, who is in charge in of Proselyting for the entire world, came to Rosa this past week and met with President and all the zone leaders for a conference. He is basically changing all the Facebook rules. We are now able to proselyte on Facebook anytime of the day (6:30a-10:30p) whereas we were only suppose to be on previously from 10 am to 5 pm. We are now also allowed, with special permission from president, to teach family and friends on Facebook. (Once again with special permission from president) That being said, we are now allowed to be friends with family and friends from home. There is no limit on that. So starting tomorrow, if you get a friend request from me, I'm not being OC and you can accept it :) We are one of 12 missions in the world that still uses social media for Proselyting. That's super exciting!
I realize I don't talk about our investigators that much. That may be because we only have two but anyways I'll tell ya about them. There is Miriam and Hilda. Hilda is Miriam's mom. Miriam is ready for baptism, she just needs to change her work schedule so she can come to church. She says she believes it's true and wants to get baptized. We're so close with her! Hilda believes it's true, but she's still kind of attached to the Catholic Church. She wants to go both because she loves them both. Our last lesson with them we re-taught the restoration putting an emphasis on the priesthood line of authority and such. It still didn't click with her after that so we are switching our focus to Miriam and hoping that she will set the example for her family.
Alma 32:16-17
"16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in other words, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.
17 Yea, there are many who do say: If thou wilt show unto us a sign from heaven, then we shall know of a surety; then we shall believe."
Oh yes quite a grand scripture we have here. One of my favorites, for sure! I read the scripture in English, then Spanish, then went and looked up key phrases, and finally was able to get to the bottom of what I wanted to study and share from it.
So when I read these verses, I immediately thought of a "Golden Investigator." Someone that is so ready to hear the gospel and be Baptized that they accept it before they even hear it. Someone that is longing for that eternal truth and happiness in their life but doesn't know where to find it. It is also someone that is humble enough to let two 18 or 19 year olds into their home to teach them about eternal truths that God has set for them. Like it says in this scripture, humility is key. Also like it says in D&C 20:37, "Humility is required for baptism." It's impossible and just kinda silly to be baptized
without being humbled before God. It's so important to be humble before God, because like it says in 2 Nephi 31:7, by baptism, even "Christ humbles himself before the father." We are to be humble in
many different ways, depending on the person, but the main one is by our weaknesses. In Ether 12:27, we read that, "the Lord gives men weakness that they may be humble." (Quick lil story time yay) Elder Bednar gave a talk at a CES devotional in 2011(?) where he was talking about this one couple that had been married for three weeks and the husband had developed this bad bone cancer. He requested Elder Bednar to come and give him a blessing. Elder Bednar asked the man a series
of inspired questions before giving the blessing to the young man. The last question asked was this, "Do you have the faith not to be healed? Do you have the faith to humble yourself before God's will and not be healed if it's the will of the Father?" The first time I heard this I was kind of taken back! My mind was kind of twisted. Could we have that faith, in such a difficult time of testing, have the faith not to be healed? That's where the power of humility comes in. I have a firm testimony that as we humble ourselves before God, through the good and the bad, we will be eternally blessed and forever grateful to him.
Yesterday was kinda fun! Our branch is now able to meet in the Stake Center and actually use the chapel for sacrament meeting, whereas before we were using the Relief Society room in another building. Yesterday also it hailed for a slick titch. Ya it's probably the closest thing we will get to snow out here!
Con Amor
Elder Joyner
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