Weekly Letter December 7th
2015
Hey guys, I hope you've all had a great week.
We got the news about transfers yesterday and Elder Perez and I will be staying here in Lo de Fuentes. In our zone Sister Call is finishing her mission, Elder Carter is going to a new area, and Sister Elizondo is going to a new area.
In the mission we are focusing on a goal called 10/15/2/2. We want to have 10 contacts with new people in the street every day (Normally by giving them a pamphlet or pass-a-long card and asking for their address and an appointment) 15 new investigators a week, place two new baptismal dates a week, and have two baptisms a month. This week we had 72 contacts, 15 new investigators, and placed 2 baptismal dates, successfully achieving our weekly goals. We're excited about the progress in our area.
This week we had a lesson with Brenda (our 14 year old investigator who is 8 months pregnant) and she told us she got her answer that the book of mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was a really neat experience and she's showing a lot of progress.
Today is a holiday know as "The burning of the devil" here in Guatemala. From what I can understand it's a day for people to clean their houses and burn their trash. Stores around town are also selling pinatas shaped like devils to that you can burn them. I think we'll buy one today and burn it for a P-Day Activity.
This week I'd like to write a little bit on the topic of wandering. Often, wandering is thought of as punishment, such as the forty years of wondering the Israelites suffered in the wilderness or the wandering from the sea to sea to seek the word of the Lord during the apostasy. However, I'd like to discuss wandering as a choice that God's children occasionally make. This type of wandering as a choice is evident in Jeremiah's rebuke of Israel; the Prophet says that these chosen people of the Lord "have loved to wander (and) they have not refrained their feet." In the vision of the tree of life there were those "who had commenced in the path" but "did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost".
Wandering is often attributed with a lack of purpose. Its companion is idleness and brings a false sense of freedom and a lack of responsibilities. Wandering is the byproduct of a lack of faith, as it hints to the fact that the wanderer hopes or expects to find happiness and/or peace in something other than the gospel plan. Wandering is the cousin of perdition and its looseness and selfishness are in direct opposition to God's plan of sealed family units and family and church obligations.
It is to no surprise then that Kind Benjamin's hope for his people was that they would be "steadfast and immovable". It is no wonder that Christ is referred to as a rock and that he is the good shepherd that searches out the lost sheep.
To some degree we have all strayed from the fold of God. Perhaps by nature we all tend to wander. I love the words of the hymn "Come Thou Fount Of every Blessing" as it is truly the prayer of every human heart:
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above
Have a great week,
Elder Dawson
This week we had a lesson with Brenda (our 14 year old investigator who is 8 months pregnant) and she told us she got her answer that the book of mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was a really neat experience and she's showing a lot of progress.
Today is a holiday know as "The burning of the devil" here in Guatemala. From what I can understand it's a day for people to clean their houses and burn their trash. Stores around town are also selling pinatas shaped like devils to that you can burn them. I think we'll buy one today and burn it for a P-Day Activity.
This week I'd like to write a little bit on the topic of wandering. Often, wandering is thought of as punishment, such as the forty years of wondering the Israelites suffered in the wilderness or the wandering from the sea to sea to seek the word of the Lord during the apostasy. However, I'd like to discuss wandering as a choice that God's children occasionally make. This type of wandering as a choice is evident in Jeremiah's rebuke of Israel; the Prophet says that these chosen people of the Lord "have loved to wander (and) they have not refrained their feet." In the vision of the tree of life there were those "who had commenced in the path" but "did lose their way, that they wandered off and were lost".
Wandering is often attributed with a lack of purpose. Its companion is idleness and brings a false sense of freedom and a lack of responsibilities. Wandering is the byproduct of a lack of faith, as it hints to the fact that the wanderer hopes or expects to find happiness and/or peace in something other than the gospel plan. Wandering is the cousin of perdition and its looseness and selfishness are in direct opposition to God's plan of sealed family units and family and church obligations.
It is to no surprise then that Kind Benjamin's hope for his people was that they would be "steadfast and immovable". It is no wonder that Christ is referred to as a rock and that he is the good shepherd that searches out the lost sheep.
To some degree we have all strayed from the fold of God. Perhaps by nature we all tend to wander. I love the words of the hymn "Come Thou Fount Of every Blessing" as it is truly the prayer of every human heart:
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above
Have a great week,
Elder Dawson
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