Weekly Letter #96
Hello world!!!!
This week was my last week as a traveling missionary. We ended with success, helping the missionaries find new people to teach after a hard week, and helping their investigators to have spiritual experiences with the Gospel. One of these very special moments was particularly cool.
Elaulio, a member who visits a far sector of the area with us, is the only member of his family who is a convert in the Church. He told us about his daughters, one of which is Catholic and the other who is an Evangelical pastor, and how they had received the missionaries before. They hadn't received missionaries for a long time, so we asked him if this was the opportune moment, and he said it perhaps was. So we went and sat down with the whole family, and began to talk about the Spirit. After some discussion on the topic, it was just us with Elaulio and his daughter Claudia who grew up Catholic but was baptized in an Evangelical church. As we listened to her, we found that she had always struggled to feel the Spirit because of the many distractions there are during the day, and had hardly felt it in any church. We began showing her how she could recognize it by showing her 1 Kings 19:11-13. She then told us about how she doesn't feel worthy of feeling it because of her weaknesses and feelings of unworthiness to speak with the Lord. That was when we shared the account of the brother of Jared in Ether 3 in the Book of Mormon and helped her understand his prayer so that she could speak with the Lord in the same reverent manner. She told us that she was beginning to feel that Spirit, and that she had never felt it even with the other missionaries that had come. We then spent the rest of the appoi ntment talking about baptism, showing her how she could feel the Spirit more consistently, and explaining certain things with personal experiences with feeling the Spirit, and in the end she said she couldn't fully understand nor accept that she would need to be baptized again. We invited her to pray. She did so, and did wait for an answer, but unfortunately it didn't come. We were not alarmed, because she still has a doubt, and only needed to study more on the matter in order for the Spirit to testify to her. So we left her with something to study, and she said she would do so willingly. This was an important step in the process of her conversion.
We also had an opportunity to work with different areas due to necessity and logistics, and so I worked with Elder Aranda from Peru in Las Villas in a far sector of his area called San Pedro Ayumpuc. It was a special experience, as upon talking with the first family we visited we helped encourage them to come to Church again, and not just to come to Church but to continue learning about the Gospel and resolving their doubts. As a result of the confidence we gained with them, we were able to set a baptismal date with their son, as well as set that same date with the family friend who was there working with them, who has been wanting to investigate the Church and serve a mission. In the end of the visit we visited the Monroy family, a faithful family in the Church who unfortunately had had challenges with coming to Church due to work, and there are still family members who have not chosen to be baptized. We shared a special message with them, reminding them to be consistent and not "lose the practice" of practicing the Gospel so that they can be changed and hope for eternal life, and this helped Delmi, the daughter who had not been baptized, to receive encouragement to make the decision. She didn't have enough desires yet, but she said she would read the Book of Mormon with the family, and we promised her that upon doing so she would develop the desire and faith and love for the Lord necessary to be baptized. It was a wonderful visit.
I am thankful for the wonderful assignment, and not to mention my companion Elder Unruh for being a wonderful companion and support for me. He's been a stud, and though we hardly worked together (we always did divisions with the elders we worked with) we made the most out of our time when we ever were together.
I will now be opening Lomas del Norte, which was the area I helped out with the week before. I am super excited for this assignment, knowing that it will be my last and was what I petitioned to President Christensen that I would do; I just love that area and the people there. It will be a great experience.
I am thankful for all the experiences that the Lord has given me to mold me into the missionary and into the man that I am now. I feel pleased and satisfied with my work and for the person I am. He has made my weaknesses into strengths, and has made my strengths stronger. I know that His Gospel is true, for I am a witness of it, along with the power of the Savior's atoning sacrifice and endless, consistent support. I know that this is His Church, guided by prophets and apostles called by Him. I know that these things are true and I testify of them in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
My friends, my brethren, my family, my acquaintances, I wish you all a wonderful week.
Love,
Elder Dredge
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