Mission Blog |
A dangerously acute account of 18 months in Nicaraguan Territory.
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This past fortnight has been quite the quest to help Ruben prepare for his baptism! He was kind of confused about the whole baptism by authority, but when he watched the Joseph Smith video, he understood a lot better. He’s really excited about being able to leave with the missionaries and preach the gospel in his own little way. I’ve been trying really hard to focus on applying my studies to myself and my investigators. I discovered a particular scripture that made me think a moment “And I give unto you, who are the first laborers in this last kingdom, a commandment that you assemble yourselves together and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves and sanctify yourselves, yea, purify your hearts…(D&C 88:74). It makes sense that to be His servant you have to be clean and prepared and organized. But even more, to be His disciple, we have to be sanctified and made pure and holy through His atoning blood to labor in His vineyard, we have to be like He is! The question is, are we becoming more like Him? In Preach my Gospel, there is a whole chapter on the attributes of Christ. May I suggest that we all read that chapter, find an attribute we need to improve, make goals, and then put into action the plans we’ve made? It would be a much more lovely world if we all were able to just become a little more like Christ. OK…time to end with a pun and a story. Which first? Probably the pun…Even though there is hardly ever any in Nicaragua, I tried to catch some fog…I mist. (pity laughter please) Ok story time… We brought an elder lady to church on Sunday with her little girl. Even though her child had decided to go swimming in the baptismal font, she stuck it out in Sacrament meeting and decided to stay for gospel principles. Everything was hunky-dory until about ½ way through the class, a member motioned for her to leave for a second. She politely excused herself and went out. About five minutes later a different member motioned for us to come out as well. We did so and found, to our great surprise, the woman sobbing great salty tears. A smile was the first reaction that came to me: “How strongly she feels the spirit!” thought I. My companion was a little more perceptive and asked a few probing questions to find out the whole truth: Her son had gone a little crazy, cut his wrist, took all the stuff that was in the house and sold it all, and then tore the barely standing wooden house to the ground. She asked between heaving breaths, “Why is God punishing me for coming to His church?” My companion looked at me (because it’s always supposed to be the gringa that doesn’t natively speak Spanish who should calm down those who do), I said “if our Heavenly Father knows of the sparrows in the sky and the lilies of the field, how much more is He aware of His beloved daughter Yamilett.” She stopped crying so much and we put her into the loving arms of the Relief Society President. Who can deny the love of our Eternal Father? --Hermana Beatty PS ok, I know you wanted one more pun: What happens to chemists when they die? They Barium! Pictures:
1. Fresh from the shower and off to the meetin` 2. RUBEN!! and his awesome baptism! 3. Sometimes you just need a North American moment... So, I take pictures with my cousins, the North American mannequin ;)
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November 2015
CategoriesAuthorhola! I'm Naomi and I love reading, my amazing family, and the color green. |