Lift Up Your Voices – Jared Stark

Email 7/8/17

Hello everybody,

Last Monday, as we were enjoying preparation day in the chapel, we got a call from President Andersen informing us of an emergency transfer in the mission affecting the other set of elders here in Jaén. The next day, Elder Rigby left to go to Ciudad Real and Elder Trowell came from Huelva to be companions with Elder Craven. That provided a sufficiently crazy start to the week.

Also on Monday, we had another lesson with Olga. She’s doing good, progressing little by little. We have been able to get through 2/3 of the Restoration with her so far, so it’s definitely going a bit slower than “normal,” but she has been keeping her commitments to pray and read, so it just goes to show that everybody has their own pace of learning.

We’ve still been keeping in touch with Jorge this week, but he has been a bit busy with moving, so we really haven’t been able to see him too much, but we’ll probably be able to see him a bit more this week. We ate lunch with him on Wednesday, and that was about it.

This week I was able to do a baptismal interview for Juani, an investigator of the other Elders. Those interviews are for sure some of the most spiritual parts of this work. She hopefully will be getting baptized this week, but has to go to France for a few days, so it’s still a bit up in the air what’ll happen.

One night last week, we were contacting in the street, and we were stopped by a lady named Lola. She approached us saying things like “you guys worship Joseph Smith, don’t you, etc.” Of course, we tried to set the record straight with her, found out she was a Jehovah’s Witness, and ended up talking with her on this street corner for over half an hour. She told us that she thought we were really sincere young men, and wanted to keep talking to us, but somewhere a bit calmer. So she told us to follow her to a park by her house, but she wanted us to follow her at a distance so that nobody from her church would see her with us and judge her for talking to the Mormons. We ended up following her for almost 30 minutes to the other side of town, and she kept looking back and subtlety gesturing at us to keep following her. It was very bizarre, but super funny shadowing this old testigo lady at her request. Once we got to the park, we talked for a few more minutes and then set up another cita to meet there. When we came back for the second cita, she had brought some of the Jehovah’s Witness study material, and our understanding was that she would share a little bit about her church with us and we’d be able to share our beliefs with her. Unfortunately though, once she had finished sharing her thing, she indicated she had no interest in “listening to our lies” and unfortunately, that was that.

I think that my favorite part of the week was our lesson with Nabil, our investigator from Morocco. As we were teaching him, he stopped us and said, “There’s something that I feel like I need to tell you guys. That day when you contacted me on the street last week, I was praying to God to know if he even existed, and if there was more to life, and right when I finished my prayer is when you stopped me and talked to me. I took that as an answer from God to my my prayer.” He’s still finding out if what we’ve been teaching him is true and from God, but he’s accepted an invitation to be baptized, and I have no doubt that his prayers to find out the truthfulness of this message will be answered, too.

Here are some scriptures that were especially applicable for the mission this week. The first is D&C 123:12:

“For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it–“

Therefore, as it says in D&C 100:4-6:

“…I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls. Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men; For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.”

I testify of the truthfulness of this promise for I have seen it fulfilled time and time again. The Lord wants his children to know the truth, and he calls missionaries to communicate it. The work is true. Miracles happen every day, and God is the one who is directing this work.

Love you all,

Élder Stark ??

Photos

1: Elder Liza cut my hair