Email 30/10/17

Hello everybody,

I spent most of this week being sick; I caught a cold from our branch mission leader and am just starting to finally recover. Nevertheless, the work of the Lord doesn’t stop.

On Monday, we met with Mike de Hogar again. We reviewed the restoration, and what’s great is that he has been keeping his commitments to read and pray, so all we gotta do now is focus on getting him to come to church. He’s got a lot of good potential. He’s what many would call an eternagator, having had a relationship with the missionaries for several years, but by comparing his teaching records in the past to the attitude and attention that he’s giving the gospel now, it seems like he’s taking things a lot more seriously.

On Tuesday, we had our weekly Noche de hogar with some of our members, Aurora, Domingo, and Antonio, and our investigator, Maru, was there again. We reviewed 1 Nephi 1 together and had a great lesson about modern day revelation and the importance of the scriptures (thanks Elder Holland).

I was feeling pretty bad on Wednesday, so about the only thing we did was take a bus up to Antonio Bernal’s house, who is a menos activo, and shared with him President Monson’s talk about the Book of Mormon. I love that man. I love that talk. I love that Book.

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, Elder Kassing and I devised a great plan to help the members of the branch share the message of the restored gospel with their friends. In a few weeks, we’re going to have a branch Noche de hogar devoted to the Book of Mormon and sharing the gospel. We’ve been visiting all of the members and giving them a copy of the Book of Mormon to hand out to a friend, family member, etc. before the Noche de Hogar. Everyone has been excitedly accepting this challenge, with some of them telling us, “I already know exactly to whom I’m going to give it,” and others finishing the challenge super quickly, sin miedo (see photos).

There were two big miracles we experienced this week. We’ve been having a hard time trying to sit down and teach Maria, Manolo, Alba, and Álvaro (the three investigators and one menos activo I’ve mentioned in previous emails), so we had called Maria asking when we could meet, and agreed on Friday evening. Except when we got to their house, they were all busy, but told us that we could come back the next evening. So we did, and finally, we had a lesson with them! As we were talking about the Book of Mormon, we shared President Monson’s talk with them, and they were all so excited to start following a prophet of God’s council and read the Book of Mormon. Seriously, their comments and answers were so spot on in that lesson haha.

The second miracle came with our investigator, Alfonso. All week, it seemed like he had dropped off the face of the earth, and by the time Sunday rolled around, we hadn’t heard anything from him at all. That morning, we decided to go to church 45 minutes earlier than usual to get some stuff done, and two minutes later, Alfonso walked into the chapel. He told us that since the day he agreed to be baptized two months ago, he’s felt a lot of opposition from the adversary, and was being tempted to give up going on that path as a result. But, he decided to come to church instead. Good choice, Alfonso! He’s gotten his excitement back and if everything goes according to plan, will be baptized on November 18th.

I had a most satisfying study this week about Jesus Christ being “my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer” (2 Samuel 22:2). He is “a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Helaman 5:12). He is “a stone of stumbling and . . . a rock of offence” (Isaiah 8:14) against all sin, and unhappiness, and problems in life. He is the “Roca de Eternidad” (Himnos, 58). He was indeed “cleft for me” (Hymns, 111) and only “[He] must save, and [Him] alone” (Hymns, 111). All we must do is “come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him” (Moroni 10:32), because he’s already taken care of the rest.

Love,

Élder Stark ??