Good day my family,
I hope this email finds you all doing well and happy. This last week was a good week, not a lot of things happened, but it was still good. Things are still going well with Elder Ulloa, he is a bit a goof ball so it makes it easy to be able to get along with him. Although he likes to joke and mess around, he also wants to work and when it is time to focus in on something he does. Over all things are going really well between us.
More than anything this week we got to know a bit of the area and some of the members and people interested in the church. This last week we went with Maria and Jaime to be able to teach them the five lessons again and also to ask for references. Within about 5 minutes of talking to Maria about other people who she knows who we can visit she gave us 5 references: a friend and her daughter, her daughter-in-law, and also two of her sisters. She then said, "vamos les muestro las casas ahorita." or in English, l
“Lets go I’ll show you guys the houses right now” Then we went and she showed us the houses and also joined us with one of the visits and shared her testimony and invited her daughter-in-law, Paula, to go to church with her this Sunday. We are going to continue working with them to be able to get even more references, five in five minutes, we know they know a lot more people that we can teach.
The teaching pool is a little dry right now so we do not have a lot of people who we are teaching who are really progressing. They people who we do have to teach are Angel and Manuel Muralles, who are the brothers of Sara; who got baptized about a month and a half ago. There are also Enma, and her two daughters, but they cannot really progress right now because her "husband" still has to get divorced to be able to get married to her. In Guatemala there is a law that after being divorced you have to wait 6 months to be able to get married again, and you have to pay a bunch of money to get a statement printed in the newspaper. There are a couple of other people who are still like sprouts who we aren’t really sure if they are going to progress or not.
During a bit of my personal study this week I had a scripture that jumped out at a bit that I had not really noticed before. It is found in Alma 36:3. It says, "Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." I really like this scripture because it shows that God is literally going to support us all in whatever challenges or trials that we may have. I think that sometimes it is easy as imperfect people to think that maybe God does not give liberally to all of his children, but we have the promise that He gives all of His goodness when we put our trust in God and we are willing to live by faith. Elder Bednar once said, "Faith and Hope invite into our lives the sweet peace of conscience for which we all yearn." 2 Nephi 26:28 says, "Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden." To me this last scripture illustrates a point that is essential, that of agency. Every one of us has an equal chance to receive the blessings of God.
I know that God loves us and is truly anxious to be able to bless us with the peace and joy that everyone of us desires in our heart. We just have to be willing to take small steps of faith that will lead us back to Him. It is kinda like Indiana Jones, to get the Holy Grail he had to take that first step of faith onto the invisible bridge, that step was the hardest, he had to continue walking by faith, overcoming obstacles along the way to be able to achieve his end goal.
I love you all so much!
Elder Marks
I hope this email finds you all doing well and happy. This last week was a good week, not a lot of things happened, but it was still good. Things are still going well with Elder Ulloa, he is a bit a goof ball so it makes it easy to be able to get along with him. Although he likes to joke and mess around, he also wants to work and when it is time to focus in on something he does. Over all things are going really well between us.
More than anything this week we got to know a bit of the area and some of the members and people interested in the church. This last week we went with Maria and Jaime to be able to teach them the five lessons again and also to ask for references. Within about 5 minutes of talking to Maria about other people who she knows who we can visit she gave us 5 references: a friend and her daughter, her daughter-in-law, and also two of her sisters. She then said, "vamos les muestro las casas ahorita." or in English, l
“Lets go I’ll show you guys the houses right now” Then we went and she showed us the houses and also joined us with one of the visits and shared her testimony and invited her daughter-in-law, Paula, to go to church with her this Sunday. We are going to continue working with them to be able to get even more references, five in five minutes, we know they know a lot more people that we can teach.
The teaching pool is a little dry right now so we do not have a lot of people who we are teaching who are really progressing. They people who we do have to teach are Angel and Manuel Muralles, who are the brothers of Sara; who got baptized about a month and a half ago. There are also Enma, and her two daughters, but they cannot really progress right now because her "husband" still has to get divorced to be able to get married to her. In Guatemala there is a law that after being divorced you have to wait 6 months to be able to get married again, and you have to pay a bunch of money to get a statement printed in the newspaper. There are a couple of other people who are still like sprouts who we aren’t really sure if they are going to progress or not.
During a bit of my personal study this week I had a scripture that jumped out at a bit that I had not really noticed before. It is found in Alma 36:3. It says, "Whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." I really like this scripture because it shows that God is literally going to support us all in whatever challenges or trials that we may have. I think that sometimes it is easy as imperfect people to think that maybe God does not give liberally to all of his children, but we have the promise that He gives all of His goodness when we put our trust in God and we are willing to live by faith. Elder Bednar once said, "Faith and Hope invite into our lives the sweet peace of conscience for which we all yearn." 2 Nephi 26:28 says, "Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden." To me this last scripture illustrates a point that is essential, that of agency. Every one of us has an equal chance to receive the blessings of God.
I know that God loves us and is truly anxious to be able to bless us with the peace and joy that everyone of us desires in our heart. We just have to be willing to take small steps of faith that will lead us back to Him. It is kinda like Indiana Jones, to get the Holy Grail he had to take that first step of faith onto the invisible bridge, that step was the hardest, he had to continue walking by faith, overcoming obstacles along the way to be able to achieve his end goal.
I love you all so much!
Elder Marks