Friday, September 1, 2017

ZERO Respect and Prepared Investigators

Familia,                                                                                                           
Well, this week was actually a pretty awesome one. It seemed like every day something crazy happened.  First of all, I’ll start with the big L of the week. I was chilling in a lesson, just doing my thing, and like every family here in Argentina, the family we were teaching had five dogs. I’m pretty used to dogs running all over the place, so this was nothing new.  We were sharing a lesson and a dog started sniffing my feet and as I reached down to give it some love, without even hesitating, it marked its territory by peeing on my scripture bag.  All I was doing was trying to preach the good word of the gospel and the dog gave me ZERO respect. But, that family ended up accepting our baptismal invitation, so that made things a little bit better.
            This week we also had some more great lessons with Rozanne and Marcelo.  Every time we are in their home, it feels like there is a special spirit present.  It truly feels like they have been prepared to receive our message because all of their interest in other churches and doubts about God are finally being erased.  One of the coolest things we saw this week happened when we were approaching their house for a lesson. We saw their nineteen-year old daughter reading the Book of Mormon outside.  My companion and I saw her, then we just stopped for a second to soak in what we were seeing.  It was pretty awesome! Every time we walk out of their house it really feels like I’m walking on Cloud 9 because the Spirit is always so strong.
            We also made another homie this week.  Luciano approached us and talked to us; instead of us doing the work and approaching him.  He is twenty-four years old and to be honest, he has had a pretty rough life because he has basically grown up on the streets.  He approached us one morning because he wants to become closer to God and eventually leave the life that he knows.  We actually had a really good conversation about repentance and we taught him that the best way to truly repent is to get baptized.  He immediately accepted the invitation because he basically just wants to start a new life. He hasn’t had a family to push him a long and give him expectations. Despite this difficult lifestyle, Luciano is such a stud. He told us that the other day something just clicked in his mind and he realized that there is so much more out there in the world for him.  I just pray that Luciano can progress toward baptism so he truly can leave his difficult life behind.  
            We had the awesome opportunity this weekend to hear from Ronald A. Rasband, as well as a couple of Seventies.  One of the coolest things about being far from home is being able to hear and receive support and love from the church leaders who are in charge of the South America South Region. The Church is literally all over the world and it’s so cool to see how much the church leaders love every member in world and to witness how much they sacrifice to help us.  Of course, in Salt Lake, we have the church headquarters fifteen minutes from our house, but this weekend, when I was thousands of miles from home, I felt like I was home because it was broadcast from Salt Lake.  LOL!
            One thing I started to do this week, while I’m reading the Book of Mormon, is look for all of the times that Christ is mentioned and mark all of the different names Christ is given. I’m also marking all of the remarkable things He did on the earth.  It’s amazing to see how much the people in the Book of Mormon knew about Christ and His life before He was even born.  The Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.
            Happy Birthday shout out on Sunday to Princess Emily and Big Marv who is killin’ it across the ocean in London.  Go UTES!!


Elder Roderick

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