We knocked doors in Dom Arenas this week!! It was the first legit time we've actually knocked doors....it really doesn’t work at all hah, but we ran into some nice people. It gets super bad when I tell them where I’m from and then seriously, they go off for like 10 minutes about papers and the border and how Americans don’t like them...its super lame...so...we decided I’m from Australia. WORKS GREAT!!!
On Saturday we were in Huejo and these borrachos called me over and were like "gringo gringo! ven aca" ... so I was like no soy gringo...then they asked me where I was from and I said...AUSTRALIA...and they thought about it...then were like "HOW DO YA LIKE IT HERE" and all this stuff hahaha it was hilarious, then they offered me some hard liquor and I told them I was a missionary hah. There’s a HUGE difference when you aren’t from the US, so I’m from Australia now :) but to the members and like legit investigators I’m from California :) I totally spilled all over me this week at lunch. The chicken fell in the "salsa" and got all over me. I need a bib...so if you could send one of those that'd be faaaaaaaaantastic. We have had water problems lately. First it ran out. So we went and checked our big tank and it was super low and the water was NASTY, and that’s the water we drink.....so we cleaned it..hahahahah but I don’t fit in it so Palafox did it and the water was FREEEEZING and he had to stand on a bucket half the time so that his feet wouldn’t freeze...it was hilarious though. We cleaned the whole thing then rigged the hose up to another hose and tied metal things around it cause the pressure is enough to reach the top of the house and we brought it up there and filled it with clean water after cleaning it for like 2 and a half hours....it was such nasty water though. I can’t believe we were drinking that. There was thick dirt on the bottom, ahhh it was so nasty...but it’s all good now hah, it was way fun though, and I learned a lot.
The next day we ran out of gas so we couldn’t shower but THIS morning I took a cold shower hahahah and it’s freezing in the mornings. It was hilarious. I woke up and knew I had to do it cause I hadn’t showered in like 2 days cause no water then the bucket warmer thing blew up the outlet so we couldn’t use that so I just woke up and went in there and turned it on full blast and took this 5 minute death shower...great...after, it actually felt pretty nice haha but it was SO cold, cause the water up here is colder than normal cause it’s from the mountains and its like ice...like pretty much, it’s run off, it’s so cold....but it was an experience hah.
We had to go to the colony for church this week. Elder Palafox, after priesthood, was talking with all the guys in the ward about starting a new kind of business cause the guys there are looking for something, and he said they could build a pond kinda thing and sell fish cause there is none here....it was actually a SUPER good idea and I think they might actually do it. So as I wrote earlier, I had some fannnntastic reading and studying this week. I’ve been reading my Spanish scriptures and marking with a red dot the words that I don’t know...then after for my language study I go though and look them all up on my little electronic dictionary thing, and I have 3 pages full of words now and it’s saaaaweeeet. But I also thought it would be a good idea to go back and look though all my notes in my journal from the MTC devotionals and from Tucson and stuff, and I found some REALLY good scriptures and advice, that not only missionaries could use, but everyone. So, some of them are just scriptures I liked in there or ones I wrote down that I look up later, and some are just little sentences of advice that I liked.
As our faith increases, so does our gospel knowledge -- this is totally true and I’ve totally realized this on my mission. When we have more faith, the spirit is obviously with us more, and we learn spiritual things by the spirit, therefore, having more faith increases our gospel knowledge, and that kinda leads into the next thing I wrote, which is from Tucson. It’s from when one of the 12 came to speak to us in Tucson. He was telling us about how investigators (and EVERYONE) need to be obedient and living the commandments to gain spiritual knowledge. Then he used this really neat analogy that I liked. He was talking about how we must ACT to gain this spiritual knowledge, not just go though the motions... he compared it to basketball, how we can’t learn to play basketball without dribbling or handling a ball. And that’s so true. We can read all the rules and watch videos how to do it, but we will never really ever learn to play until we take that ball in our hands and dribble and shoot. So what he was trying to get across is that we all need to constantly be studying the scriptures, participating in lessons, and ACTING to gain that spiritual knowledge we want. And it’s most important with our investigators cause if they're not keeping their commitments, and reading and praying...they won’t gain that spiritual knowledge of the gospel truths. That’s why it is SO important for EVERYONE, investigators, AND us, to constantly be in our scriptures learning and developing our spiritual knowledge. I really liked that when I found it again. And he had 1 Nephi 7:8-10 with that.
John 7:17
When we testify to people, they will be interested. That is totally true and exactly what we should always be doing. Forget about trying to explain every detail to someone about the restoration to try to MAKE them believe, we always just need to testify and bring that spirit with us and when we do the people will want to know more.
And when I was looking through my notes I found all these cool scriptures I had found in Matthew and Mark when the Savior asked his disciples questions...and that was the day that hermano Mcfadyn subbed for our teacher, hah so Lauren if you read this...tell your brother he's awesome and I read over his notes again and that his lesson was sweet.
Mosiah 15:7
I found some awesome diagrams too, that'd I’d love to draw for you, and I’m on this weird touch screen computer thing so I prob could, but it would take forever to figure out so maybe I’ll draw them and take a picture ad send it, but one of the diagrams that was super awesome was this circle, a cycle. It started with faith to be obedient, then obedience brings blessings, then that leads to a testimony. They're closing the computer place so I gotta go but I’ll write my favorite things I found...
Sister Walker, the mission president’s wife in Tucson said this in a conference about prayer. I wish I could explain this more, because it’s super important, but she said how we need to prepare to pray. We need to have a clean room, get on the ground and meditate before, clear our mind and ponder about things like our family, investigators and other blessings we've received. We need to pray for individual needs and realize WHO we are approaching, and that is something super important. We are literally conversing with God, and we need to talk and pray and be focused like we really are in front of him. Then we need to pray with real intent, with purpose, a sincere heart, faith in Christ. Darn, they're closing, I wish I could write more, but this is something super important that we all need to focus on and I know it will bless us...I’m so grateful for prayer and all my many blessings. I love it out here and I’m having the time of my life. Thanks for all the love and support... until next week :)
Love,
Elder Bertha
We just ate dinner and I played store with Ugo, Hermana Silvia's son. We played store for like 30 minutes with this totally broken cash register hahahah it was so fun!! I sold him all kinds of stuff... then I made this SUPER SWEET scene with the wrestlers riding unicorns and giraffes....epic.
