Teaching People, Not Lessons (Week 4)

Olá família and hello friends!

What an amazing week it's been. Like I said on the last email, we had a bit of a low but this past week has been filled with so many blessings and miracles!

Well I guess I can start by telling you about an amazing family that we worked with for the past week every day. On Sunday (13th August), we went to visit a family in which the mum and the sons are baptised but not the dad. We had found them by chance when we were knocking doors and the mum called us in. The dad, José also known as Bé, was in a very bad state when we first met him. He was very sick and frail, he was bed-sick and was quite slow in speaking etc. We left them with a prayer and a quick message and left to meet other people. When we returned the next day we found him sitting up and with a bit more strength. We talked a bit more with him about baptism and it turns out that he had frequented the church many years before and even worked in the construction of the temple and chapels. However, because of bad examples from some members he lost his desire to be baptised. Elder Zenteno explained to him that the church is like a spiritual hospital. Everyone there has a sickness of some kind and is going there to be treated. In other words, no one is perfect in this perfect church. Then my companion, after a powerful lesson, invited him to be baptised the next Sunday. He accepted but was a bit unsure and scared, so we didn't leave it at that.

Every day of that week we returned and prayed with José's family and taught them the words of Christ. And with every day that we passed we saw him getting stronger and stronger to the point that we was walking around, up the stairs and so on. His wife Agda, who hasn't been to church in a while to take care of him, commented every time on how much he was being blessed with health and strength. The Lord's hand was very evident this week, as José let go of this fears and doubts, exercised his faith and was baptised yesterday. It was an amazing day for the family and for all who were there. He congratulated us on being the missionaries who managed to get him to church, because there had been a lot before us. But it wasn't us. It was the Lord who really prepared him and we merely taught him some lessons and helped him recognise all the blessings that the gospel brings. :)

Ah, I feel that these blogs need more humour or something. Don't want you guys to fall asleep reading... Let me think... This story isn't really funny but for me it was different. We were talking to this guy and he was really open with us. He shared a lot of problems that he was having and we were just listening. At one point he was like: "Like I told you before, I'm an honest guy. I'm not gong to lie to you and say that I haven't killed three people because, I have". I was thinking, well that escalated quickly! My companion was seemingly very used to talking to murderers but it was my first time (as far as know). :P But hey, the good thing is that his past is behind him and he still wants to follow Christ and make the right choices for his daughter. But it was still a bit strange!

Anyways, another amazing experience we've had this week has been teaching a little 9 year old boy called Fernando. His mum has been baptised already along with some of his brothers. However, the dad didn't allow Fernando to be baptised because he thought the missionaries before us tried to rush him into the decision. The fact is that baptism is essential for everyone's salvation but not everyone will understand that straightaway. So, we as missionaries have to work at their pace to help them gain that vision and desire for themselves. Fernando is a really innocent and pure boy. I believe he has some form of autism or social inability so he doesn't learn the way that most of our investigators do. His dad told us that the way he learns is by drawing. Me and Elder Zenteno both like drawing so we were like "Ah, easy peasy!" But when we returned the next day it turns out it wasn't so easy after all. His attention span is very short so you really have to help him understand as simply as you can. The first day we went there he kept getting distracted and talking about his favourite game: "Five Nights At Friends". :P But the next day, we improved our technique and I taught him the Restoration like a story, using lots of drawings and gestures. We taught him the restoration like 5 times. By the end, me and Fernando were telling the story of the restoration together. He learnt words like prophets, apostles and even Joseph Smith! Before we left he called his mum and we did the same thing again, we told her the story and she was super impressed and congratulated us for doing something that teachers struggle doing in school. :) We were really reminded that we are here on our mission to teach people and not to teach lessons. Hopefully he will be baptised this Sunday. He really wants to but we just need to pray that Fernando's dad is more cooperative and lets him follow the example of Christ by being baptised!

I love you all and I'm glad you are all doing well!

Speak to you next week,

Elder Torres