Another "week" in Paradise!! Jan 28, 2013

Ok! So another week has gone by in Villa Flor, Villa Venezuela and we are working hard!! There isn't much to talk about this week. We did find a new family to teach this week and we had a really cool experience with them. Their names are J and A. We were walking down this street in an area that we have never been in, contacting people, looking for new families. We past a house where a little girl was crying and we both turned around at the same time to go contact this house. That's one way to see the spirit working together in a companionship is when both of us turn to go back at the same time. So we contacted this house, and there was a man watching Dragon Ball Z, holding his crying little girl, trying to get her to stop crying. We started to talk to him, introduced ourselves, and he invited us in. He called over his wife, and we began to teach them about the Restoration. They were really interested and loved hearing how the church was restored. We started to talk about the authority of God and how through it we are able to to the will of God. J then proceeded to tell us how he knew there was a difference in all the churches but he couldn't figure out what it was. He was really interested in how Joseph Smith got the priesthood and how he was able to restore the church, in the exact way that Jesus had established it when He lived on the earth. After we finished the lesson, we ended with a hymn, which my comp and I sang. It was Families can be together Forever. They loved the words and what they meant! They wanted to learn how to sing them because they said that they were really beautiful. We invited them to church yesterday but J had to go to work so he wasn't going to be able to make it. So he said that he was going to ask his boss if he could have next Sunday off so he could go to church with his family. The spirit was really strong during that lesson. I haven't felt the spirit quite like that for awhile!! They then invited us over to eat lunch with them on Monday. So today, after we finished playing soccer at the church in the morning, we headed over to their house to eat. When we arrived, they said that they wanted to learn more and we would have to wait til after the lesson to eat! It was really funny the way they said it but it was good because it showed how interested they were in learning the gospel. So we started to teach them about the Plan of Salvation. When we asked them if they knew where they were before this life, and like everyone else we talk to, they said, ''I was inside my mother!'' Then we ask if they knew where they were before THAT and they got really confused, thinking that we were nothing before we entered into our mothers womb, that we never existed until then. I love being able to tell someone about our life before this one! Where we lived with our Father in Heaven, where we all knew each other, and where we had a perfect knowledge of everything. Then we explained the purpose of our life here on earth and what we need to be doing to stay on the right path, to obey the commandments, and to do all the the Lord asks of us. Then we asked them if they had any idea where we would be going after this life, after we die. J sat and thought for a bit and then answered. His answer made me and my comp really surprised and really happy! He said that he didn't believe that there was a hell and that we would be judge the moment after we die. He said that he thinks that there will be a place where everyone will go to wait for the time to be judge of all of our works here on earth. AND he is absolutely correct! That place has a name and its called El Mundo de los Espiritus or the Spirit World!! Where we will all go after this life to wait for the Second coming of the Lord. Where we will be teachers to those in the Spirit Prison who didn't accept the gospel on the earth, where they will have the chance to accept it and know of the blessings and goodness it can bring into our lives!! We talked about the 3 degrees of Glory and how we need to decide now what one of those 3 kingdoms we want to end up in. Now I ask you!!! Of the 3 Kingdoms, which one do you want to go to? I would think that all of us want to go the the Celestial Kingdom. But are we doing what we need to be doing to get there? Are we reading the scriptures, the words of God, every day? Are we praying at least day and night? Are we trying to become more Christ-like through the attributes that He had? If not, what is impeding us? And why are we doing anything to change it? I know that I don't have much to write this week but I feel that all of us could do a little Life Check to see how we are actually doing in obeying the Lords Commandments. Prayerfully read Alma 5 and ask the Lord what you should be doing or need to be doing to be more of a servant of the Lord. We can be a tool in the Lords hands, we just need to make ourselves available.

''The question each of us must answer is ... What shall I do with Jesus? He Himself has provided us the answer: "Follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do" --Thomas S. Monson

¡¡¡Les Amo!!!

ELDER DAUGHERTY