God makes us strong

This week we killed it! We had tons of lessons, but better than that we had tons of POWERFUL lessons.

Here in Tlahualilo I have really gained a confidence in and an ability to teach by the Spirit that I lacked so much before, and it really does make all the diference. How is it that we can invite the Spirit into lessons as missionaries?

There is nothing I have found that brings the Spirit into the mission lessons like
1 The first vision 
2 The Book of Mormon
3 Testimony of Jesus Christ.

We had a lesson with G. and His wife (yes, they are actually married) who are a couple that ´believe' in God, but in a God that requires nothing and that should just bless them - A god that isn't a God.

When we first started teaching them his wife had all kinds of weird questions but little by little we helped them to understand that the more abstract things of the gospel can only be understood if we first understand basics. After we explained a little about what is a prophet and who they are as children of God they told us...´Ok but we will still never go to your church.´....okay I'm not here to try and drag you to church....oh wait....haha naw.  but they weren't accepting a whole lot of the message until we got around the Book of Mormon and especially the First Vision. The atmosphere really does change, I don't know how to explain it, you just feel good, you just don't have tension or stress you just tell the story and the Spirit comes in to help us out. By the end of that lesson they told us they would come to church.

The Book of Mormon as well is such a powerful tool God has given us. I love it and I love what it makes us into, we grow so much spiritually and intellectually when we read the book of Mormon. President Benson said that “… The Book of Mormon has not been, nor is it yet, the center of our personal study, family teaching, preaching, and missionary work. Of this we must repent.” I really havent used the Book of Mormon to its full potential here in the mission and I am now trying to repent and I have seen miracles because I am using it more. 

We also have had really good lessons with F., but his girlfriend is a very difficult person, she will not get married for free because it would require that the marriage be performed in public and she feels embarrassed by that, but she will not pay a dime (or peso) to be married because its ´the mans responsibility´.... Haha and we can't exactly say it would be better for them to split up after 25 years, 5 kids, and grandkids.

So we gotta try and help Fransisco find a way to get married in private for free. It'll take a miracle. Not only is he very converted to the message of the gospel but he is helping his children understand how the gospel can bless them too. He gave us the reference for his kid that lives here in Tlahualilo and we are now teaching them both and F. went by their house on Sunday and brought them to church. IT WAS AWESOME. All three of them stayed for the full 3 hours! more than the majority of the members here (and some of  the members of my family....haha).

Let's just say F.  really is a golden investigator we just gotta help his girlfriend. The weird thing is that when it comes down to it she is a really big support for F., she helps him read his Book of Mormon and gets mad when he doesn't read it, she cleans his clothes and helps him leave on time so he can get to church, she gets mad at him if some days he doesn't have time for us to visit him, she makes sure that nothing gets in the way of our visits if she can help it, so she gets that this message really is helping him and she wants to get married but just doesn't want to sacrifice her pride nor her dinero. I respect her and am grateful for the effort she does put in to help us though,

We had a bomb dropped on us yesterday though. President S. (The Branch President) moved back to his home in DF with his family and left the branch president less. So other church leaders came to Tlahualilo and evaluated the situation and the sad truth is there is not a replacement to be found in Tlahualilo...so who will be called as branch president....one of us...the missionaries. Yes. And what heppens next? President R. closed one of the areas in Tlahualilo so the other companionship that was here with us left this morning. So to sum up we now have all of Tlahualilo under our wing, and one of us - me or my companion - will be set apart next week as the branch president. Overnight my stress level went way up. God doesn't look for the strong but for the weak to make them strong.