what fun is turning 21 when youre a missionary?
its a lot of fun let me tell you! more or less it was a normal day. some
bad news, the baptism fell through due to scheduling purposes but its
good to go for this next week so no worries! she is still reading a ton
and is very excited for baptism. for dinner i ate my 300th pupusa! i
switched it up this time and instead of a large one i got three small
ones (because i only had 297 when i got to the pupuseria) but all of
different types (ajo, ayote, y loroco). but here is what i really want
to talk about today. so this week elder piñeros and i were set on
working to find less active members.
saturday
especially we made plans for the majority of the day to work towards
that goal. after a few appointments in this one colonia we set out to
search for these less actives on the other side of town. we were
crossing this one street that we always pass through from this colonia
(6 de Mayo) and there was a man standing outside his house. As we passed
by he waved to us and said "buenas tardes, cómo están?". I immediately
stopped and felt to talk to this man about the church. Right from the
get go this guy told us that he is a member and used to go to church a
long time ago. In fact, he and his wife were married in the Layco
building. They fell away from the church due to some issue with a former
bishop in another ward. 15 years or so this man and his wife hadnt been
to church. We invited him to come to church and set an appointment to
visit them and were about to head out when he began to cry and hugged
me. He told us that he was so happy that he found us and that he felt
the Spirit so strongly because he had recently started talking with his
wife about the idea of going back to church. Even better, they both came
to church yesterday! We have literally knocked all the houses on that
street and pass by there everyday but this one day Elder Piñeros and I
know that the Lord placed this man in our path to finally be brought
back to church. Now here is something important. Many people believe
that more than anything missionary work is to baptize people. i know for
a fact that, while that is crucially important, missionary work is so
much more. Why is a single baptism significant? because with one convert
we can then convert generations to come. why is a less active
important? because when a member turns away from the church we then lose
generations to come. never assume that a less active member is just a
bad, angry person who has rejected God in their lives. there is a reason
that the Savior shared the parables of the lost silver coin, the lost
sheep, and the prodigal son. remember that in these three parables all
of these things once belonged in the possession of the owner, shepherd,
and father. directly it is talking about the less active members. those
who have lost their way. so now, i want to urge all of you member
missionaries of the church to look to who you can help, who you can
bring back to the Lord. Reactivation of a member is just as valuable as a
baptism of a convert. The Lord loves all His children and cannot suffer
to lose a single one. I promise that in the service for others you will
find yourselves. We can measure who we are ourselves by what we do for
others. I am blessed and humbled to have been given that gift of
learning on my 21st birthday. I love you all very much and am always
happy to hear from you every week. Thank you all for the birthday wishes
as well!
Elder Abilez
Pupusa Count:48
