My Mission Has Just Begun

San Antonio Huista

Power update, yesterday about 5 pm our light started going on and off, finally it stayed on!!! So about 4 am this morning we had a BAT incident, yep a bat. It was flying through our room and wouldn’t leave. The bat landed on my bed then flew up to where I hang my pants; it was going crazy because we were trying to get to fly outside. We were finally able to chase it out. It was crazy and funny since I was half asleep! One of those moments I wish we had on video. 

Bath Time For Nacho!

This week was amazing; first of all I took on an experiment. You can watch the experiment on YouTube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUv5n2Lh5vw&list=UUf8po7VMK67MaJcFY7bgLxA 
I took a picture of Christ everywhere I went on Wednesday. I never set the picture of Christ down, not once. As I went throughout the day I honestly found myself looking to Him more often and just always smiling. Since I was constantly looking at Christ, it honestly made me think twice before I acted or said anything, even though I am a missionary. It truly was an amazing experience. I felt that Christ was really with me every step. At the end of the day I wanted to do it again, but as I thought about it I realized I don’t need to take the picture of Christ everywhere because Christ is always with me. He is always with each of us, He never leaves us. He is always there we just have to believe.

Rain=Flood

Since I have changed my focus on the way I study the Book of Mormon, I’m seeing little insights on how to help God’s children. I am also beginning to see that the people here are coming to a knowledge of their forefathers but most don’t want to break the tradition of their fathers. They say I can’t because I don’t want to offend them or disrespect their traditions. For example we found this couple and taught them, they understood everything. We challenged them to baptism and the husband said we can’t break the tradition of our fathers. I shared a scripture in the Book of Mormon where it teaches that the Book of Mormon will restore to the Lamanites a knowledge of their forefathers and of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (2 Nephi 30:3–6) They just couldn’t accept that truth. It just hurts when they can’t see the truth.  

Preparing Them To Serve

We are teaching a family of five. The sons are amazing. One of the sons said he would like to serve a mission. Two of the sons have a baptism date for this week. Of course I am so excited for them because of the many blessings they will receive, one being the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost to help them make good choices. We are going to visit them every day this week to help them to continue to prepare for baptism and make that sacred covenant because the adversary will try to plant seeds of doubt. My prayer is to bring this family of five to Christ and to prepare them for the eternal blessings of the temple. In these past couple of days I have found that I have come even closer to Christ as I have prayed to know how to turn the hearts of this family to the Savior and follow Him. When we have done our part as missionaries, the Lord will do His part. Well He does everything, He speaks through us, we are His instruments.

Rain+Flood=Mud

The other day I was thinking that a mission is a lot like preparing for the big game. As an athlete we want to get better, be better, and improve. Even on days when it is tough and we don’t want to get out there because there is nothing left to give, we still go out there and work harder. I realized that all aspects of my mission requires the same determination and discipline to get better, be better and improve even on days I don’t want to because I am so tired and feel like I can’t do anymore I have to, people that the Lord are preparing are relying on me to be that missionary. After thinking about that I received a renewed desire and determination, which has changed me. 

My New Peep

I read a talk given at BYU by Curt Holman, “Raising Your Ebenezer: A Monument to Remember.” (http://speeches.byu.edu/index.php?act=viewitem&id=2130) It is an amazing talk. This talk taught me two things. 1: look to your past and reflect upon your life. You will see the divine guidance of our Heavenly Father and how He has brought you to where you are today. 2: earnestly seek opportunities and environments in which the Spirit can touch your heart. In this talk, Brother Holman quotes Elder Steven E. Snow, “When it comes to our own gospel progression, we cannot rely alone on our long-term memory. That is why in all our remembering we must remember to renew. Our testimonies must be continually fed with new spiritual experiences.” Brother Holman gave an example, “Choosing to attend your church meetings, attend the temple regularly, read the scriptures, and even attend university devotionals makes it more likely for you to have spiritual experiences. After all, it is hard for the Spirit to bear witness to us of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon if we aren’t reading it.” If you only read the Book of Mormon once and never again and just rely on that one experience to strengthen your testimony, your testimony will crumple. “Even though Laman and Lemuel had seen angels and had had other heavenly manifestations, they seemingly forgot them and constantly murmured against their father and their brother. In their case the inability to remember resulted in an entire nation turning from God.” We need to seek opportunities and experiences to feel of the Spirit to strengthen our testimonies. This week I have earnestly sought opportunities and environments in which the Spirit can touch my heart. One of those opportunities came yesterday; we showed the Mormon Message, Because Of Him, to this member family, you could just feel the sprit in the air. It was like you could wave your hands through the air and feel it, it was amazing! I didn’t want that feeling to go away. I realized that it doesn’t have to; part of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that there is no end, because of Christ. I can have that feeling for eternity. This week was just amazing, just looking for ways to improve and get better and truly helping people Come Unto Christ is just amazing.

Loving My Peep

We taught a lesson this week to an inactive member’s wife. I have been constantly praying about her needs and how we could help her. As the lesson was coming to a close the answer to my prayer came by the words she said, “Honestly right now I don’t believe that families are forever.” It hit me that she truly needs to come to know that knowledge. Now we can focus on teaching her that families are forever.

Tasty Peep

As this week unfolded I couldn’t stop thinking about Christ. Every day I would always make sure He was with me, whether it was a picture of Him or He was in my heart. Through faith and prayer I know He will always be with me, He will walk with me, He will talk with me through the spirit by the means of putting words in mind in knowing what to say to his lost sheep. I KNOW THAT CHRIST IS THERE, NEVER BE SAD; OR DISCOURAGED, NEVER BECAUSE CHRIST WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. I challenge all of you one day this week to take a picture of Christ with you NEVER set it down and write down how it affected you.  

Also this week I read a talk, “The Miracle Of A Mission” by Elder Holland. His words helped to have a better appreciation of my mission. I can sum up this week in four words: MY MISSION HAS JUST BEGUN.

Soda!!

What I love about Mom is that she learned about rugby and what I love about Dad is that he took the priests rappelling.
  
With love, Ducks Forever,
Elder Mcilmoil
May 5, 2014

Tortilla count for the week: 42

Scripture of the week: Jacob 5:61, 70-74   The lord has called prophets, apostles, missionaries and members to work in His vineyard. Will you accept His call? 

“Great battles can make great heroes, but heroes will make great battle. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man, and so can you. You are a royal generation. The heavenly grandstands are cheering you on. We are fast coming to the close of this game. The opposition is real and is scoring. But we have scored, we are scoring, and we will score in the future. The Lord is our coach and manager. His team will win, and we can be a valiant part of it if we so desire. Rise up, O youth of Zion! You hardly realize the great divine potential that lies within you. May you all follow your leader, Jesus Christ, and increase mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. For nearly six thousand years, God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the Second Coming of the Lord.” -Ezra Taft Benson. 

Weekly quote: “I don’t want to be remembered for how many baptisms I got but for the person I was.” Elder Mcilmoil