Miracle Man

Que tal Familia Crump!

Writing yet another week’s worth of experiences...where to start...

This week was the last week of the change and I will be staying here with my comp to finish out his training! The bad news is that they took out the other elders here because the area is so small. It’s just a lot more fun having two other missionaries you can talk too and stuff. But you just have to accept Gods will! This week I learned a couple of really sweet lessons and so I hope to be able to type it all out before my time goes by.

First thing that really impacted me is a member here that is the boyfriend of a girl we are teaching. They both are going to church but not living together so you would think it would be an easy baptism right? Well, the problem is that the guy that’s a member, even though he got baptized over 9 years ago and never been inactive, doesn’t have a testimony at all...We ask simple questions like, ‘Can you explain to your girlfriend what the law of chastity is or about the BofM?’ and he literally has no idea. Now I don’t want to write just to talk badly about him, he’s a very nice guy, but it hit me what it means to be an active member. For us, an active member is someone who is always going to church on Sunday. Just that. But in reality, just going to heat up the benches each week isn’t enough. We need to actually go with a desire to learn and change. This guy had gone 9 years without even owning his own copy of the BofM! We can’t expect a testimony to come by just sitting and listening. We need to take the initiative and seek it out. As usual, the key is the BofM. Why did this guy not have any knowledge about the church, because he hadn’t realized that the keystone of our religion is the BofM. We have to live the law of eternal progression. That is the purpose of our lives!

Miracle Man. Francisco Paneagua. Well, Sunday afternoon I was really frustrated because we hadn’t had a very good week and we were leaving the house of a member. I was trying to think of where to go and it came to my mind to visit a less active we contacted a while ago, but I’m like no, she doesn’t want anything, that’s a stupid idea. So we just sat there thinking and finally I gave in, and we went. All we did was go around the corner and I saw a guy waiting in the door of a house and I looked right into his eyes. It was like ‘Ding, Ding, Ding. Talk to me!!’ So we contacted him and put a cita to visit him Tuesday. Tuesday we went and he is 62, lives alone and years ago had drinking problems but hasn’t drank in 3 years. So we teach him normally, invite with a date as always and he just accepted it the first time! I was stunned. I’m just thinking this is too good to be true. We go back two days later and he’s just all smiles because we are there and we teach him the Plan of Salvation. When he offers the final prayer he says 3 lines, ‘God I am happy. These 2 señores have really touched my heart. Help me to listen.’ When he finished the prayer I was just so happy and asked him how he felt. He says, ‘I’m so happy. And have been happy ever since you left that blue book here. I cant even read it but just having it there makes me really happy.’ Obviously he was talking about a BofM we had left even though he can’t read. Talk about an incredible experience! Saturday he went with us to a baptism and then went yesterday to church and ‘está con todo’ as we say here to be baptized the 7th of May. How it is that all that happened in a week’s time, I have no idea. God prepares people. I have no doubt about it.

Last life lesson from this week that I have learned is about taking decisions in our life. As with my Cam (my sister), it’s very hard for me to take big decisions and I’m always thinking twice about whether or not I should or should not do things. A lot of times there are 2 good choices but we just aren’t sure what to choose. The problem is that when we finally make the choice, we still have that feeling inside that we may have chosen the wrong thing. What I learned from a talk and some scriptures is that when we finally do make the choice, we need to give it our all. Every ounce of effort we have. We can’t let the feelings of regret or doubt stop us. If I don’t know who to visit, I make the choice and give it my all. If I’m in a lesson and don’t know what to teach, I listen to the spirit, make the choice, and then do it. Not thinking, ‘Oh what did I do, I should have taught the other lesson.’ Because you can’t go back. So when you guys make a choice, give it your all, without doubt or fear of being wrong! If you made the wrong choice, you’ll learn from it and keep going!

That’s all I have time for this week... Hope everything’s goes well for you guys throughout the week. Love you all a lot. Don’t ever stop fighting for the right!

Elder Crump

Doing a little service with his district.

Last pic before the other elders left the area.