Howdy Folks!
Atiquizaya is still
treating me well. This week was fantastic. We continue to work hard and see
miracles every day.
Francisco went to church
yesterday so he is all good to go for his baptism this weekend. Like I said
last week, we gave him a Book of Mormon last Sunday so he could start reading.
Guess what page he is on now? 121…after a week. That’s the kind of investigator
we always dream of! So, after seeing that, I was like wow, what a love he has
for the book. Then we also bought a recent convert one of those Book of Mormon
readers for kids that have the pictures in them. We gave it to him Friday night
and the next day we see him in the street, and he says, ‘Elders I’m already on
page 48 of the book you gave me!’ Those two experiences just really hit me.
There are members of 10 years that don’t read and then you get an investigator
and a convert that read more than them in a few days!
So this week I studied a
lot about how we shouldn’t murmur. Why? Well, it’s a big problem in the church
and all the people want to do is murmur about their church calling, about what
the bishop doesn’t do, or why it is they can’t live a commandment for such and
such a reason. Obviously the best place to study the topic is the first
chapters of Nephi because that’s all Laman and Lemuel did the entire time they
were in the desert with their family. So the scripture I liked most is in 1 Nephi
3:6, which is one verse before the famous “I will go, I will do - scripture”. So I think we miss it sometimes. In the scripture
it talks about how Nephi hasn’t murmured but if you look at the footnote it
says, ¨Sustaining church leaders¨ So that really hit me when I read it.
Sustaining church leaders is so so important. So my invitation for you all this
week is that you can think about the fact that you raised your hand to sustain
all the leaders of the church. You gave them your support. So when they make
bad choices, or do things you don’t think are right, you just have to keep
loving them. It’s really hard because it can be frustrating when they don’t do
things right or don’t help you with your own calling but that’s just the way it
is. I love a quote by Elder Holland. I believe it says, “If you think it’s
frustrating when members make mistakes or do things to offend you, just think
about how God feels. He is trying to run the perfect church here on earth and
the best thing he has to work with is us. Imperfect human beings. I’m sure it
frustrates him with all the dumb things we do sometimes, but he just keeps
loving and supporting us!” So just love your leaders and show them all the
support they need. It’s something I need to improve a lot on and I invite you
guys to do the same!
Ugh…I always run out of
time. Well, just want to let you guys know that I have a firm testimony that
Christ lives. He literally runs the church today and he loves us. More than we
can ever imagine.
Elder Crump
No pictures this week but here is a link he sent. It's the story of his Stake President in Atiquizaya and the missionary who baptized him 36 years ago. It was in this week's Church News.
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