Monday, May 2, 2016

Murmur Not...

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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