Dearest familia,
Hey yall!!! Sounds like spring is just around the corner there. Here in Chile it is starting to get a little bit colder, summer is starting to leave. I lost my two sweaters at the end of Spring, and have kind of been searching for a sweater for a few months. This week it got cold for a couple of days, and we went in the metro to take my companion to the doctors, and in the street they were selling sweaters. It was basically an answer to my prayers because I was really in need of one haha. The lord always answers prayers in different ways.
This week I got to know a little bit more of Santiago. There are four missions in Santiago, and we had a reunion with Elder Evans of the seventy (the one in charge of the missionaries basically) and it was amazing. He taught us things, and was really frank. He told us that we are called to edify the church, or build up the church. He then asked how many of yall have baptized someone only to see them become inactive within weeks? Almost everyone raised their hands (one good thing about not having lots of baptisms, is that the two that we have are active haha). He explained to us how serious that baptismal covenant is, and that in 2 nephi 31 verse 14 says that if they leave after coming to know Christ, it would have been better never to have known him. That is some pretty heavy stuff. He encouraged us to make sure that the people truly are ready to keep the covenant of baptism. He also read in 2 nephi 31 about repentance. He said that as missionaries here in Santiago at least, we do not teach well repentance. We have to repent BEFORE we are baptized, and that many of the people we baptize have not truly repented. He also encouraged us to learn about repentance because obviously we do not understand it very well because we do not teach it very well.
He also taught us about in the confirmation when we say "receive the Holy Ghost." This is an invitation or command, but it does not just automatically happen. We have to repent so that we can receive the Holy Ghost, and that many people have not truly repented so therefore they say, No , to receive the HOly Ghost. They cant receive the Holy Ghost with their sins. It is the same with us as active long time members too. we have to repent and receive the Holy Ghost every sunday with the sacrament. He was teaching us the doctrine of Christ, and he introduced it by showing that Christ introduced His doctrine by saying that He was being obedient to the Father. Obedience we do not talk about as being the doctrine of Christ, but it is. Everything is for obedience and we have to obey.
Something I love also that he said is, "Rentention and Rescue are just as important as bring someone new." In our ward we have not had many baptisms, but we have seen people return to church. He told us that we have to teach FAMILIES! That many people go inactive because they do not have the support of their families. It is a lot easier to just teach one person instead of a family, but we need to do all we can to teach the entire family. That is one thing that I am going to change about my ministry. We want to baptize converts not just baptize. He also talked about how the Lord is hastening His work. Well, what is his work? There are five parts.
1. member missionary work
2. convert retention
3. reactivation
4. temple and family history work
5. teach the gospel
all these five parts are being hastened, not just teaching the gospel. therefore everyone has to play a part in this. He is my favorite member of the seventy so it was really cool to hear him speak to almost a 1000 missionaries. We have a lot of things to change, things to repent of, but we will do it and we will see miracles.
This week, Veronica, a teenage girl from Peru, came to mutual, an activity on friday, and church. She truly felt chosen by the members and loved and that is why she continued to come this week. She returns to peru Sunday, but she says that she wants to keep learning and going to church and wants to read the book of mormon. It has been great to see her sadness from being separated from her family be lessened by the gospel. We saw the gladness takeover! She is great!
I love yall a lot! Take Care! Obey with exactness!!!
love
hermana taylor
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