Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Week 4 Done, Now Week 5

Sorry about my last subject title, it was a mistake! 

Monday: Pday was good. We played volleyball then we went and chilled with the other elders. It was a relaxing pday. So we went to talk to a man named Hno. Rodriguez. Elder Elton contacted him and this is our second visit with him. He was not  interested though. After, we went to Presidente Rico's house for a branch family home evening and dinner. We had a good lesson then were able to mingle and talk. 


Tuesday: We did more painting at the Healing House. I am getting really good at painting! I cannot wait to paint my future house. We finished our studies then visited Hno Enriquez. After, we met up with Kiko and visited Alfredo. We shared a lesson about enduring and how we need to always pray, read the scriptures, and go to church. After, Kiko had to go so we visited a less active young man named Kevin. He has been coming to church recently and we will be working with him now. Later, we had dinner with the Chavez family. Along with Sisters Hubert and Beatty, Elder Elton and I did the Atonement Push-Up Lesson. I did the pushups again. Aside from the tile floor and being out of shape, I was still able to do 120 push-ups. I think I did like 130 last time or something. Anyway, it was still a powerful experience. It was hushed as I did the first few, some joking comments were made. I continued and found that those making the comments soon fell silent as well. The Spirit was very present and very strong. As we concluded, the other missionaries and I shared comments and sought for the insights of those in the family. Everyone, and each one, learned more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ that night. As we ponder this great sacrifice, reflect on the form performed in this intense object lesson. I, performing the push-ups, would say the name of each person before doing the 10 push-ups. I did not count up the people and do just a sum total of 120 then finish. I said their name aloud, did 10 push-ups, no matter the pain or struggle, then would face and look at the next person. I know that Christ did not perform this sacrifice for all of us, but for EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US INDIVIDUALLY. He did not do a sum sacrifice but a personal, intense, enduring, agonizing, and loving sacrifice. He thought about us and what each step and phase of our life would entail. I know he is the Savior and Redeemer of the world, all mankind, each of us. 

Wednesday: President Passey spent the night with us last night on his "tour" through the mission to do interviews with each one of us. The standard quarterly interview. After sports, and before studies, Elder Elton had our interviews in the apartment. President then left to carry on with the other interviews. We had a great district meeting talking about the power and authority that we have and that of what we do.  We then exchanged with the English Elders. I was in the English area with Elder Whittle. We made a ton of visits. A ton of interesting visits. Including talking about ghost hunting, in one lesson a man had a inappropriate tattoo on his arm, then another conversation about ghost hunting. 

Thursday: Today was my backward meal day. In this apartment they did not have really any breakfast food so I ate a pack of Ramen Noodles for breakfast. Box of Kraft Mac and cheese for lunch. To top it off, a bowl of oatmeal for dinner, I was back in our apartment for dinner. We had some good visits then exchanged back. We taught a good lesson about the creation to the Castro children then went back home for dinner. We then had our soccer activity! We had a young man in the branch, he is in love with soccer, invite a ton of his friends. They came! We had a great time and we had like 9 people on each team!

Friday: We did some service for the Quintana family on their farm picking veggies and chili. We got back home and gave a blessing to Miguel, my doppelgänger. He just hit his year mark of baptism. So now he is no longer a recent convert. We did weekly planning then we went to dinner but it fell through so we went back home to eat. We visited a less active then met up with Presidente Rico to go do visits. We had a great time and had great visits with Alfredo and Daniel.

Saturday: Studies then we tried to see Hno Martinez, and 91 year old member we usually sing to. As we were driving by we saw an ambulance drive away. We waited a bit then went to the hospital. We were able to talk to his son-in-law in the lobby. We were then just on call if we needed to come give a blessing. We then visited some less active members, went to dinner with the Castro family, then did some home teaching with a YM. After we had a very long lesson with a very interesting gentleman. He is not interested in acting on our message, only curious to learn and throw scriptures at us to catch us in our words. 

Sunday: Great morning with studies then church was great. I gave a last minute talk that went really well! I am glad I am good at public speaking. Then we did a ton of finding, dinner with the Quintana family, then more finding for the rest of the night. 

Love,
Elder Dallin Baker

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