Elder Adam Moffitt's Mission in Honduras: So it Begins

Well, not to start my letter with a cheesy Lord of the Rings quote about the New Year but ... as King Theoden says on the walls of Helms Deep:

"So it begins."

P-day begins with doing laundry. Yep, this is my washing machine. Really.

This week was really awesome and I had a lot of super sweet experiences. Remember how last week I had that experience reading from Doctrine & Covenants 31 about how if we work with all our might we will be laden with many sheaves? So last week we went to a lesson with a youth from the rama and as we were walking back, we passed by another youth riding on a kiddie motorcycle. Jeffrey, the member we were with, laughed and said, "Hey, I know that guy." So we dragged him over to the other guy and started talking. We started talking with Kiddie motorcycle man, a 19 yr old kid named Javier who taught himself English and works in receiving customer service calls (which is impressive because he has a real job), and put an appointment for the next Thursday and gave him a pamphlet about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The next week we came back and started teaching. He had read the whole pamphlet and even filled out the little "Extra study questions" page with answers, which kinda shocked us. But we taught the lesson; he was super smart and interested and knew all the answers, so we asked him if he had any questions, cause he pretty much had the pamphlet memorized. He paused, and asked if it needed to be about the pamphlet. We said, No, whatever question, and he said "What is the process to be baptized and when can I be baptized?"

A few seconds later, after I swept up my jaw from the floor and taped it back on, I asked him why he wanted to be baptized. He said, "Well I read the pamphlet and I have read parts of the Libro de Mormon before and so I said a prayer and asked if this was the true church and I felt really different and it felt really good and warm and I think that was the spirit of Christ so I want to be baptized and one day serve a mission." Remember that this was the first lesson. So we put a date for him to be baptized on the 26th of January, because he has to go to church at least 3 times before getting baptized. We asked him if he worked on Sunday, and he said, yes, but he would talk with his boss and pray to get the day off. He did and went to church this Sunday. He is sooooo prepared to receive the gospel it is incredible. After that first lesson, as we left with Jeffrey, the member, he said, "Wow why haven't I talked with him about the gospel before? Why didn't I invite him to meet with the missionaries before?"

It is so true. There are friends of ours that are just waiting for the missionaries to show up. Help them find the gospel before that!

The thing is, I am realizing more and more that this isn't our work, that in order to be successful we need to let God do the work. There are people that are willing to read, are willing to pray with an open heart and real intent, and are willing and desirous to follow God in his way. These are the people that we are looking for, because our message is real and those people are going to be able to gain that same testimony. When we focus the teaching on our charm or charisma instead of on the spirit, we are essentially practicing priestcraft. And that's not good. If we are working and trying our best, God is going to "laden us with the many sheaves" we want, but only after alot of faith, patience, and desires.

But anyways, crazy awesome week. We challenged 22 people to be baptized, some of which accepted and are now preparing to take that step, and others that aren't as excited to try and find out for themselves if these things are true. Its a great work and a true work and things are starting to get rolling here in our Rama finally. One of my goals this year is to read all the scriptures, Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants (essentially revelations that were given to modern day prophets by God) and the Pearl of Great Price, all in SPANISH!!! Gonna be a crazy goal but we study a lot here so I can get it.

Today we went to play soccer as a missionary zone in the Olympic Stadium, where the national teams play, for 2 hours and it was pretty awesome.