Feb (date?)
In our last appointment of the night, we visited with Carlos, a man I’ve never met before. We began teaching the restoration. As we unfolded the scriptures about prophets and boldly testified of the story of Joseph Smith, we saw the Spirit moving him. He asked us what the role of a modern day prophet was. As he did, something had changed. He spoke in Spanish. Up until that point he was insisting on using his poor English! It was as if he realized the importance of this so profoundly he forgot about trying to practice English. After explaining their role and that it was the same as the prophets of old, he paused long and deep. Then with conviction he said simply, “I want to meet the prophet.” We showed him pictures of the 15 men who guide the church, and he asked us if we had ever met one. Both of us could say that we have, and gave unshakable testimony of their divine calling.
Few times have I felt the Spirit testify so strong. After explaining how to pray to know, he said very carefully, “I already know. This is true.” He proceeded to bear testimony of the message of the message of the Restoration. It was incredible. Elder Johnson said that they’ve taught the Restoration multiple times to him with little success. Something clicked. He understood it, and then the Spirit gave him an incredible experience. He will come into the fold one day. Right now he can’t get baptized because he’s obliged to complete community service all day every Sunday until September.
Feb 27
Today we got haircuts from the first councilor in the Branch Presidency. He’s a hair stylist for a barbershop that works with the really rich people. A basic haircut like we got starts at $100. It was interesting, he used a razor blade to do the whole thing for me, didn’t even touch any scissors.
We had an awesome FHE tonight in the Martino’s home (they are just wonderful, the loveliest Texan senior couple). Camelo and Jefferson came, as well as two less actives and the Sister missionaries. We had wonderful food and company, and then marveled as the Spirit worked wonders during the lesson. As I was leading the discussion, it struck me how incredible that night really was. We were 5 Americans and 5 Hispanics gathered together just trying to understand each other (only one of the sister missionaries and myself really speak both languages) and strengthen each other, as fulfillment of the prophecy that the gospel would come to cover the whole earth, without regard to language barriers. How incredible that promise would have sounded to the 11 apostles after Christ had been killed, or to the tiny church of 1830 when it seemed like after 1800 years such a prophecy and commandment hadn’t made much headway. Yet it’s true.
Feb 28
Today we are joining Luanne and a close friend in a fast, essentially that she’ll be able to find someone or we’ll be able to baptize someone she can marry. She is incredible. She has so much faith and loyalty. She was baptized at age 30, and over here there aren’t any guys that age that are LDS and single. Now she’s 40, I think. She lives all by herself in her nice little 15 million dollar home just looking and………(photos of journal pages don’t continue)
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