Week 105 - Palmdale

 This week was huge and just full of things. First, we read the introduction to the Book of Mormón with Ruben and he loved it, wanted us to give an English copy to his son. On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and they were not the examples we needed. They didn't talk to anyone and after dinner ended exchanges. It kind of weakened us in our area.

   On Wednesday we went up to Tehachapi for a meeting with President Layton. We then went by Irma because she needed to have the baptismal interview again, and she wasn't answering for about 20 minutes, but then I remembered a story about when someone needed something, a submarine to surface to save him from being stranded, and then he realized "You have the priesthood. Command it to submerge." I did that and not 5 seconds later someone opened the door. After 20 minutes of no one answering, 5 seconds after a light knock someone did.

    But after that, we visited George and Agripina. It was a big mix of the Plan of Salvation and the restoration. George at one point in the lesson said, "so, what church do you guys think is the most correct, the closest to Christ's church?" And we were like "Well, let me tell ya." We're doing English classes, and hna Victoria came, and we were teaching how to pray in English, and she would always say "Heavy Father", which was super cute. We taught the law of tithing to Patricia, and she loved it. She committed to live it. We did service on Saturday, and found that the man we were helping was a part-member family. 

Sunday was a pretty sad day. We called Irma, who still hasn't been confirmed, to make sure she was coming, because she had been sick the past few weeks and was unable to come. If she didn't come this week she would have to be baptized again. It was about 20 minutes before church, and she said "Yes, I'm coming, without a doubt". But then she didn't come. After we took the sacrament we called her three times, and the phone was off, went and visited her, and someone else, who is one of the wives of a polygamist, answered saying she would see if Irma was there. We heard Irma's voice, and the woman came back and said that Irma was sick. We asked if we could just talk for two seconds with Irma and she said we should come by the next day. It was pretty heartbreaking. We then went tracting, and people rejected us left and right. Sunday was just difficult. Nevertheless we talked with everyone that we saw. It was a good day because we gave it our all despite all the rejection.

   In my studies I learned the difference between trusting that God can do all things, and trusting that whether He does or not all will be well. In the story of getting the plates from Laban, Nephi knew that God both could and would provide. I feel like sometimes we think "Oh of course God CAN, seeing that He can do all things", but we doubt whether or not He will. That's when we must learn the Character of God. It's not His character to let us fall. 1 Ne. 2:12 says that Laman and Lemuel didn't understand the dealings of that God who created them. They didn't understand His character. So they couldn't comprehend that He would perform such miracles. It's something that I'm learning, still trying to apply. 

   I also finished My Plan, which was definitely eye-opening. The Lord has big plans for my future. I love you all. This week was full of miracles and trials, a great week overall.