8 Questions

Well it was another good week here in Dorsal. We’ve been talking with as many people as will listen, and sometimes more. ;)  I’ve realized more and more throughout my mission how important it is to just open my mouth and go for it. At the beginning of my mission I hated contacting people because I was afraid I wasn’t going to do it perfectly, or that people would reject me and this message. 10 months later I still don’t do it perfectly and most people reject me, but I LOVE IT! For many people I’ll be the first person to tell them the marvelous message that Christ’s church has been restored here on the earth. I know this message is true, more than I’ve ever known it before and I’m thankful I’m in a place where we don’t have many investigators so we have time to talk to lots of people.

That said, we’ve found a lot of people recently that will soon be investigators and that’s also exciting. The investigators that we do have are progressing just as hoped and despite one lesson where things didn’t go as planned, everything is moving forward just as we hoped. We are teaching one family that I talked about last week (they live with members) and everything is going well minus the fact that they aren’t married nor do they have plans to be married. We still haven’t explained the entirety of the law of chastity (the “why”), but last night we did a family home evening with them and the other Peruvian family we are teaching (Cristian and Isabel). They are recently married and both bore powerful testimonies of the importance of what they have been doing (her going back to church, him soon being baptized, and them recently getting married). I think it work too, because Hector (the dad of the Peruvian investigator family) is now calling his girlfriend his “wife”.

Another observation from that family home evening; we played a game where 8 cards with questions are lying face down and one person picks a card up then everyone answers the question. My companion and I noticed something. The people who truly understand the gospel (the family of members and Cristian and Isabel) could talk for days on questions like “How can you find peace and happiness”, “How can I become a better person”, and “How can I learn from life’s challenges”. These aren’t necessarily gospel questions, in fact, these are things that we all want to know. The reason for this difference, I believe, is that the gospel has all the answers to every kind of question, especially the questions of the soul.

The 8 questions we asked during FHE

As part of the plan my companion and I made to help more people learn about the gospel and the church, we visited 7 member families on Sunday. We shared a scripture with them and then challenged them to write 5 names of people they know (that aren’t members) by next Sunday. From there we will do family home evenings with them and their friends. Overall, the response from them was really positive. I think many have fears that sharing the gospel with their friends could ruin their relationship, but with the FHE idea their friends can learn more in a relaxed environment and hopefully feel something special.

Last thought. I think fasting is a really undervalued way to come closer to God. It’s mentioned so often in the scriptures, one would think we’d get the idea that it’s something special, but it’s still not thought about enough. I’ve recently been able to get answers from God, feel more strongly the spirit, and see my prayers being answered all through fasting.

We’re as excited as ever, here in Dorsal.

Have a great week!!

Elder Birrell