3/14/2011

These two weeks were great! I spent a whole week in the area of my district leaders teaching with them. This was good because they want to work also. They are great teachers so I learned a lot. We had great success and also had some great experiences. We taught this family, a husband, his wife with two little kids. They told us that they were almost divorced and they were thinking of having an abortion because it would be too much money to raise another kid. So we taught them the plan of salvation and how abortion was wrong and how the power of the gospel can bring strength into thier relationship. This felt very powerful! One of the zone leaders asked if they wanted a blessing on thier home. They said yes and we went inside thier house. We knelt down and Elder Castillo gave the blessing. It was a great blessing! The spirit was very strong. After he said amen, we stood up and gave the husband a hug and he broke out in tears thanking us and telling us how hard his life was and that he needed that. Then we spoke with him and his wife about how things will work out. Then Elder Castillo asked the wife to hug her husband. For like 10 minutes she wouldn't. She wouldn't even look at him, but we didnt give up and kept asking. We then asked the husband to apologize if he had done anything wrong. Finallly after this and more persuasion, she hugged her husband and they decided to keep thier baby. They also went to church the next day. This was an awesome experience. We also taught this one guy who is a member and his girlfriend who he lives with. We got to his house, he let us in and the girlfriend disappeared into the kitchen. He said she didn't want to talk to us. My new comp Elder Inoñan said, "just tell her to come out so we can get to know her". She came out sat down and we talked with her and him. She seemed to become a lot more normal because we are normal too! FYI, she thought I was 23, ha,ha. But I gave the opening prayer and I felt the spirit strong but it was a different feeling. It was more calm and soft. It was nice, but when I finished, I looked up and her eyes were watering. IDK why, but I was hoping it was the spirit. We taught about the law of chastity and got another appointment to teach her again. We also taught this other family. A Father, his wife and a baby. They accepted everything we taught,and when we spoke about the book of mormon, they wanted to know how they could get a copy. So I took my comps and said this is yours now, haha. My comp was kind of shocked because of how fast I grabbed his book, but it was a paperback that we give, so it was all good. They said they would pray about Joseph Smith, so hopefully, we will find out soon about that. Well, news about what is new. My new comp is awesome! He works hard and knows what to do. He is from Peru, and he is like me in many ways. Carnaval was good for studying. I read 300 pages of Jesus the Christ and know alot more now about the Savior's life. We rested and I studied a lot of spanish too. I had that pain in my ribs again, and went to the doctor. He said my tendon in my rib is ripping, so I can't exercise for 3 months! Since taking a break, the pain is gone. So I'm thinkning he was right. Well I wish you guys an awesome week! I will tell you more next week about the things you asked about. Love you all, Elder Christoffersen