The Tree of Human Falseness

Hi Everyone!

This week was neat, we did a lot of finding and teaching, and are starting to see some fruits!

We set Jesus with a goal-baptismal date for April 25th, but I think we can move it up. He's still coming to church, and progressing in his gospel knowledge. He's awesome to work with, because he really wants to learn, and he's changing his life for the gospel and is progressing!

I think that's the coolest part about missionary work, is to be able to see that change in people, as they come unto Christ and really understand His plan for us.

We taught a really cool lesson this week to a 20ish year old girl as we sat on chairs in the balcony/hallway of a third story apartment, and what made it really cool was that she was completely engrossed in the lesson and understood it! We started our door approach by talking about how there's so many churches with conflicting teachings, and she opened up to us and told us that she's been really confused about that and finally came to the belief that God is real but she had no idea what else to believe in.

We explained about the original church that Christ established falling apart, and that's why there's so many churches, and then explained how to pull us out of the confusion, God and Christ called another prophet to restore the true church, and that we have a living prophet and 12 living apostles today.

She almost cried as she told us what that would mean to her if it was true, because instead of following men (like pastors) we'd be following God directly through his living servants.

We invited her to be baptized when she knew it was true, and gave her the challenge to pray and ask God for an answer. We're going back tomorrow to see how it went, I have high hopes and we're praying that she'll really pray sincerely and get an answer!

I'm learning a lot from my companion, Elder Acevedo (pronounced Ah-seh-vay-dough in Spanish, with the v sounding like a mix between a b and a v, in case anyone was wondering :), he is an excellent teacher and can pull examples from anything.

A recent one he did that I liked was he explained the way that all the churches formed after the death of the apostles as a tree, (he used a pine-tree that happened to be present as a visual aid), which the trunk was like the Catholic church, started 300ish years after the death of Christ, and from there the protestant churches came as the main branches, and from those it split further into sects (twigs) within the protestant churches, and from there even individual pastors teaching varying doctrines in their own churches (leaves).

Then he explained that since the tree itself was started by men, everything in the tree was a result of man's efforts, not God's divine wisdom. Then he called the tree the "arbol de la falsidad humana", or the "tree of human falseness", and explained how God had brought back His true church through living prophets in these last days. :)

I'm slowly progressing in my teaching skills, it makes it hard with the Spanish but I'm finding that people are starting to actually pay attention to what I say, to consider the points I make and so I'm more effective.

I love being out here and getting to share the gospel full time with God's children, the world desperately needs what we have and what God's willing to give them if they just ask.

I'm having so many experiences that keep building my testimony that God is really there, that He's our Father and will help us if we're willing, and even through I don't have all the answers I know that this gospel is true because God let’s me know that it is.

So many things have happened to me on my mission that couldn't have been coincidence, it seems like every day is a continual coincidence in what happens when we're working hard and doing all we can to have the spirit.

I hope you all have a fantastic week, I know I will!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis