5 Phenomenal Lessons In 1 Day

Hi Everyone!

This was an incredible week, I've never been so busy on my mission! The work in the branch is awesome, there are so many people that need our attention and our visits and are progressing in the Gospel!

This week in fast and testimony meeting more than half of the people that got up mentioned missionary work and the missionaries in some way or another, and you can tell that people are getting more excited about it! We taught the lesson in priesthood and decided to do it on home teaching, because as one of the prophets says in Preach My Gospel "Missionary work is nothing more or less than Home Teaching for those who are not currently members of the church", and likewise home teaching is nothing more or less than missionary work to those who have been baptized and confirmed!

My companion gave a good example of a soccer team, and drew it up on the board, and explained how home teaching is like a soccer game against the less-actives. We have to be unified to win, and we have to work with the players that surround us (our companions) to move the ball effectively and beat the other team. It was a great example and helped everyone understand, and after that I shared D+C section 4 and asked a few rhetorical questions about how much we really desire the salvation of others or if we're being selfish. I asked about the qualifications to assist in the work, which verse three lays out as "if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work." We bore testimony of the principles and invited everyone to participate more actively in their home teaching visits.

The highlight of my week was doing a companionship exchange with the zone leaders and having Elder Shawhan come with me and work in my area. He served here about 7-8 months ago, so he was familiar with everything and most of the people, and he had a few ideas as well for people we could visit. We ended up with 5 phenomenal lessons, I'll see if I can put them down here so I'll remember them later.

The first was with a lady and her husband that Elder Shawhan remembered but had gotten dropped by previous missionaries, we dropped by and at first the lady was hesitant to let us in but because of her relationship with Elder Shawhan she relented and gave us a shot. We listened to her and found out that she'd been going to church regularly (she's not a member, I think she wasn't married to her boyfriend or something so she couldn't get baptized) and was taking the lessons from the missionaries but then all of a sudden they just stopped coming.

It was the second time that had happened to her, and combined with her work changing to Sundays and some racist things some LDS politician in Utah had said she stopped going to church and decided to start a bible study with a christian church. We had a powerful lesson with her about the restoration of the gospel and gave her a lot of reasons to keep going with the church and the Book of Mormon, and the spirit was really strong and I could feel it testifying to her that what we were teaching was true.

The next lesson was when we came out of the first one, we saw a recent convert playing the guitar with a couple friends, one who I recognized from another time we had gone over to the recent convert's house.

Well, we started talking to them and eventually went inside the house and started teaching again, starting with the Book of Mormon because the recent convert's friend hadn't had the gospel explained to him very well by previous missionaries. We just read the introduction and talked about each paragraph, and had a great spiritual lesson and committed Jose (his wife's name was Maria, we asked if they had a kid named Jesus :) to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! I've never felt so eloquent and powerful as I did then bearing my witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and I could tell that everyone was touched by the spirit there.

We had our dinner appointment afterwards with the family who I'd taught and baptized their daughter Marcela when I was here the first time, my first baptism on the mission! Unfortunately they're still going through hard times and the couple is thinking about separating. We mostly just listened to the sister talk, and we shared some scriptures and helped her feel better and maybe see what she could do to change herself and the situation even if her husband wouldn't do the same. I felt bad for the situation but I felt like we helped her out and provided the moral support she needed at the time.

Next we tried to visit a part-member family who has a bunch of relatives in the branch, but we didn't find them so we went to their parents house which was in the same trailer park. When we got there it was just the Grandma Delatorre, but she invited us in and we chatted for a minute.

Pretty soon a few more family members trickled in, and eventually the entire Delatorre family was there, like 20-25 people! One of the sons was leaving for Chicago to join his wife and kids, and taking advantage that we were there a blessing was requested. We put a bit of pressure on his father, the Grandpa Delatorre, to give the blessing, even though he's been off and on in his church activity recently due to work. He didn't really know how to give a blessing even though he had the priesthood, and so we coached him a little and he relented and gave the blessing. I got to be in the circle, and when the blessing started the most amazing feeling came into the room and a real power accompanied us. When we got done most of us were in tears and the whole family was united and touched!

For the final lesson of the night, we went to the house of some less active members who I'd worked with when I was here before, and who haven't shown a whole lot of progress since. They're very open to our visits though and I thought it was a good opportunity to go. We read Alma chapter 7 with them and we both bore testimony of the Atonement and the amazing plan of the gospel which allows us to repent and progress. During the lesson I actually had the impression to invite them to repent of their sins, and I asked directly "will you repent of your sins and transgressions?" The spirit was powerful and I think had an impact on them, even if they don't start progressing immediately there was a power there that was undeniable.

I'm so grateful for the chance to be engaged in the Lord's work! I love helping people come unto Christ and receive His Gospel, it's the most amazing experience of my life and I'm enjoying this final stretch! I love you all and I hope you're all doing great! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis