ya this week was way cool, way hard, and way spiritual. First off our baptism went really well, Antonio bore his testimony at the end and .......I can't really express how great I felt. I will admit, I cried; he just stood up and said: "I really didn't need to read the Book of Mormon to know this church is true, I felt it the first time Elder Church and Guarchaj came to my home, the first time I came to church I felt at home and I haven't felt like that before, so really thank you for welcoming me home".
It was at that time that it hit me, everyone of my converts are chosen sons and daughters of God; they are all active and excited about the gospel, so really it's just an incredible experience I'm on.
Then last night we went over to a member's home because she told us her husband is ready to be baptized, so we got there and he said: "I know why you're here and I am happy about it, tell me what do you want for me"?
I told him, "I want your family to be forever". He said: "When can we go to the temple to do that"? I said, "a year after your baptism." He said, "when is my baptism?" It is important to know that this guy had been going to church with his wife for years and the thing is we can teach him everything we need to teach him in a week, so really he could be baptized this Saturday, but Elder Guarchaj said, "will you prepare to be baptized the 18th of June?"
And then he said something incredible. I didn't understand why Elder G didn't set the baptism for the 4th of June, but after I heard what this man said I realized that the Lord wanted Elder G to say the 18th instead. The man said: "today in church I was sitting by myself because my wife was in Loja, and the two families who had gone to the temple to be sealed bore their testimonies and afterwards, I had a feeling that the elders were going to ask me to be baptized the 18th of June, and if they don't then they aren't the ones to baptize me."
Then we started with Lesson One after that, and Caesar taught us Lesson One. We just asked questions like "who is a prophet?" "who is Joseph Smith"? "what is the Book of Mormon"? He responded to all of the questions like he has been a member all his life!!!!!
Ok, so right now is my insight for the week: (last week my mom said: "Hey!!! where's the insight from your study" because I left that off)
And yes, it not just my thoughts; I read a really great talk about mission work.
The question Christ will ask us at our judgement won't be "are you worthy"; it will be "who are you, what did you become".
The thing is that a missionary can serve a two year mission and baptize 100 people and be as worthy and as righteous as anyone could be, and still it can profit him nothing!!!!! In this talk the writer brought up something I've never seen before. Christ had a parable about 10 virgins. Why? What does a virgin represent? Purity!!! And 5 were wise and 5 were foolish, which means, that purity and worthiness isn't everything, it is huge, but if you don't do the things necessary it will profit you nothing!!!!
Now the type of mission that will profit someone is the mission in which you lose yourself, you can be worthy and teach and baptize, but if you are thinking about home and having a fight within yourself of what you could be doing or who you could be with, it is two years wasted.
That is why Christ said "who shall lose his life...shall find it". Those who lose themselves will find themselves.
Christ lived his life only to do the will of the Father. He wanted to do it another way; he asked "if it's possible, let this cup pass from me", but then "not my will, but Thine be done".
So the will of the Son was swallowed up in the will of the Father.
It is not enough to do the work, you have to want to do it, it has to be your choice.
So really all the naggy wives who have said "no, its not enough for you to do the dishes, I want you to want to do the dishes". WHAT WORDS OF WISDOM and who would have guessed they came from a naggy wife....THAT WAS A JOKE!!!!!!
Really all we have is God's. Our life, our money, our time, our talents. He could take it all if He wanted to, and nothing would happen. He would still be God. Look at Job, God took everything from him and Alma 42 didn't happen, did it?!
But what He didn't take was Job's free will, because if he did, then Alma 42 would have happened and that would suck.
That's why He asked not only for our might and strength, He asked for heart and mind as well. Because when we give Him our will, that's when we really do give Him everything.
BUT ALL THE ELDERS ARE MAD I'M TAKING SO LONG SO THIS WILL HAVE TO DO; IF YOU WANT MORE OF THIS INSIGHT TELL ME NEXT WEEK.
Love you all so much ya?!
Elder Nathan R Church
--
Friday, June 10, 2011
3/7/11
Ya this week was way cool, way hard, and way spiritual. First off our baptism went really well, Antonio bore his testimony at the end and .......I can't really express how great I felt. I will admit, I cried; he just stood up and said: "I really didn't need to read the Book of Mormon to know this church is true, I felt it the first time Elder Church and Guarchaj came to my home, the first time I came to church I felt at home and I haven't felt like that before, so really thank you for welcoming me home".
It was at that time that it hit me, everyone of my converts are chosen sons and daughters of God; they are all active and excited about the gospel, so really it's just an incredible experience I'm on.
Then last night we went over to a member's home because she told us her husband is ready to be baptized, so we got there and he said: "I know why you're here and I am happy about it, tell me what do you want for me"?
I told him, "I want your family to be forever". He said: "When can we go to the temple to do that"? I said, "a year after your baptism." He said, "when is my baptism?" It is important to know that this guy had been going to church with his wife for years and the thing is we can teach him everything we need to teach him in a week, so really he could be baptized this Saturday, but Elder Guarchaj said, "will you prepare to be baptized the 18th of June?"
And then he said something incredible. I didn't understand why Elder G didn't set the baptism for the 4th of June, but after I heard what this man said I realized that the Lord wanted Elder G to say the 18th instead. The man said: "today in church I was sitting by myself because my wife was in Loja, and the two families who had gone to the temple to be sealed bore their testimonies and afterwards, I had a feeling that the elders were going to ask me to be baptized the 18th of June, and if they don't then they aren't the ones to baptize me."
Then we started with Lesson One after that, and Caesar taught us Lesson One. We just asked questions like "who is a prophet?" "who is Joseph Smith"? "what is the Book of Mormon"? He responded to all of the questions like he has been a member all his life!!!!!
Ok, so right now is my insight for the week: (last week my mom said: "Hey!!! where's the insight from your study" because I left that off)
And yes, it not just my thoughts; I read a really great talk about mission work.
The question Christ will ask us at our judgement won't be "are you worthy"; it will be "who are you, what did you become".
The thing is that a missionary can serve a two year mission and baptize 100 people and be as worthy and as righteous as anyone could be, and still it can profit him nothing!!!!! In this talk the writer brought up something I've never seen before. Christ had a parable about 10 virgins. Why? What does a virgin represent? Purity!!! And 5 were wise and 5 were foolish, which means, that purity and worthiness isn't everything, it is huge, but if you don't do the things necessary it will profit you nothing!!!!
Now the type of mission that will profit someone is the mission in which you lose yourself, you can be worthy and teach and baptize, but if you are thinking about home and having a fight within yourself of what you could be doing or who you could be with, it is two years wasted.
That is why Christ said "who shall lose his life...shall find it". Those who lose themselves will find themselves.
Christ lived his life only to do the will of the Father. He wanted to do it another way; he asked "if it's possible, let this cup pass from me", but then "not my will, but Thine be done".
So the will of the Son was swallowed up in the will of the Father.
It is not enough to do the work, you have to want to do it, it has to be your choice.
So really all the naggy wives who have said "no, its not enough for you to do the dishes, I want you to want to do the dishes". WHAT WORDS OF WISDOM and who would have guessed they came from a naggy wife....THAT WAS A JOKE!!!!!!
Really all we have is God's. Our life, our money, our time, our talents. He could take it all if He wanted to, and nothing would happen. He would still be God. Look at Job, God took everything from him and Alma 42 didn't happen, did it?!
But what He didn't take was Job's free will, because if he did, then Alma 42 would have happened and that would suck.
That's why He asked not only for our might and strength, He asked for heart and mind as well. Because when we give Him our will, that's when we really do give Him everything.
BUT ALL THE ELDERS ARE MAD I'M TAKING SO LONG SO THIS WILL HAVE TO DO; IF YOU WANT MORE OF THIS INSIGHT TELL ME NEXT WEEK.
Love you all so much ya?!
Elder Nathan R Church
It was at that time that it hit me, everyone of my converts are chosen sons and daughters of God; they are all active and excited about the gospel, so really it's just an incredible experience I'm on.
Then last night we went over to a member's home because she told us her husband is ready to be baptized, so we got there and he said: "I know why you're here and I am happy about it, tell me what do you want for me"?
I told him, "I want your family to be forever". He said: "When can we go to the temple to do that"? I said, "a year after your baptism." He said, "when is my baptism?" It is important to know that this guy had been going to church with his wife for years and the thing is we can teach him everything we need to teach him in a week, so really he could be baptized this Saturday, but Elder Guarchaj said, "will you prepare to be baptized the 18th of June?"
And then he said something incredible. I didn't understand why Elder G didn't set the baptism for the 4th of June, but after I heard what this man said I realized that the Lord wanted Elder G to say the 18th instead. The man said: "today in church I was sitting by myself because my wife was in Loja, and the two families who had gone to the temple to be sealed bore their testimonies and afterwards, I had a feeling that the elders were going to ask me to be baptized the 18th of June, and if they don't then they aren't the ones to baptize me."
Then we started with Lesson One after that, and Caesar taught us Lesson One. We just asked questions like "who is a prophet?" "who is Joseph Smith"? "what is the Book of Mormon"? He responded to all of the questions like he has been a member all his life!!!!!
Ok, so right now is my insight for the week: (last week my mom said: "Hey!!! where's the insight from your study" because I left that off)
And yes, it not just my thoughts; I read a really great talk about mission work.
The question Christ will ask us at our judgement won't be "are you worthy"; it will be "who are you, what did you become".
The thing is that a missionary can serve a two year mission and baptize 100 people and be as worthy and as righteous as anyone could be, and still it can profit him nothing!!!!! In this talk the writer brought up something I've never seen before. Christ had a parable about 10 virgins. Why? What does a virgin represent? Purity!!! And 5 were wise and 5 were foolish, which means, that purity and worthiness isn't everything, it is huge, but if you don't do the things necessary it will profit you nothing!!!!
Now the type of mission that will profit someone is the mission in which you lose yourself, you can be worthy and teach and baptize, but if you are thinking about home and having a fight within yourself of what you could be doing or who you could be with, it is two years wasted.
That is why Christ said "who shall lose his life...shall find it". Those who lose themselves will find themselves.
Christ lived his life only to do the will of the Father. He wanted to do it another way; he asked "if it's possible, let this cup pass from me", but then "not my will, but Thine be done".
So the will of the Son was swallowed up in the will of the Father.
It is not enough to do the work, you have to want to do it, it has to be your choice.
So really all the naggy wives who have said "no, its not enough for you to do the dishes, I want you to want to do the dishes". WHAT WORDS OF WISDOM and who would have guessed they came from a naggy wife....THAT WAS A JOKE!!!!!!
Really all we have is God's. Our life, our money, our time, our talents. He could take it all if He wanted to, and nothing would happen. He would still be God. Look at Job, God took everything from him and Alma 42 didn't happen, did it?!
But what He didn't take was Job's free will, because if he did, then Alma 42 would have happened and that would suck.
That's why He asked not only for our might and strength, He asked for heart and mind as well. Because when we give Him our will, that's when we really do give Him everything.
BUT ALL THE ELDERS ARE MAD I'M TAKING SO LONG SO THIS WILL HAVE TO DO; IF YOU WANT MORE OF THIS INSIGHT TELL ME NEXT WEEK.
Love you all so much ya?!
Elder Nathan R Church
1/17/11
Ok, well this week was pretty much freaking sweet, like every week cause, yo soy missionero, anyway we didn't have any baptisms but that's cool, because last week we asked everyone for references and we got so many that this whole week was swamped with contacting those references, which is good cause these will be people who will already know and have friends in the church, that's the beauty of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, my companion Elder Petersen is really funny, and by funny I mean, crazy, like really I love him but he's from Idaho so I think that should tell you a little something of how....special he is at times.....you know that movie; Napoleon Dynamite? You know in the beginning when he has that action figure on a string and has it trailing behind him on the bus, well ya, he said he used to do that all the time and "it was all sorts of fun, cuz the people behind the bus are thinking: what?"
So ya, I realized that the scout badge for personal finance was made for missionaries; cuz I have 2 weeks left before my bank account gets replenished and I have a total of $15 to my name.....and no; Ecuador is not THAT 3rd world that I can live on $15 for two weeks. I mean shoot, I spend anywhere from $10-$20 a week on bus rides cuz Elder Petersen is the district leader and we have to check up on everyone and have district meetings way out in freaking Egypt.....but really the city's name is EGYPT......no hahahaha, but that was pretty funny huh! : )
Ok so for comp study sometimes we read different talks from all kinds of different people, like we read the one from Elder Holland when he says: "I want it clear that when I stand before God, I declared in the most straight-forward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true" and then we read another one by Cleon Skousen "The Meaning of the Atonement"...it is way good.
Now I never really understood this before but I am sure all of you do so bare with me:
So it talks about what the Atonement really is, and I always thought it was Christ answering for the law of justice, and it is, but what is justice?
It's all the other intelligences of the universe who weren't special enough to be human beings. It's them, the elements, the raw things of this world, the storm that obeys the will of Christ, the water that changed itself to wine because Christ asked it to, the lion that lays down with the lamb, it's not that God can't forgive us himself, He can, of course. But the intelligences that do whats asked of them, who don't have bodies, demand that we be perfect, and we can't be, so one who was, who suffered for no reason other than to say to those intelligences "I have suffered that they might not, please let them live with me, for my sake" that's why the world shook when Christ died; because those other intelligences were so sad saying "why?" "You don't deserve this suffering, you are perfect and we listen to you because we love you".
So when we give a Priesthood blessing, it is us telling the body "be as you should be, healthy" and if we be worthy, it will obey because we hold the same power that organized those intelligences in the first place.
They answer to the Priesthood because it was that, that gave them purpose and organization.
If God just let us come back, the things that answer to God's power, and his power comes from our and their love for Him, would stop listening to Him, and He would cease to be God.
Anyway, you should look it up and read it. It was soooooooooooooooooo cool anyway. I'm going to have a sweet week and I hope you do too.
Love you much, people!!!!!!
Elder Nathan R. Church
12/15/10
well you better believe Ecuador is freaking sweet!!!!!! i mean holy
crap its like night and day between Provo Lima and Guayaquil. but ya
we landed in Ecuador around 1 and my mission president was there to
meet all the new elders and hermanas then went over to the TEMPLE!!!!!
ya that's right in the past two months i´ve been to 4 different
temples in 3 different countries!!!! that's sweet right!!!! ok well my
new comp in elder gonzo he´s way cool, he understands some English so
that will be good for me to learn Spanish from him a bit better. my
mission president presidente moltalti is the funniest guy ever, so
they gave us a little baggy thing with some pepdo and hand sanitizer
and some other things and then we went over to the temple and elder
carnese asked him where he could put this and his other stuff.....he
looked elder carnese and said "well you can put it in your ear" so i
think him and i are going to be good friends. anyway i don't have much
else to tell you this is my first day here and we have some
investigators to go see in a little bit so i need to make this short.
i´ll have lots to tell you Monday, which is my p day so be ready for
that!!!!!! i love you all and know this work is the truth
love you tons
and so does the savior
--
Elder Nathan R Church
11/17/10
ok i learned how to send pictures but i can only send like 4 at a time
so lets see if this works
the first one is me and elder carnese in provo after the temple. i
love elder carnese!!!!!!
the next one was me in the snow, doing my thing you know what i´m saying
i love sour patch kids you know
and then thats me rock´n it with hyrum smith
--
Elder Nathan R Church
11/17/10
First off, this week was nuts!!!! More importantly, Saturday. But before I get to that everyone, I would love packages and stuff but it'll just have to wait until I get to Ecuador in 4 weeks, because they won't deliver packages here and they told us they won't go and pick them up.
Back to Saturday, that was nuts. We drove two hours out of Lima and for real, the bus drivers here are crazy; they use their horns like it's Gods greatest gift to mankind. So we got to this beat up town where me and my comp went out tracting or proselyting? I'm not sure, but it was crazy, everyone was speaking so fast, but I bore my testimony and the Spirit was strong. We handed out a few Books of Mormon and that was pretty sweet, we only got one full lesson though. We taught the Restoration of course. We headed back to a small chapel and had lunch then we went out and met with nonactives. We got assigned to work about 15 minutes away from where we were, which was not a great looking place, but it was still ok. Ok, everyone pay attention to this because it's important. Mom, you know that little neighborhood by the boy and girls club? Well, the most well-off person here would be lucky to have one wall made out of brick and a door that you could use. We started knocking on doors, and mind you, I can't speak much, so I'm only catching words and phrases...the veteran Elder, Elder Cespedes and myself were all on a split together and they did most of the talking, Elder Cespedes hit it up some. But we just kept going from house to house and the whole place was just sad. I can't convey to you what life is like down here, but no one complains and no one thinks that God is not watching over them; they are all content with their lives.
But the most powerful thing I saw the whole day wasn't or phrase someone said. It was this little boy I saw. We were walking in this neighborhood and there was this little boy sitting In the dirt, he couldn't have been older than six. He shot up off the ground and ran in his small "home" and came running out with a bike tire and started rolling it down the street. He was laughing and running after it and found such joy in this little tire. And then it hit me that that's what the scripture about becoming as a little child means...meek, humble and submissive, willing to submit to Our Father in Heaven's will. This boy didn't sit in the dirt thinking "why has God forsaken me"? He was wondering 'where is my tire', that awesome toy that someone gave me!
The gospel, while the blessing of following it's teachings can change our worldly circumstances, wasn't meant to. It was meant to change our view of our circumstances from "this is all I have?", to "look! Look at all I have!".
I know I'm out here to live among and love the people not only of Peru and Ecuador, but all the people of South America, all people who don't make excuses like I have in my life. The Lord sent me here to humble me. To show me what an amazing life I have been given. Please everyone, please try and really see what you have. I promise if you do, you will become closer to your Father in Heaven.
I love you all and know that this is the Lord's work.
Love,
Elder Nathan R. Church
10/21/10
Hola everyone!!!!!this is elder church!!!!well my first week at the mtc is pretty sweet my comps' name is elder carnese and i promise we told eachother in the the world before that we'd miss eachother till we met again in the mtc. he is soooooo great he studies hard and helps me out a lot with my spanish, which by the way is super hard, i can pray in spanglish and bare a brief testimony in espan'ol i love it here its a lot of fun........but mostly hard work.......i guess this is what spirit prison will be like, the spirit will always be there, but youll be working the whole time saying to yourself, why didnt i prepare more!!!!!! anyway i only have 30 min on this comp. and i wasted a bunch of time trying to figure out how to log on prit emails then log off read the prited emails and log back on a write all of you back but i guess we'll have to do that next week. oh ya and did i tell of of you im going to the peru mtc on Nov. 3rd!!!!!!!!! ya they didnt tell me till i got here but yep ill be sipping off to finish my mtc stuff which is good cuz itll force me to learn spanish faster. anyway my got sick from the food the 1st full day (thursday) and was throwing up and going to the bathroom all night, and i told myself at like 545am that i was just going to tell the ZL's that i was sick and i couldnt do anything that day and wouldnt you know it when 630 rolled around i felt like a million bucks and was well enough to do the work of the lord all day going on maybe a total of 3 hours sleep. but if you want to have the full story just tell me so and ill give all the grusome details next week.anyway i love you all and miss you more then i can write down, mom you most of all, people dont get my sence of humore here?!?!?!?!? NO I'm jk!!!! peopel think im sooooo funny here hahahahaha anyway ill hear from you next week and ill have much more to sayoh and by the way mydearelder.com use that or write me hand letters cuz those are sweet too cuz iff you do ill send you a person letter back and we all know how awsome that would make you all feel!!!!!! love you all and i got about two more seconds on here so i better hit send fast!!!!
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