Our little pumpkin patch. :)
Wow! What a beautiful week of miracles. This week, we decided to focus on strengthening the recent converts and the less-active members of the ward. We went by their houses and heart-attacked them, visited them, and helped them make a plan to come to church using the handy-dandy church cards. And do you know what? It's working!! Of their own free will and choice, they came to CHURCH!! Ceci and Ulysses, a young couple with small children, brought their relatives, Joe, a recent convert, and Debbie, a less-active member. The whole Adame family came - mom, dad, the daughter, the grandkid, the aunt and uncle, and the grandma! AND, this was very exciting, our ward mission leader came!!! We were so happy to see him - we'd been struggling to contact him for a while. He wasn't able to stay for ward council, but it's a good start!!
Also, out of the blue, Brianda texted us! She's the one with an abusive husband who we thought had moved back to Mexico. She wants to meet with us again! It was absolutely amazing!! The Lord has truly prepared her throughout these past 5 months. We're seeing her soon!
Hermana Bishop is doing well - we're getting over the sniffles/sore throat. :) She's a tough cookie!
Something our mission president shared recently with us is the principle of obedience. He said:
"Each of you is a beloved son or daughter of celestial parents. Their spiritual DNA courses through your spirit veins. They love you. They know you have the ability to become celestial beings as they are. For them this is their everyday reality. I hope it is yours...
We have to have the basics in place before we can learn the more effective ways to do missionary work."
He discussed some basic things the mission as a whole is struggling with - such as effective exercise, the use of slang, and so on. He continues:
"Generally [these basics] could be classified as being obedient. Obedience is the first law of heaven. It is the first covenant we make in the temple. There is a reason you go to the temple prior to coming on a mission. One of them is that, having made that covenant, you’re already committed to be obedient, and should not have to make that decision in the field. You may feel that disobedience only affects you or your companionship. Not true. You affect your companion. Your companionship affects your district. Your district affects your zone. Your zone affects the mission. Just as the combined prayers of the whole mission strengthen each one of us, disobedience by one hurts all of us. It diminishes the Spirit."
As an animated character in the movie "Prince of Egypt" once put it, "One weak link can break the chain of a mighty dynasty!"
Elder Holland, in a talk given at the MTC called "Don't you dare go home," has this to say for obedience: “I ask you not to resist the principle of obedience; not to resist it here in the MTC, and not to resist it in the mission field. Your mission president will probably talk about some aspect of obedience in almost every zone conference. I’d be surprised if he didn’t. There’s a reason for it. Obedience is the first law of missionary work. We cannot get to laws 2, 3, 4, 20 and 90 until we establish that we will obey. In fact, obedience is the first law of everything. We don’t really know very much about the pre-mortal council in heaven. But one of the things we do know is that the issue was agency and obedience. That battle is still being waged. What began in heaven has moved to this earth, but that fight is still on. It is the most fundamental issue in our lives. Will we choose, with our agency, to voluntarily, humbly, obediently, follow God the eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, or not? That is the issue of all eternity.”
Obedience is essential. It's a tiny thing; but it has eternal consequences.
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