Inspired by Righteous Causes

Hey everyone!

So to start, we talked with our district leader Elder Silva about [...] and his situation and he said that if he comes to church every week, desires to be baptized, and keeps the commitments we leave with him, that we should be allowed to give him a baptismal date even if he has a hard time understanding the things we teach. He is doing the best he can. So, we had a lesson with him on Tuesday, and he read what we left him with, and even told us what he learned. So, Elder Nielsen and I were able to extend to him a baptismal invitation for December 3rd and he accepted! So, that is really exciting. The lesson with him went well and we are just trying to keep in mind we need to teach him as simply as possible in order to help him understand better. But anyways that is super exciting, and hopefully we can prepare him for that date!

We also were able to help [...] with a service on Tuesday. He was mixing and laying concrete in his front yard (I suppose our front yard too since we live above him) with his son. He is a little older, and we had two lessons get canceled last minute, so we helped them instead. It was a cool service project. They had the different substances that we would pour in a big mixer and mix until it was concrete. It rained that night after we had to go and so they had to cover everything up and couldn't finish it. But we may help them again this week lay the rest of the concrete and then put tile on top of that. I think it will be nice when it is done.

I had a really cool opportunity on Wednesday night. We had a ward cleaning that day before ward counsel. We help out sometimes with that because hardly anyone ever comes. As we were walking into the church building, some guy got out of his car and starting speaking to us in English. He was looking for family history consultants, and asked us if we knew when they would get to the church. They are usually late so we told them they should be coming in a bit. So he came into the church and waited while we were waiting for people to come unlock to cleaning supply closet. Elder Nielsen thought he was a member so started playing the piano in the chapel while I got talking to him in the hall. His name was [...] and it turns out he is actually not a member. He learned English because he went to Michigan for one year of college, so I jumped on the opportunity haha. He is older and had some really cool stories that he told me about. He is a big history buff, and is really into family history work. He said he loves working with our church because we have such good resources for ancestry. I talked to him about a lot of stuff, but I also had the chance to give him a Book of Mormon and bear my testimony about it. He knows a lot about the church but has never gotten one and he seemed really excited. He told me he loves to read and would read it! If I remember right, he said that he didnt live in Montevideo and was only there temporarily visiting family, but I left him with our information anyways. It is actually pretty crazy because I remember when President Rau was setting me apart as a missionary, he said that I would have opportunities to teach people in English on my mission! From what I have experienced so far, everyone loves to try saying things to us in english. Everyone´s clothes say things in english, a lot of advertising is in english, and I have met a few people who speak it fluently. So funny.

There was one day this week that as we passed by some workers unloading a big truck, we heard one of them say, "Saben que ellos son de la cia?" which means "Do you know that they are from the CIA?" haha. Elder Nielsen said that a lot of people here think that we are spies from the states. I thought that was pretty funny.

This week I read a lot in Alma about the wars between the Nephites and the Lamanites. I really liked Alma 43:45 which shows how we need to be inspired by righteous causes in the Gospel. The Nephites are inspired by love and the protection of their families, while the Lamanites are seeking vain things of the world. Going back a little, I also love in Alma 39:14, which says we shouldn't seek after worldly things, for we cannot take those with us in eternity. We should seek to increase our knowledge and build happy families. Those things will stay with us forever.

I got to go, but the work is good, and I am loving Uruguay. Thanks for all the love and support! Also Happy Halloween to everyone!

Elder Layton