Week 88

October 20, 2014

 

Family!!!

 

How is everyone!! I love all the fall and Halloween pics. Here, it’s hotter than heck and summer is underway. I’ll be all nice and tan when I see ya'll!!! haha Well it looks like everyone is wonderful. That makes me super happy!

 

So this week was so hot. I didn’t even use a backpack; I just took my scriptures and pamphlets in my hands. I don’t remember it being this hot last year. So we had a really good week. I’m really excited about the work that has been going on here and what we still have to do. We are preparing a girl named Maria Jose for baptism. I’m super excited for her. We are really happy for the work we are doing here because we are focusing more on less active families than ever before. When Elder Waddell of the Seventy was here, he told us that we need more active and faithful members.  And that we can compare it to an apple tree. When a person takes an apple off a tree, they start by taking the apples that are easiest to reach. In the Work of Salvation it’s the same. We need to save the people that are easiest to reach (the people that have a testimony and have lost it for a little while or the people that have recently been baptized and need strengthening). So that is what we are doing. We are focusing on them! We were planning on Friday night and for Saturday and we were truly inspired to visit a specific member, Bro. Mario Guzman. He’s active and very faithful. So we went and chatted with him for a good bit then he out of nowhere told us of 4 less active families that live in our area and have been less active for at least 5 years each. One family even 15 years. I love when the Lord literally just guides us to the people He is preparing. We then went and contacted each one of those families and one even came to church yesterday. This week we are planning on taking the Lozano family (Ligia, Ivan, and Nivia) to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. They want to take family names so bad so we are helping them do that this week through family search. I’m super excited. We've been having close contact with all the recent converts so they can know where they are going and what their main goal is, THE TEMPLE.

 

On Thursday we had some great experiences with the zone. My companion and I thought it would be a great idea to have weekly planning as a zone. So everyone went to their own rooms in the chapel and they planned for their investigators and area, etc. My comp and I passed by from room to room to answer questions and help them in any way possible. We asked that they share their goals as a companionship so that we can help them to reach those goals. It went super well and it was super cool to see and feel the trust that they have in us as we helped them with their problems. More than that, we could see that they trust in the Lord so much and really want his guidance. The Lord is really preparing his servants to have strong desires to do his will. On Friday, I had the chance to work all day with Elder Nazereno from Ecuador as we did a transfer. It was interesting to work in another area with another elder. It went super well. We had some great experiences contacting and talking with everyone.

 

From the past 21 months I’ve grown to love the people here. Even though I don’t agree with a lot of their ways and traditions, I love being here. I know the Lord sent me here because I had something to learn and someone to meet. On Saturday night I called the Salazar family from Quillacollo, remember them? I gave a baby blessing to their new baby almost a year ago. I think there are some pictures of us in the grass with their children after church one day. Anyways, we talked for about 20 minutes and I realized talking to them how much I missed them. I’ve never ended a conversation with so many tears as I hung up with Mariel, the 4 year old. They are still strong in the church and haven’t stopped going since they were activated a year ago. I have a very soft spot for them. I hope I can always have contact with them. I’m planning to visit them soon. Teresa, the mom, wants me to baptize her son, Pedro. I guess we will see if I can travel to Quillacollo for that next month.

 

Well, I love you so much! I hope all is well and everyone is doing great!! Mom, I love you too and I can’t wait to get tackled by you!! I’ll put my shoulder pads on! Until next week!!

 

Elder Berrett