the scriptures are so cool!
so apart from the dead bodies they found thrown at the monument of lazaro cardenas in apatzingan and the shooting in bachilleres nothing really exciting happened here that comes to mind. so instead i'm going to talk about some cool things that i learned this week in my personal study. so this week i was kind of frustrated and down because the work is really hard and slow right now, because as i've mentioned in past emails we work solely through references from members, we no longer are allowed to personally contact and find our own investigators. and so its just been really hard because we dont have many people were teaching and so the bulk of our time is spent visiting members, active and less active, and working with them to receive references which nobody seems to have ...haha...
and so as missionaries were chomping at the bit to start teaching and working with people ...haha... and so i'd been really thinking about new stuff we can try and reading the scriptures to see what they did to get through funks. one of the stories i decided to read was in 1 nephi the story in which nephi breaks his bow. i personally love the story and nephi was one of the best when it came to putting faith in the Lord and knowing that He will provide the way for his servants to complete his work. and so i read the story and it made me realize a few things. first of all what i learned is that in the end of all it, whatever the problem is, you just gotta get to work and just chug along. in the story when he broke his bow everyone, even lehi the prophet, starting complaining and murmuring against God saying how could something this happen, how are they gonna survive, the outcomes seem perilious etc. and many they basically lost the faith in the face of adversity. and so i love how nephi just ignored them all went out and made a bow (came up with a solution instead of just sitting around waiting for one) and then went to his father and said where should i go to find food. i imagine for lehi that must have been a bit of a slap in the face ...haha... and helped him come back to his senses and realize that action needed to be taken to receive a solution.
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| theres a guy running for senator here and is name is moron so were going to start taking pictures next to all his stuff haha |
and so nephi went and obtained food enough for them to eat. i learned from this story that you really just have to suck it up and do something. just like lehi's people who didnt have food, we didnt have investigators to teach (missionary food haha), and instead of sitting around waiting for someone to come to us, i needed to go out there and make my bow (come up with new ideas to find people), and then go to the Lord and ask him where to go to find success with these ideas and how to implement them in the best manner. and it actually worked out! i love how easily and cool it is when you can apply the scriptures to situations in your own life and find an answer or solution to whatever situation!
another story that i read to help me out was the story of the brother of jared, another story that i love. one of my favorite parts is when he goes to the Lord and asks him for help and the Lord gave it to him the first time and told him what to do to fix the problem. and then the second time the brother of jared went to the Lord and asked him what to do, the Lord pulled a jedi mind trick on him and asked the brother of jared what he wants the Lord to do to fix the problem. in the story we can see that the Lord is always there and willing to help us, but he also wants us to come up with our own solutions and then ask for his help with carrying out with our plans. and we see this same thing happen in the story of the brother of jared, the Lord told him to come up with his own ideas and then come back with what he wanted to do, and so the brother of jared did just that and came back and sure of enough the Lord helped him carry out and fulfill the things the was commanded to do. the application of this story was very clear to me and my personal situation. so anyways the end results of all this, i applied all the things i'd thought of and asked for the Lord to help me in finding success in applying the new ideas in order to advance his work here upon the earth.
and well yesterday sunday, after a week of just biting the bullet and getting work done, hoping and praying to find some success somewhere from what i'd been learning; we got a reference from a member to go and visit a less active family that lives out in a little pueblito in a dryed up river bed ...haha... and so we went out there and visited with the family and they have 3 kids that are baptizing age! and i couldn't help but see this and realize it being an answer to my prayers and efforts. not only will we be teaching and helping these kids make the covenant of baptism with our Heavenly Father, but well also be able to help this family come back to church! so cool huh! i mean ya we didnt find that golden family of 20 people ...haha, but i couldn't be more happy with this family that the Lord prepared for us and put in our path.
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| we taped black trash bags over the windows in the chapel so we could watch conference a gusto haha nifty huh? |
and two of the kids love playing marbles and so i know were going to get along really well ...haha... another cool thing too that helped me out was that we got surprise visits from the mission president and the assistents. we didnt excpect it all, we just got a phone call from them saying hey were outside your house you guys need to come here ...haha... and so we did some visits and check up interviews with them and it was really beneficial for me. they expressed alot of props to us for working so hard amidst the conditions here, they wondered themselves how we did it haha! also found out that apatzingan is the hottest, farthest, most dangerous, and largest area in the whole mission! go us haha! but it was nice to get this little visit from them, especially because we figured that they'd only come visit here when hell freezes over ...haha... because of the afore mentioned circumstances of our area. but ya things are definitely looking on the uphill around here. i say uphill because were still at the base of the mountain and have a lot of climbing and work to do but its worth it and hey, it is what i was called here to do and i got the big guy up top at my back so i have no need to worry.
i hope all is well for you all back home and that you're getting excited for my birthday ...haha... just kidding. also i recommend studying the stories from the book of mormon that i mentioned in this letter and applying them to your own lives, because they're a good read with lessons to be to taken from them too. but anyways have an excellent week folks, i love you and remember that you rock!
much love from mexico,
Elder Maccarthy
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