Baptism by Fire

Howdy!

Well this week has just been nifty! We've had a lot of good opportunities to teach, preach, and baptize.

We started off the week by teaching Teadoro, an 18-year-old investigator. We had already taught him about the Plan of Salvation, so we taught him the Restoration on Monday night at the church. It went really well. He understood the message, and had questions. At the end of the lesson, he asked Heavenly Father in prayer if our message is true. I know if he reads the Book of Mormon and continues to pray, he will receive an answer. Later in the week, we had him over to our Branch Mission Leader's house for another lesson. We taught him about the importance of baptism for the remission of sins, and he decided to be baptized on December 20th, provided he has received an answer to his prayers by that time. As I said before, I know he will.

We've had a lot of experiences with finding and teaching lately that have given me desires like the sons of Mosiah in Alma 17:9,  "that [I] might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it [is] possible, [my] brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which [are] not correct." We have been teaching a lot of Lamanites here in Montrose, and for the most part they are stuck on the traditions of their fathers. It takes a lot of work and a lot of the Spirit to peel back the scales from their eyes sometimes! But we continue to teach and preach and work as missionaries do! The Lord will provide.

And oh boy, we got to teach Chelsey and Alejandro again! Alejandro was happy as a clam and very outgoing and involved in the lesson, which is a change for him! We taught them the message of the Restoration again as the first new-member lesson. They loved it. I love to teach people who have opened their minds to understanding, and their hearts to receiving the Spirit. Speaking of receiving the Spirit! This Sunday was Alejandro's confirmation. He asked me to perform it! It was the first time I've performed an ordinance in Spanish. I think it went pretty well! After sacrament meeting, while we were talking to Alejandro, he rubbed his chest with an open palm, got a smile on his face and said, "Siento bien." (I feel good.) How simple and beautiful! We turn to all kinds of scriptures and experiences to try to explain to people what the Spirit feels like, and he summed it up in two words. Baptism by fire.

I also had the chance that day to translate for the speakers in Sacrament meeting! It was my first time since Grand Junction, and luckily no one was speaking Navajo this time. There are a few members of the branch who are there by assignment, and don't speak any Spanish, and there was also a high counselor giving a talk in English; so I got to translate into both languages! The first talk was given in Spanish, and I spoke the real-time English translation into a headset. There was a point in the talk when the speaker used several words I didn't know, and I got really lost. I sat in silence for a minute, and then said into the headset, "I apologize, but I have no idea what he's saying." Then a minute later he changed subjects and I was able to pick it back up. Translating into Spanish went pretty well because I had a copy of the talk in English in front of me. I could tell the high counselor was speaking really slowly for my sake, and I still had to condense and skip a lot of his talk. I hope the Spirit carried the meaning to the people's hearts!

Despite translation difficulties, I feel like my Spanish is improving! I'm able to carry on a conversation pretty fluently (depending on who it's with), but translating is just a different ballgame. Lots of fun going on here! Oh! and a p.s. before the close (I jsut like to be different). Transfers are tomorrow, but nothing's changing with us, except that one of the Sisters in our branch is getting transferred.

The Church is true, and I love you all! It's getting mighty cold here as well. But we'll keep working! Much love and wishes for prosperity and happiness!

Sincerely,

Elder Rogers

Montrose District