Learning About Christ

I told Benji: To Start out, We invited two families to church for yesterday and Julia invited a few friends and no one came. Well, as Dad said, it was 'invite a friend to church Sunday' not 'make sure your friend gets to church' Sunday. Oh, well, we tried.

And He responded: Well you did what you could. You invited and you followed up. It sounds like you're a great missionary to me :D Tell Pappap I love him and to get better. It would probably be good if at some point he recieved a priesthood blessing. I'm so glad he's doing well though.

 I also told Benji about Julia's All County Band Concert and how she has been invited to be in All County Orchestra and his response was: 

Woah Julia. Dang. You go girl! That sounds like it was an awesome concert! I was so surprised looking at my family tree and seeing some of the work that you had done. It really is wonderful.

I also share the following story with Benji.

 I have started reading an article  where the man said that he took his family to see paintings Christ that were lined up in the order of His life. Each family member described what was happening in a painting and when it got to the Dad's turn, he saw the picture of Christ on the cross and said that this was where Christ died. His two little children said, 'No Daddy. He is alive.' He says:      I stooped down to ask them to use their quiet voices and to explain more about the Crucifixion. That’s when I saw what they were seeing. From their angle, we could see on the glass partition the reflection of one painting superimposed on another painting. One was the painting of the Lord on the cross, and the other was the painting of His Resurrection. In both paintings His arms are stretched out, in the one on the cross and in the other as He is leaving the tomb. When I first saw the paintings imposed one on the other, it startled me. In that moment the images seemed to match perfectly. It seemed as if I were looking at the Savior’s spirit leaving His body on the cross.

Upon closer inspection I discovered the illusion, then enjoyed looking at each painting separately—The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. But the memory of the two paintings superimposed is imprinted on my mind. In a single view, they encapsulated the Lord’s condescension and His transcendent glory. And in one moment, the reality of the Crucifixion and of the Resurrection was confirmed by the Spirit in my heart and soul.       

BENJI SAID: I Loved that! Seeing Christ through the eyes of his children helped him see revelations about the Savior that had never come to him before! That story is awesome. I love it. I have been reading Jesus the Christ and I want to focus my studies on his life this next month leading up to christmas. 

For Christmas,  I would also like hand written letters from you all with your testimony and favorite scripture about the savior. I want to see how you all prepared yourselves to have a spiritual Christmas season. My greatest present will be talking to you all on Christmas. Thank you so much for all of your spiritual and financial support for my mission. You already give so much.

Love,

Elder Dazey

PS. As for my week, we worked a lot more with members this week. Our main investigators are progressing step by step. We had a lesson with a family this week, and the invited others from their church and wouldn't let us share our message. They had antimormon literature and 4 bibles already open to scriptures upon our entrance. Needless to say, we left quickly. It was the saddest feeling I've had so far, to see people so contentious. But it taught me a good lesson about finding people that are prepared. We are helping a few families prepare to be sealed in the temple. Its awesome. We are getting better and better at teaching, and our lessons are overall very good.We are working with members more and more. Love your missionaries. Help them as much as you can. They can't do their job without you. I love you all, and I'll try to remember to bring my journal next week to write more specific information.

Prayers and Miracles

We have been talking a lot about family history lately. Keep it up Mom! You're the best! That makes me so happy. Like SO HAPPY. 

We've been trying to pray with more effort after a presentaion from the Assistants in our mission. They told us that we would pray around 22,000 times on our missions, and that we needed to make every single one good enough to bring miracles just as prayers brought miracles in the scriptures.

I told Benji a story that we were told in Ward Council as a spiritual message on gratitude. It was a talk that someone read where a man had his family would literally take inventory of all of the things that they had on their farm every Thanksgiving. It was for them all to 'count their blessings. One year the crops failed and he had to sell all of their livestock to be able to eat. Everyone was doing that so they didn't get a very good price for them. This was also the year that they happened to have electricity added to their farmhouse. He killed a jack rabbit for their dinner and his wife was unhappy because those were tough and took a lot of hard work to cook them right. The only crop they did have were turnips. Which were usually bitter. The kids looked at the dinner and refused to eat. The mom was in tears because she had worked so hard on it. The Dad proceeded ask the kids to get the old oil lamp out and they lit it and then he went around and turned off all of the light bulbs. They were amazed at how dark it got and that they could even see their dinner before. As they gave thanks for the meal and started to eat it, the rabbit was delicious and the turnips were the sweetest they had ever tasted! So many blessings! So much to be thankful for! 

So Benji's response was: Thanks for that story. I am working on having more gratitude in my heart. It helps me keep my mind on the work. It's awesome to see how our success in the area is directly related to our obedience.

You all are having a Stake wide Family History Fair?  (Mexican whistle thing) ESSSSSOOOOOOOO! That's so cool! I want to do more family history. Hopefully we can work it into our schedule.

   I invited a friend of mine to an 'Invite a friend to church day' and Benji said: I'm so glad you could invite Jennifer. That's exactly how it works Mom. God will always bless you as you are praying and searching. Keep up the good work. It's awesome to see all that you do as we work more with our Relief Society President. You really are a big help to those missionaries. They need you.  

  I saw a woman with her son this week, and I was feeling just a little sick that day (and you know how emotional I can get when I am sick) Her son reminded me so much of Alex. I didn't get to talk to them, but my companion did (It was on the bus) but I loved them so easily. I was almost crying. I have thought a lot about Alex this week. I told Benji: You know I was talking to someone recently and without even thinking about it much before I said it, told them that Alex doesn't know how to lie. He doesn't know manipulation or deceit. Although he can be difficult sometimes, he is so much more pure in Spirit that we 'normal people'. He is truly blessed! And so are we. I said that one day when we get up to Celestial Kingdom, he is going to be radiant, and he is going to look at us and say, 'This is me. I couldn't tell you before but this is the true me. Thank you for loving me.'

Benji said: Thank you for sharing that thought about the Celestial Kingdom with me.

  

I shared this quote with him. 

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

―  Martin Luther King Jr. He said: That is a beautiful quote. Tell Daniel He is doing a great job with missionary work and to keep up the good work. 

Love,

Elder Dazey

IBenji said they were having a hard time getting members of the Ward to come out to their teaching appointments and I told him that the Sister missionaries here have a calendar of the upcoming week with them each Sunday that they pass around and people can sign up for times when they have time available. By the time church is over, their calendar is usually full! So Benji said:  P.s. You're advice last week was gold. We have a schedule full of member present lessons. My companion wants to kiss you for helping us.

Loving the Work

In my letter to Benji this week, I told him this story:Today in RS we were talking about missionary work and Sister Torgersen said that at one point during her husband's guitar making and selling business, he was having a lot of people coming into their home who looked very different than the people that they would see at church. She said that they were all nice people and it was interesting to get to know a lot of them. Years later, now that her sons have gone on missions, they write back and tell her that they are very grateful for the lessons their parents taught them about getting to know and love people for who they are on the inside and not for what they look like on the outside. There have been times that one of her sons has felt inspired to go up to someone to talk about the Gospel and their companion has said that he wasn't sure about that person because they look a little "Sketchy". And Elder Torgersen's response was "And? That should stop us?"
She says that she has always told them to 'Look on the heart and not on outward experiences when approaching people about the gospel.' I thought that that sounded like very wise words and something that might help you on your mission. Benji's said in his letter:
Thanks for the story from Sister Torgerson. My Spanish is getting a lot better. The more humble I am, and the more that I listen, the more that I learn. Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll share them with Elder Sosa, and hopefully we can apply them. There wasn't much Day of the Dead in Galaxia (my área) Elder Sosa says that in other places there is a lot more. Mostly I just saw kids trick or treating for a few days straight.
The misión is going great. Elder Sosa Works hard, and I like to work hard too, so we are pretty obedient (though there is a lot to improve, always :D) We are helping one family prepare to be sealed in the temple, and our lesson with them was really cool this week. I love working. I want to learn everything that Elder Sosa does so that I can be better. Today we had a really cool activity with our zone. We literally played sports and ate pizza. It's great to take a break and play soccer and stuff. Weird how much more I like sports now. Elder Sosa and I were looking at some church paintings, and noticed that all of the righteous people were super buff. So our goal is do be nephites, because all of the most righteous people are buff, right?
Teaching is great. The church is true. Mexico is better every day. I love you Mom!
-Elder Dazey

Getting started in Mexico

My companion is from Querétaro, Mexico. He only speaks Spanish. It´s great :D So, I taught a lot in the MTC, but for some reason I have a harder time here. (Probably because I can only follow 60-80 percent of the conversation) But I have contacted someone on the bus without my companions help. He is starting to ask me to do a lot. It´s not that I can´t teach, it´s that I don´t always know what the last thing they said was. We will have a lesson tonight though, and I will teach a lot of it. Sacrament was good. The people are nice. We really just need people to accompany us to appointments and things.

 People don´t believe me at first and then I explain. Usually a missionary from The USA will say something like "Haha! A mexican that doesn´t speak Spanish" They like to make jokes ;D  Elder Sosa is super service oriented. He finds every opportunity to serve me, and I´m trying to be more like him.  

We have a Little apartment house thing. Two stories, 1 bedroom, 1 Bathroom, kitchen/study área.  All of the lessons that the sisters before us set up, fell through. We´re gonna baptize them all though :D  We need to find these people. We don´t have many to teach yet. So far I don't need a bike, in answer to your question. 

 I was studying today and thought about how the first principles of the góspel are like a pyramid, and that you have to have a foundation of Faith in order to have the desire and power to repent. Build Faith and Love for Christ, and anyone can repent of anything. I love you guys. Tell Julia to keep up her scripture reading. There is another Elder in my district that did marching band. Tell Aaron that kids everywhere are the same. The boys were playing Minecraft in the bathroom at Church on Sunday ;) Tell Alex I love him, and that I think about him a lot. My wards name is Margarita, which means 'daisy' in Spanish.  Haha. They think it´s cute that I´m a ¨Daisy¨

With Love,

Elder Dazey