Dear Mom, Dad, Lauren, and Ian,
Sorry I’m late…the electricity just came back on! So, there're two big electric companies here
and everybody has this cruddy old one. The other big one is over in Punta Cana
and MUCH more reliable. It makes sense though; tourists wouldn't come there if
the electricity was bad. But the church doesn't pay for the better one. To make
up for it, they buy things called Inversores for the houses, kind of like a
back- up generator. Our apartment has
Inversores but other people without them only get a few hours of power a day.
It's really bad :P
I finally have something interesting to write to ya'll!
But before that, the week has been a little rough. A lot of our appointments
have been falling through. Of course, it's normal. But after a few days of it
happening consecutively, you start to think about ways you can start teaching
again. I'm not discouraged though, God always sends us tender mercies. ^_^ So, we decided to do a lot of contacting this
week to find more people to teach. Don't get me wrong, the people we are
teaching are great, but when all of them fall through on you a few times, you
need something else to do when they aren't available :P So that's what we'll do!
I met my first Mormon Apostate on accident though. My companion and I met a man who, regretably,
has fallen away from the church and now persecutes the church. The poor guy is
full of the philosophies of Man. He started out as a good member, but then
something happened and he completely flipped the other way and disactivated his
family. The other two elders actually warned us about him, but we never worried
because he was in their area. Well yesterday, we went out with a member and he
took us to that house. Too late, I only realized it was the guy when we entered
his house. Anyway, he started
"clarifying" himself about the Book of Mormon and how he needs to see
the plates to believe them, how God created man not from His image, but His
imagination, how baptisms for the dead isn't a real ordinance, yada, yada,
yada. He wasn't too different from other people that want to fight biblically
with us. Or rather, he's really good at not answering our questions and
changing the subject. But that didn't stop him from "discussing" his
points of view with us. But it was weird, I had the Spirit with me when he was
talking, and I (for lack of better term) destroyed his "knowledge"
with Spirit-inspired scriptures and questions . We were nice about it and did
our best to get out of there, but the Spirit was with us, and we said what He
wanted us to say to this guy.
I didn't fight with him. We never shouted our interrupted
him (even though he did plenty of times). But something slipped out of my mouth
that I really hope was Spirit-inspired. Before we left, he was still rambling
on about how he knows more than we do and that we need to study like he does.
And then I said without thinking in Spanish, “Mayor Luz, Mayor Condenacion.”
Greater your light, greater your condemnation. Or rather, the more you know
that is right, the more trouble you'll be in if you don't do it, because you
know it’s right. After I said that, I was all "wait, what did I say?"
From that meeting, I learned that this certain apostate
was really good at two things: not answering my questions and changing the
subject :P I wish to all of you that
that never happen to any of you. If you know that the Gospel is true, do all
you can to be strenghtened and blessed by it. I don't ever remember feeling
weighed down or disappointed with this gospel.
Our sure bap date is a girl named Yasily and she's so awesome!
Yasily is 15, her date is on the 26th of July (we gotta wait 3 months). The
ward already loves her and she's super smart and literally started out like
Joseph Smith, not knowing where to search for the truth. She lives with her aunt because her mom lives
in Madrid and her dad had passed away. We’re excited for her!
Our mission president is leaving soon so this transfer is
only 4 weeks and then the next will be 8. I think I will be staying here for a
while. We're getting a little better with the ward. We're starting up a Preach My
Gospel class here and I think the missionary work with the ward will be much
better.
I have to go. I'll write you all next week with more
progress in the area!! Take care!!! I
love you all!
-Elder Froude
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