Week 48: Where Elders Become Elders

Wow this week flew by. Time just keeps speeding up! Here are a few highlights from this last week:

• We started teaching a guy named Gabriel that was referred to us by the Spanish elders. He's agnostic and really wants to learn more about what we believe in. He's keeping commitments too!! 

• We went to stop by another referral named Robert but his house number didn't exist so Elder Mecham thought he lived in the house closest to the address we had. We knocked on the door and a guy answered but we never asked what his name was. We taught him the full restoration and I was pretty positive it wasn't Robert but when Elder Mecham said the prayer he kept calling him Robert hahaha. We asked for his number so we went and got his card and sure enough, his name is Mario. Elder Mecham still didn't realize haha so I had to tell him after. Sooo we don't know where Robert is but we met Mario and he's cool!

• On Friday we were street contacting and I had the thought to look at our map to see if anyone was nearby and, lo and behold, we were right in front of a house where a lady named Yarima, who was formerly taught, lives. We knocked on the door and she told us to come in. She said that she loved meeting with the missionaries and that when she reads the Book of Mormon she has an overwhelming feeling of peace. She even told us that the last missionaries she talked to invited her to be baptized and she wasn't sure about it but then she read a scripture in the Book of Mormon and had a very strong impression that this is the true church. But then her doubts crept in again and she didn't get baptized. We asked her what would be holding her back now and we almost put her on date but she got a little nervous. We have another lesson set up for this Friday so hopefully that goes through! 

• I saw Mexico! We went to a recent convert's house and she lives right on the Rio Grande. She said that sometimes people swim across and walk up past her house and then border patrol brings them somewhere. She actually lives on the other side of the border fence too so that's pretty cool, the fence itself is pretty anticlimactic though haha. 

• We helped the Williams, an elderly couple in our ward, cut up and move a tree that fell on their shed during the last storm. They were so grateful and he called us his heros. I also gave him a priesthood blessing cause his wife is having some serious health issues.

• We stopped by our friend Joe the other day and his roommate said he was behind the house so we walked around and found him and his friends doing drugs. We told them we could come back another time but one of his friends insisted that we share a message so we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). We gave him a pamphlet with our number and left after that. So that was fun!

• Before I came here one of my zone leaders told me Del Rio is where elders become elders haha. Which is actually kinda true. It's over 100⁰ and humid down here almost every day now so I'm kinda dying but we're super busy and teaching a lot of people. I've already grown a lot this transfer and I'm gonna start learning Spanish because everyone and their mom speak Spanish here haha.

Spiritual Thought

I was reading Brad Wilcox's talk "His Grace Is Sufficient" and I really loved this quote: "The grace of Christ is sufficient—sufficient to cover our debt, sufficient to transform us,and sufficient to help us as long as that transformation process takes. The Book of Mormon teaches us to rely solely on “the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah” (2 Nephi 2:8). As we do, we do not discover—as some Christians believe—that Christ requires noth-

ing of us. Rather, we discover the reason He requires so much and the strength to do all He asks (see  Philippians 4:13). Grace is not the absence of God’s high expectations. Grace is the presence of God’s power (see Luke 1:37)."

Because of Christ's atoning sacrifice, he offers us His grace. He has paid the price for our sins and in return he asks us to follow Him and provides us the option to live with Him again. It is our choice, and as we are obedient to the commandments, Christ's grace enables us to accomplish them. 

Grace is something I've been studying recently and this talk really helped me understand it. I would really encourage y'all to listen to it! He makes it interesting so you won't be bored. Here's the link: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox/his-grace-is-sufficient/

Love y'all!

- Elder Christensen

Pictures

1. Leaving at 5am to go to Zone Conference in San Antonio!

2-3. The Rio Grande

4. Downtown Del Rio

5. The border fence