March 16, 2015

Hola!

Oookay... humility is such an important thing in conversion!  I believe that pride is literally the only thing that stands in our way between us and Eternal Life.  It gets in the way of EVERYTHING.

  C.S. Lewis says “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes youproud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”Mere Christianity

I have had the opportunity of meeting people who are truly humble.  They fear God more than they fear man.  They give everything they have, even when blessings for their sacrifices cannot be seen.  People who place TEN PESOS in a tithing slip... meaning they earn ten dollars a month for a family of 5.  People who work all night long on Saturday, come to church and fulfil their callings on Sunday, and thank God for the opportunity they have to be there.  I want to cry just thinking about these amazing people.

But I also have met very prideful people.  It is something that everyone has a little bit of. I have a TON of it and seem to find more and more each day.  But, I have seen that it is what stands between almost all of our investigators, and baptism.  Therefore, our investigators, and Eternal Life.  We often ask people to imagine their Eternal Life and what it will be like.  We discuss how we think it may be... colors, animals, food, people, music. And then ask the question, "And what are you willing to do to achieve this?" I am thinking right now of an investigator in specific, and we will call him Juan. Juan has a family that are all members... His wive is the primary president and she is amazing.  He is not a member, and does not know how to read.  We have a family home evening with them every week, and work with him little by little.  We have had some very beautiful and amazing spiritual experiences together.  He even had an interview with Presidente Zanni, the mission president, and in which he cried the entire time for strength of the spirit and said that he knew this was the true and everlasting church.... only to deny everything afterwards.

This is just one example of many.  But I hope that we can all CHOOSE to be humble.  They are such an amazing family... we will keep working and searching for new people. We have yet to find those chosen... but we are working on it!