A Quite Week

Well, 

Overall this has been an interesting week. My companion is sick, has had problems with his asthma. The weather is putting everyone who has asthma in the hospital. Weird I know. So, we really didn’t do anything until Thursday. We went to Timbio on Wednesday though, which of course is my most favorite spot in the world. I seriously love Timbio. If I could move to anywhere in the world today, I would move to Timbio. It’s my favorite specifically for the sunsets. There are members out there that love us to death and it is always fun to go out there. Sergio plays the guitar with a member’s son, Nefi (Nephi). Elder Borg tries to copy Sergio and Nefi´s apparent skill, but most the time to no avail. I spend the time talking with Hermano Bentencur. They are awesome.

Right now Elder Borg and I feel very good about our investigators, we have a good handful of them, so we are inviting them all to be baptized on the 17th of August in something we are calling Una Noche Blanca, The White Night. It will be very special especially if we can get the 10 investigators that we want to be baptized to be ready. (The Una Noche Blanca is when the entire mission try’s to have baptisms all at once.)

Elder Borg and I finally had our moment, I knew it was coming. He and I are very different people, hence there was bound to be problems. The main problem I’ve been having with him is that he is so prideful in himself that he never listens to me or to anyone, which can be fairly difficult when you are trying to teach a lesson. He ends up being the mouth and I’m the ears in the discussions. Which would be fine if I could respond correctly to some of the crazy fast questions the investigators ask me. Our little blow up session ended well however and our companionship is stronger than ever. Luckily we did it in the comfort of our own home.

Really this was kind of a breath easy week. I’ve felt like I’ve been running for a month straight and to have a little space to breath this week was kind of nice. Nothing crazy happened, we didn’t go anywhere special, it wasn’t Independence Day, it was just a nice calm week.

However, this week will be EPIC. It started with our family home evening last night with 32 investigators. Our rama (branch) loves us, ha-ha. 32 investigators showed up at a house in which Elder Borg and I set up the best game ever. It’s called Captain Morgan. This is how we play the game:

We tell the whole room that we have a special guest named Morgan, but that Morgan is very shy because he is handicapped. He’s lost an arm, a leg, and an eye. Then we blind fold a person and bring them in the back. Elder Borg would then say, "This is the beard of Morgan", my hair. "This is the good arm of Morgan", my good arm. "This is the bad arm of Morgan", my elbow. "This is the good leg of Morgan", my leg. "This is the bad leg of Morgan”, a broomstick. "This is the nose of Morgan", my nose. "This is the good eye of Morgan", my eye closed. "And this is the bad eye of Morgan" at which point I hold up a tree tomato (kind of like a roma tomato) and then Elder Borg sticks the persons finger into the tomato. At this point the person would SCREAM!! AHAHAHA It was so funny. We did about 5 people. (I'm assuming that this is one of those "you had to be there to really understand moments") Then we shared a spiritual thought and then I invited all 31 people to prepare themselves to be baptized. We’ll see how effective that was.

I love it here, the weather for me is perfect. My companion always thinks its way to cold and has a hard time breathing, but it’s like 78 every day. I love it here, this for me is the most amazing experience. Everyday we are involved in people’s lives. People call out to us by name in the street, all the kids in the neighborhood know our names. It’s awesome. 

Today however my eyes were opened. We went to the nicer part of Popayán. I thought we lived in it, nope; ha-ha, we live in the slums of Popayán for sure. But guess what, I love it anyway. I love that you can buy candy for half a cent. That lunch costs 1 dollar, sure it might make you sick for a week, but I’ve found that I really have a tough stomach, ha-ha, my companion not so much. I feel bad for him as sometimes he spends quite a lot of time.... feeling sick so to speak. 

Already I feel the need to climb into a spot of leadership. No joke, my dream is to become the assistant to the President in the mission, but there are a lot of rungs to climb before I get there. 120 missionaries, how will I distinguish myself? 

I’m going to baptize and preach and teach like crazy. Yes there will be many people who aren’t interested, or feel like they are not ready, and that is fine, but I am here for one purpose:  To share The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love my Savior and in the past week I was able to really spend some time studying the crucifixion of Christ and the Atonement of Christ in my personal studies. What I have found is this:

We have barely scratched the surface in understanding Christ’s sacrifice for us. 

We use the atonement of Christ to repent, but that’s pretty much it. I read something recently that changed my whole view of the Atonement (The sacrifice of Christ). Instead of reading the sacrifice of Christ, or the Atonement of Christ, read "The enabling power of Christ." When you do this your mind can be opened to some of the incredible blessings of our Heavenly Father and Christ that are also known as Grace. The Atonement of Christ is powerful; through Christ we can have the power to do anything. Christ suffered so that we wouldn’t have to. Its incredible when you think about just how powerful that can be. If you feel tired you can literally use the strength of Christ to continue. We are promised this:

 That "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13) ALL THINGS. I absolutely love this scripture and everyday it has a better and grander meaning to me. 

Things that happened this week:

My companion is sick, vitamin C for me.

We dug a ditch for 2 miles down the side of basically a cliff for a family of investigators so they could have water. 

We are building a house for the Flores family. 

Lot’s of love 

Elder Lyle