Monday, August 8, 2016

Week 43: "We didn't start the fire..."

Okay, well we experienced a variety of things this week! 

On Tuesday Elder Porritt and I finally were able to see a less-active in the ward, Brother Koloamatangi who is from Tonga. He's a cool guy; him and his wife were married in the temple, and they have a young son. But unfortunately Brother Koloamatangi has struggled for most of his life with being active in the Church, and he has a few problems with the Word of Wisdom. But he has a testimony and he loves the missionaries. We are actually going to have dinner with him and his family tonight and help them have a family home evening!

Wednesday we had exchanges, so Elder Van Engelenhoven and I stayed in the Ranchero ward while Elder Porritt went with our district leader Elder Jessee. Elder Van (for short) and I were blessed with a tender mercy! We were fortunate enough to catch one of our investigators home at the right time. He told us that he hasn't been available because he was in the hospital for two weeks because he got surgery on a growth on his upper thigh and has been trying to recover from the surgery. We have been trying to call him for several weeks now, but when we saw him he told us he got a new phone, so we got his new number from him, and set a return appointment for next Wednesday! He still has not read the Book of Mormon, but he said he was going to read all of Nephi before this Wednesday. Haha now that's what I call a commitment! And a member from the ward brought us some DELICIOUS enchiladas, they were fantastic!

On Thursday we taught a dropped investigator that had been taught by missionaries several months ago. His name is Solomon, and he is basically a self-proclaimed minister. My intention of going there was to just teach him and read with him the Book of Mormon; I didn't even want to Bible-bash. Buuuuuuut not surprisingly of course it turned into a bash. It was hard to feel the Spirit, and Elder Porritt and I weren't even instigation or initiating the argument (okay, maybe I did a little bit haha). We were both fed up and tired of with Solomon (figuratively) throwing Bible scriptures at us to prove the validity of the Trinity and other typical mainstream Christian doctrine, that we just set our scriptures cases aside and just bore our honest testimonies to him. Sadly, it didn't really phase him, he just kept on with the argument. We could tell he didn't care much reading the Book of Mormon and knowing whether or not it is true; he pretty much just wanted to prove us wrong and show us that the Bible is the word of God, and nothing else is. If there's one thing that I've learned from bashing with Christians, it's this: rarely will you feel the Holy Ghost when you bash, because He does not dwell where there is contention. If you have arguments, physical fighting, the Holy Ghost will never be there in those situations. He only brings positive feelings to people, not negative feelings. 

Elder Christofferson's most recent conference talk about fathers just popped into my mind while thinking about arguments and fighting:

Discipline and correction are part of teaching. As Paul said, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”14 But in discipline a [person] must exercise particular care, lest there be anything even approaching abuse, which is never justified. When a [someone] provides correction, [their] motivation must be love and [their] guide the Holy Spirit:
“Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
“That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.”
Discipline in the divine pattern is not so much about punishing as it is about helping a loved one along the path of self-mastery
So, we are not planning on going back to teach him. Hopefully he will be ready one day to receive the gospel. I am praying for him. 

On Saturday we decided to save miles on our car by biking to everything. So we did, and it was a nice change to our typical day of using our car to get around. 

And on Sunday as we were walking into the chapel for sacrament meeting to start, we turned around and saw a massive smoke cloud out in the distance on the southeast side of Hesperai. It looked like it was a warehouse or a home that was on fire, so we just forgot about it and walked into church.

But when we walked out after the end of church we thought the firemen would have put it out, or at least the fire would be the same size, but NO! IT WAS HUGE! We immediately realized it was a forest fire! The smoke was so massive, it could have been mistaken for a sandstorm, I swear! And as the evening went on it only got worse. By the time we were headed back to the apartment for the night, a very large chunk of the nearby mountainside was in blazes! We live a couple miles away from the mountainside, so to us it just looked like hot smoky lava haha. As of right now the forest fire is still burning, but Elder Porritt and I are safe, it probably won't get anywhere close to the part of Hesperia that we are serving in.
  
Welcome to Southern California fire season.  😅  
  
I am loving my mission experience so far. I am so grateful and honored to be able to represent the Savior and serve Him and His church for two years. I am not a perfect servant though. None of Heavenly Father's children are perfect, except for our loving Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and it is only through Him that we can be healed, made whole, and perfected. I am so thankful for His perfect example and for the love that He has for every single one of us.

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Ruiz



​This is how big the smoke cloud was after church. 





(in the voice of Smoky the Bear): Only you can prevent forest fires.

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