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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