Elder Haven Ruiz: Week 69: Mi Familia

For the most part I think I've overcome whatever ailment I was experiencing last week, so now it's not hindering my ability to get out and work, which we are grateful for.

This past week had many tender mercies and we had some fun. During District Meeting on Tuesday we set a goal to find 15 new investigators as a district by the end of the week, we were all super pumped to go out and find! On Thursday we got together as a zone and volunteered at a...community garden?...I don't know what to call it...anyways we went to this place called Squash 4 Friends and we dug holes for vegetable plants and their pots and afterwards the manager of the place made us some vegetable soup with homemade bread, yum! After that we checked out the Mojave River with our housemated, Elder Ogbonna from Nigeria and Elder Kelly from Iowa. I was always told by other people on my mission that the Mojave River is dry most of the time. But right now it's not haha! That river is cruising along. We skipped stoned across the river and we walked around this really long railroad trestle that spans the riverbed and took some cool pictures.

We hoped to find new investigators this week as part of our district goal for last week, but we didn't. But that's okay because we also had some spiritual experiences with several people we talked to during the week. We tracted throughout the week with Family Proclamation pamphlets, telling people how faith in Jesus Christ can strengthen their families and bring them closer together. I consider us blessed to have tracted into quite a few families and not just individuals. They were all very nice to us; a lady with two adorable kids even told us that her mother is LDS and that she had missionaries over at her house for dinner before! At another house that we tracted into we met a man named Donovan, who started attending a Christian church in Chino not too long ago. We gave him a Family Proclamation pamphlet and after talking with him for a bit he asked us where we meet for church and what time our services start. We gave him the address and time for our ward and he told us that he'd really like to come to our church sometime. Elder Olson and I were so happy and grateful to have been able to have met these families. During the middle of the week we visited an investigator named Jeremy who has been battling depression and substances for some time now. I was quite saddened to see him in his current status. My heart was struck to hear him tell us that society doesn't need him, that he's better off just isolating himself from everyone else by staying in his apartment. I told him that that is not part of God's plan for us, but rather that he wants us to interact with one another, as that is how we can learn in progress in this life.

I told him we could give him a blessing of counsel and comfort, and he accepted our offer. After the blessing, despite the fact that he had taken some drugs prior to seeing him, he said that he did feel better. I could even see a slight change in his countenance. We committed him to watch an online video produced by the Church called "The Hope of God's Light" (one of my favorite video produced by the Church), and to also get rid of his drugs and alcohol. The level of spirituality in that environment was a lot better by the time we left. I left feeling good, knowing that Christ would have done the same thing, of reaching out to him and listening to him, and helping him. Later that evening we had locked up our bikes on a street pole to go tracting on a particular street, and when we came back to unlock our bikes, someone had put a small bag of chips in each of our helmets haha! What a kind act that they performed! Also while tracting we met a young man named Christian who told us that his family is looking for God's church. I promised him right then and there that our church is what is family is looking for, and that his family can be brought closer together through the message that we share of Jesus Christ and families being together forever. We invited him and his family to attend our church on Sunday and he said he would try and make it. Later in the week we were notified that his family is not interested in learning from us, but Christian was anxious to come to our ward, and sure enough he was there at sacrament meeting! After sacrament meeting Elder Olson asked Christian what he thought, and he said that he liked it! Plus two of our investigators came to sacrament meeting and Sunday school as well! Elder Olson and I were so ecstatic! And last night we tried to contact a potential investigator named Frank and we talked to his wife in their driveway and she offered to feed us this Wednesday for dinner! Without hesitation we said yes to her offer! Elder Olson and I are excited for this new week!

After church we helped a nonmember lady move furniture and belongings out of her house and into a moving van; she was very grateful for our assistance (she was another person that Elder Olson and I tracted into, and when she told us that she was busy moving furniture we offered to come help her, to which she accepted).

I cannot thank my Heavenly Father enough for these wonderful experiences he has given to Elder Oson and I. As we have been sharing "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" pamphlets with others, it has made me think a lot about my own family members. I love my family very much, and I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have as Latter-Day Saints that families can be together forever through sacred ordinances that occur in holy temples. I thank God for all the blessings he has given me in my life. He has placed each of us in family units because He loves us and wants us to learn, progress, and grow, and being in families that have the gospel is the best way to achieve those. I know that families can be together forever, and that we will one day be able to embrace and reunite with our dear friends and loved ones who have passed on from this life. I consider it a privilege and special opportunity to be able to teach others this profound and moving doctrine. I love each of you, and I thank my Heavenly Father that he has allowed you and I to play a part in each other's lives. Have a blessed week!

Elder Haven Ruiz