I glory in Truth

Hey there! Happy Leap Year!

This week was pretty cool. It was a bit crazy because we did companion exchanges twice, but it was good and we learned a lot.

 

 

​Hermana Hale and I also made a pretty sweet Tajin platter for dinner, so that was good.

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Plazear- to sit in the plaza. As in, "(accusatory tone) Hermana, we saw what you were doing on Wednesday. Sitting in the plaza!" It-s actually not a word, some of my investigators made it up. All these companion exchanges require a lot of bus travel, so we definitely did some plaza sitting waiting for the bus this week. They were super excited to accuse me.

Dominguear- to Sunday. As in, "Oh, we've just been Sunday-ing all day." That verb is just as incorrect in Spanish as it is in English, and it made me laugh.

Santificar- Sanctify. As in, "The Lord has commanded us to sanctify the Sabbath Day. This means that we dedicate Sundays to the Lord by going to church, partaking of the Sacrament, and dedicating the rest of the day to appropriate family and service activities that glorify God."

So I had a hard time choosing which stories to tell this week, but here are a few.

You may remember several weeks ago when I told you about an investigator who loves coffee and was not willing to give it up. Well we've taught her for a while now, and she's really been growing a testimony of the Gospel. Last week we felt like it was time to teach her the Word of Wisdom. We taught her and her daughter everything about the Word of Wisdom and asked them what they thought. She seriously loved it and had no problem quitting coffee.

Miracles happen when we grow a testimony.

Remember that awesome family that loves the Bible? We saw them twice this week. They hadn't come to church last Sunday and we went to our lesson with them ready to resolve doubts and struggles related to church attendance. We asked them how they were feeling, and they started to tell us about other problems they've been having, completely unrelated to what we had thought. We started to teach them about faith and the lesson moved very naturally and inspiredly to fasting. We talked about Esther, in the Old Testament, who showed great faith by fasting, and we invited them to fast. Next Sunday is Fast Sunday, so we're hoping they'll join us.

The second time we visited them we talked about repentance and baptism. We invited them to get baptized, and after a pause their 14-year-old daughter said, "I will!" Her parents, however, were a bit apprehensive because they've been taught not to be baptized more than once. 

"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."

Ephesians 4:4-6

We invited them to pray and ask God if this baptism to which we have invited them, baptism by immersion by someone who holds the proper priesthood authority, is the baptism which the scripture talks about. We'll see them again this week.

We're teaching one family who we couldn't find for about a week, but we visited them this week. We invited them to come to our stake conference yesterday and they didn't. We went to visit them in the afternoon and only the wife was there because her husband was working. We taught her about the Sabbath Day. We read Mosiah 13:16-19

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;

But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

Her reaction was fantastic. She made this face, then looked at us and said "I didn't know that God made the world in 6 days and rested the 7th day. This is important. Sunday is a day of rest! I'm going to highlight this and show it to my husband when he gets home! We have to do this!" She decided then and there to come to church next Sunday and start keeping this commandment.

The principle of obedience is pretty simple. God gives us commandments. When we obey, we receive blessings. When we disobey, we receive other consequences.

I just want to finish with a scripture that I read this morning in my personal study.

"I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell." 2 Nephi 33:6

The truth is clear. The truth is Christ. Find Him and follow Him. It's worth it.

Have a great week!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark