It's More Fun in the Philippines:
- BAPTISM of Raphael Carbonell! Raphael is 9 years old and is just a bucket of fun. His parents are both members, but have not been back to church for a few years. We began teaching them three months ago, and quickly got them back to church. After a few months of teaching we helped Michael, the father, prepare and receive the Aaronic Priesthood (Priesthood or power of God that John the Baptist held and used when he baptized Jesus Christ). Now that Michael is worthy to use the Aaronic Priesthood, he was the one that baptized his little boy on September 7.
- THE DRAGON: Okay, let me explain. The mouse traps in our apartment occasionally get a small ice here and there. Ultimately, they are babies and harmless; however, Saturday night I met the mother! It all began when my companion woke me up with his yelling, "There is a rat in the apartment!" I jumped up quickly and ran into the other room where I found the rat in a corner under one of the beds. The umbrella I grabbed on the way would not do the trick, so I picked up one of our concrete dumbbells. All in all the result was 3 minutes of back and forth wrestling. At one moment he was winning, the next I had him on his back. He refused to quit and took me with a few surprise moves. We exchanged blows, threw a few illegal moves and instituted another World War. At the end, the house was a disaster, but I CAME OFF CONQUEROR! We can now say goodbye to massive rats in our apartment!
As for a little spiritual experience, I want to share the story of someone I will call Mary. Mary's entire family are members of the church, including her parents and children. Mary has been taught by missionaries for 3 years, attends church each week, obeys commands, and ultimately is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. However, she is not yet baptized. We noticed that teaching her was without any effect, because she had heard the missionary lessons so many times, so we took a different approach. We simply asked her questions. We asked her why her family was important. How Faith in Jesus Christ has helped her family. We asked what made her desire to go to church each week. We asked what makes her stress in this life and what makes her happy. All in all, we simply talked with her and got to know her. Through simple questions we noticed that she had some past actions that she didn't want to share and she felt that she could never let go of that guilt and regret. We told her that each one of us is imperfect and none of us is without sin. We told her that we had no desire to know her past sins, but that we knew a way in which those pains and burdens could be washed out and forgotten. This would only be possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We shared how Saul, a christian hating and apostle killing man full of sin, was able to repent, change his name to Paul, and become one of the greatest apostles of Jesus Christ. We told Mary that we were there to help her, and she would need to trust us. As we spoke and as she responded to our questions we noticed she began to feel calmness. With that we invited her to use her Faith and be baptized in order to remove the guilt that she has been holding on for years. Mary let out a large breath, and with peace in her voice, she said that she would be excited to finally be baptized.
WEEKLY CHALLENGE: Sometimes we feel the weight of our guilt, and often stir over our regret. We wish we could redo our past actions, but don't realize that any easier option is available and it doesn't require time travel to make right our wrongs. This easier option is repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Explore the following URL to understand Repentance a bit more: https://www.comeuntochrist.org/blog/gospel-of-christ-part-2-repentance
Elder Hemmert
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