Last thing I heard about the Mendez family is that after Andres realized that he let Satan get the best of him, he burst out in tears feeling bad that he disappointed his family. He is now back on track to get baptized, but due to how much his faith weakened resulting from being unprepared to be baptized, now Elder Cubas and his new companion are struggling quite bit to get him to feel prepared again to be baptized. I guess he fears falling again. As long as they stay ahold to that desire to be baptized, they should be fine.
Even though it was hard seeing the Mendez family’s baptism fall apart after being so ready, the Lord definitely helps fill that whole in my heart through the several impressions He gave us throughout this week which allowed us to find various positive people, starting with the Lopez-Rivas family, who is currently looking for a church to join, due to the trials they are currently experiencing as a family. How we found them was following the Spirit which prompted us to contact a home that would have been so easy not to contact due to the fact that Whitney had already contacted it before. Although we found ourselves questioning why we felt impressed to contact this home, we soon found out why. The owner wasn’t even home, and the house cleaner informed us that she had always wanted the missionaries to come visit her, but just assumed as a result of never seeing them that they just didn’t come out to where she lived. We soon began to realize why. After making our way out to Solke it became apparent to me why the missionaries have never come out there. It took a half hour pickup ride, and we still had to walk another half hour to get to the house. Running the extra mile for the family definitely paid off since not only was the house cleaner present, but she had also gone ahead and invited her whole family over for the visit. After how good they felt from the priesthood blessing we gave them, there is no doubt in my mind that they will complete their commitment to go to church this Sunday, followed by a baptism of the 10th of December… especially since they invited us over for lunch this coming week, which is always a sign of a positive investigator!
Following the Lopez-Rivas family, the Spirit led us to find Dina, whose supplications to God that if he would send missionaries to her home, she would not harden her heart. We are now helping Dina prepare to be baptized on the 3rd of December.
Apart from Dina, we found Estuardo and his family. Estuardo had been praying that the Lord would put the missionaries in his path again. Apparently he regrets rejecting us in the past, when we contacted him on the street. When we found his home several days later, he expressed remorse for not letting us come by and visit his family when we met him the first time.
JAKE’S RESPONSE TO THE NEWS THAT AN EXTENDED FAMILY MEMBER AND A FRIEND HAD FALLEN AWAY FROM THE CHURCH:
If only these people would not stop doing the small little things, like reading the Book of Mormon, going to church, praying, which may seems like very insignificant things, but really are the cornerstones to a firm testimony, which is why the church leaders always stress doing them so much, even though our self pride is what makes us think that our foundation in the gospel is strong enough that we don’t need to keep doing those simple things. They drill these things into our heads ever since we were little. When we cease to put on the armor of God, and think that we are strong enough to go without it, that is when Satan attacks and spiritually kills us. When we abstain from doing the things that we want to do on the Sabbath day, and do the things the Lord wants us to do, that is when the Sabbath day will become a delight for us.
As Elder Ballard said in the last General Conference, the Restoration was not just a one-time event, it is ongoing. As the Church continues to grows, the questions that fuel our doubts will be answered. When we have those doubts, we just have to hold on to the precious gospel truths that are found in the old ship Zion! We have to remember that every adult who is in the Church is there because at one point they all have received a confirmation from the Spirit that this is the true church. We just have to reawaken those feelings within them.