My Good Friend, Hermano Chema, is Now a Member of the Church!

04/13/2015

04/11/2015 - Elder Ollis and his good friend, Hermano Chema

04/11/2015 - The eagerly awaited baptism of Herman Chema

Well, another week has passed by again. I think I say that every week. But here we go... this week was pretty crazy.  First of all the awesome news!  Our 83 year old investigator got baptized!  Hermano Chema is now a member of the church!  His family even came to his baptism! And they basically gave my comp and I a cake.  His granddaughter brought one to the baptism, but I don’t think she was imagining she would have to share it with a bunch of members that came.  So I told her she could just take it with her and she didn’t have to share it with everyone, and she just told us to take it.  So we did.  But anyways, he got baptized and then confirmed on Sunday and even ordained to the Aaronic priesthood.  I didn’t think that would happen... but we are going to teach him more about that because I don’t think he knew what happened either.  But he even asked that very Sunday where he should pay his tithing. So he’s right on track!

Now a turn on the other side of things.... our other investigator, Bertha, stuttered and she said she doesn’t want to get married for another three months.  So that one was a big bomb in our week.  Maybe as she continues to come to church, she will grow enough faith to change her life to meet all the requirements that the Lord sets for us.

We also found another really interested investigator named Javier.  He talks alot... but he’s just absorbing everything we teach.  We had a visit where we taught about the restoration of the gospel and I kind of just sat there during this lesson while he explained the lesson to me.  It was pretty crazy, he understands everything.  He went to conference and he went to Chema’s baptism and asked my comp what does he have to do to [be baptized].  He always tells us that he learns about a bunch of things that he doesn’t have in his church and says he has to go tell it to his friends in the other church.  I’m not going to lie... my comp and I (that’s for you Grandpa Ron) have been wondering if he is trying to make a copy of our church in his church.  ha ha.  But he listens to us and he understands what we teach.  I just hope he has the faith to be able to just follow what God wants him to do.  He said he feels like the Book of Mormon is true and that God has answered his prayers if this is the truth. I just hope he has the faith to change.  He mentioned that if he goes to our church, his ¨supervisor¨ will get mad at him.  So ya, good people!  

Anyways, my little thought for the day is how great God’s plan is.  We were teaching an atheist the other day and he was mentioning a lot of the reasons why he lost faith in God.  And as we talked (he obviously was opposed) I could answer every one of his questions clearly and, I don’t know, I just had the answers and it all made sense.  I don’t know how to explain it, but the spirit.  What stood out to me is that God puts us to here to be tested.  But He even let Jesus suffer what we have suffered so we can have even more help here.

So no more time...out 

Elder Ollis