Dear family and friends,

 

We had zone conference on last Saturday, with Elder Richards of the 2nd Quorum of the 70. He talked to us about teaching simply and clearly without analogy and letting the spirit testify of truth. For example no "ice cream man handing out a ticket" or "trying to follow a pen." They don't teach well, and quite frankly, they drive away the spirit. Instead we should focus on clearly teaching the 4 basic truths of the Restoration (according to President Hinckley) which are needed for any investigator to gain a testimony of the Restoration, which are:

1) Faith in Christ and his Atonement

2) First Vision

3) Book of Mormon

4) Priesthood

 

I invite all who are actively sharing the gospel, friends, family, and other missionaries to apply these principles and use them as you share the gospel.

 

We were also given a promise that if we individually evaluate the status of our investigators one by one, on their level of entendiemento de estes cosas (translation added by us: understanding of these things), we will receive revelation as to what help they need, and they will have a greater desire to be baptized, and stay active.

 

After which, President Wiedman, shared his vision with us for the CLAM, which is tripling the number of baptisms in the CLAM, which would mean doubling the number of members in 3 years, meaning that there would be talk of expansion instead of compression, as the church population is shrinking here. For example, in my area, there are an estimated 15K of people in which there are ~ 50 members. There is space here for a branch, all we need is more people. We just need to triple the priesthood here.

We were also told that as we earnestly seek to follow the teachings of Elder Richards, we would be a "mission of miracles" and a "mission that the Lord can trust." Which is part of the vision of President as well, and the vision of the LA Stake President, President Bragg.

 

The ward I'm in is Barrio Sexto, or 6th ward it's about 175 on Sunday with a primary of 50 or so, when combined with the previous ward, Adams ward. They had their primary program last Sunday, it was bilingual, so that was interesting, I was busy translating for my investigators so that was also fun. All of us misionaros, 8 including the DL and ZL, were doing the same, although, the DL was doing translation for everyone.

 

As to conference, which I encourage all of you to watch, I'll be going to the J-V Building where we will watch it. We will probably be going to La Barqua for lunch (where I will be getting el colosso, a 3 lbs burrito) , and yogurt land for dinner.

 

It'll be fun.

 

All, please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers, and if you feel up to it send a package to Elder Chris Martin every once in a while.

 

(we asked about how things are going with his companion) Things are going well with my companion. We get along but i feel like we are still in the "forming" stage so we will see how it goes...ojala que le va a ser bien pero todo esta in gods hands (translation added by us: hopefully he will be fine but everything is in gods hands)

 

Finally, we saw a black widow yesterday, it was interesting to see that something so small could cause so many problems. it was maybe an inch long, but it could kill multiple people. The dichotomy with that was striking. I'm sure there's a principle there, I'm just to lazy to find it at the moment. Send it to me when you figure it out, that goes for any of you who are reading this, not just immediate circle..

 

Yes, I am happy. Life is good. There's work to do and the work is moving forward. People are listening to us and we are progressing. What more do i need?

 

I also just found Josh Velasquez.

 

 

Best, Cameron