Well we went to the temple again. It was a great experience and really I found a lot of answers this time.  Last time I went without questions in mind and came out with nothing specific. This time I went with some questions and the Lord taught me in His house. It was a very incredible experience. I definitely don't know everything but I sure do learn a lot every time.  And it's great to know that the Lord does want to answer our questions when we go looking.

Really my experience in the temple helped me to understand the Atonement better.  I had some question about Nephi's vision and why they used some of the weird wording phrases there.  I have read it about 6 or 7 times in the last 2 weeks trying to understand it and then today I asked the Lord to explain it to me...and now I understand it.  Like Elder Holland said there are some of those marvelous moments when you feel the rush of revelation.  It all makes sense now.  I know that Christ came to help us go back. He came down to be like us so that we can return and be like Him.  It is such a beautiful doctrine and like Joseph Smith said it is the simplest doctrine that we have as a church.  Wouldn't that be the doctrine that we should all learn in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants?  Always focus on the doctrine of Christ, with the center in the Atonement!!!  I learned that today, and I will make sure to apply it.

We have decided to give everybody that we were teaching some time to decide. Nobody wants to get baptized very much, so we are going to take a step back and work with some other people a bit more, and we are only going to go with Blanca and Florencio every once in a while so that they can progress at their pace. It's kinda sad but in a few months they should be all ready to get baptized.  It's incredible that we fight so much for people to go to church and then some of the people that go to church don't want to get baptized.  There are a lot of steps on the path and we have to augment our faith to overcome the big steps on the path.  I guess that if it were easy everybody would do it.

So we have had to find some new people to teach.  We found Sandra and Ivan.  They are a very great couple and they have 3 kids.  Axel, Lia and Jesus.  One of their kids is old enough to get baptized as well.  They accepted an appointment the other day when we contacted them in their house. They are Catholic but inactive, and they say that they are always willing to listen to the other churches but yesterday when we went again they said that it is the first time that they've let someone in. They had some great questions about the plan of salvation and we are trying to answer all of their questions.  They are very sincere and we hope that they are going to progress quickly. Just another couple that has to get married :) but they seem to be willing to do it! We will see very soon.

We also have been talking to Rene. He is a man of about 35 years of age, but he is about 3.5 feet tall. He has a lot of problems with his mom and a lot of weird experiences in his past, we'll see how much we can help him, it's rough when they can't read. But he is definitely willing, so we are too!!!

Fernanda and Vanessa are ready for their baptism on Saturday. They already passed the interview and they are excited for the baptism.  It was really easy to help them get ready and they were definitely a gift from heaven. I am so grateful that we found them when we did.  It has been great to watch them progress.

We went to seminary again with Ivon!! Another great experience in Ether 12!!  I love the book of Ether.

We'll keep going. I'm excited to continue in this great work. It is without a doubt the work of the Lord. I love you all and hope you have a great week this week. Good luck on the last week of school. I love you all!!!

 

Elder Brady Allred