Week 22: Amigos Mio

Familia y Amigos!

This week has been great! We had an awesome multi zone conference with zonas San Felipe y Comas and of course with Presidente Erickson. He taught us a lot about charity and what it really is and also that we need to be prone to and be able to accept correctance if we are to progress in this life and have eternal life in the next life. It was a great multi zona, I can't write a lot of what I learned because I don't have time but it was awesome, but if you can, study charity a lot deeper and you'll be surprised what it really is and why its important! 

This week was also somewhat trying. Our area has really hit a barrier. A. our
investigator thats really progressing didn't come to church yesterday and his date for baptism was this upcoming Saturday, the 28th, but he hasn't came for 2 weeks in a row so he needs to come 3 more times before he can be baptized. It's been kinda tough. He's actually an investigator of 3 years. Three years ago some missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon, but never really took the lessons until he contacted us back  in the first week of of January. I've been thinking a lot about Alma 26 and how the Sons of Mosiah were about to go home because they felt like they weren't having success and they were jailed, spit upon, and beaten. But the Lord told them that if they endured with patience their afflictions, He would give them success. This is what I've been thinking about lately and I know that if we keeping working hard and diligently, the Lord will help the ward La Habana or Comas, Lima Peru progress, because He loves all of His children and wants them all to come to Him. 

Also, as of right now, my compañero Elder G. only has 2 weeks left before he ends his mission, which is crazy. I'm really grateful he's continuing to work hard because a lot of missionaries on their last change start to get a little "trunky" and don't work to hard. But Elder G.  is working really hard right now to help improve the ward before he leaves. He's taught me a lot about what a real missionary is and how build the kingdom of God on Earth. 

Well, that's about it for the week! Hope you all have a great week!


Elder Potter

Kimball and Elder G.

Kimball and his cheesy grin!

Kimball holding onto the sun

Standing on the foothills looking over their area

Week 21: ¿Como esta espiritualmente?

Mi Querida Familia,

I  hope that you have all had a great week, my week was great and full of miracles and hope. I guess that I'll start with my spiritual thought for the week that I learned. It starts with the question ¿Como esta, espiritualmente? or ¿how are you spiritually? I've been studying the Plan of Salvation a lot lately and something about the spiritual death ( I think thats how you say it in english...) really hit me. Many times we think that the spiritual death only comes when we have been resurrected and are separated from Heavenly Father after this life. This is true, and a part of spiritual death. But, in a very real sense, we can be spiritually dead while living here on earth. In Alma 42:9 we read that being spiritually dead means that we are separated from the prescence of the Lord and His influence. Every time we sin and don't repent, we are spiritually dead and unable to feel the Spirit like we could, we are unable to build the kingdom of God here on Earth like we could. In other words, we are not fulfilling our divine potential as children of God. It is my hope that we may all remember this and that we will fix and repair our souls and fulfill and reach our divine potential and help in the work of salvation. Being spiritually dead is a real thing and it's a loss to yourself and an even greater loss to God, He mourns over every soul he loses, but His joy is even greater that His sorrow when a sinner repents and comes to Christ again and is spiritually alive. I know that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God and I hope that we can help all people redeem themselves and overcome this death through the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. I write these things in his name, Amen. 

 

Also, we have had some incredible experiences with A____ this week. We invited him to fast with us to know if Jose Smith was a prophet of God and if our message is true, and he fasted! The people here are very receptive to our message, but to get them to pray about it is hard, so you can only imagine what its like to get an investigator to fast! It was an incredible experience and when we passed by the next day to pray to end the fast he let us know that he know for himself that this message is true. He knows that Jose Smith era un profeta de Dios y que nuestra mensaje es verdadera. But just like before every great spiritual moment, there's always a trial to test your faith. This trial came Sunday morning for us and A_____ when he called us just before sacrament meeting to let us know that he had relapsed in the morning and wasn't in a right state to come to church. Were going to have to push his baptismal date back to the 28 of this month but its going to be ok because he has great faith. He called us to let us know that he sincerely wants help to overcome this part of his life. He is very honest with us and let us know what happened and why. He feels remorse for it and wants to change. He is experimenting the process of repentance, it is painful but if he is to reach his full potential that he knows he can reach, he needs to follow through with this and I know he will. 

This week we had a bunch of our less actives that weve been reactivating go to the temple to do work for the dead and their antepasados and they all had a great time and learned a lot and really felt the spirit. This week was filled with success and I'm greateful for all the faithful saints here that have desires to be spiritually alive and draw nearer and nearer to Christ. 

Were also working on getting 2 couples married. The parents of Y____, one of my recent converts, and also of two members that have 4 children. I'm excited for them to start progressing more and more!

This week this feral cat got into our room somehow so that was fun to, we think that he's come in before but we just happened to catch him this time.... first it's fruit flies, then cockroaches, then feral cats. Who knows, maybe the perros will start moving in...

But yeah, this was my week. I hope you all have a great week and remember who y'all are!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Potter

 

Elder Potter and Elder G.

The intruding feral cat

 

Week 20: Buen Dia Todos

Buen Dia Todos! (Good Day All)

This week was a great week and we had a lot of success! We've been working a lot with the ward and we've been getting a lot of references from many of the members which is good and bad. They usually give us people to teach that have studied a religion and know a lot about the bible. It's good sometimes because they have a religious background and want to learn more or they just have concrete beliefs and only want to fight with you, which is awful! That was the case last night, this older lady in the ward, Hermana P__, gave this reference for this lady, L___, so we went to teach her but her brother who had studied a lot of the bible was also there and only wanted to fight. It reminded me of when Alma and Amulek contended with Zeezrom, who wanted a sign that God exists. It was a really similar situation. Despite all he said to us, I found that the only thing you can say to them is a strong, pure, and simple testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how you came to know of its truthfulness. 

Anyways, that was really the only lesson like that this week which I'm happy about. We are going to visit Hermana L___ on Wednesday. I think that she wants to hear the gospel but the first visit wasn't to good of a setting for that. I'm excited to go back and teach her. But yeah, we had a lot of success this week. This last 3 weeks or so we've been helping a less active lady, S____, with her mom that has Parkinson's disease in a really advanced state and is close to dying, she is also very old. The reason S____ doesn't come to church is because she doesn't want to stop caring for her mother. So, Elder G. and I have been stopping by several days a week to help care for her mother and to visit and share gospel messages with S____. And this past week, S____ came to church! It's definitely helped me develop a testimony that service and charity are central parts to the gospel and helping others want to come back on the strait and narrow path. 

Well, that's about all I got time for today! Wish you all the best for this week!

Love 

Elder Potter

La Cucaracha - similar to the one that was pooping all over his white shirts!

Lima Central

Lima Sunset

Lima Central

Week 19: Me Quedo! I stayed!

Familia y Amigos,

This week has been really good! I didn't get changed which made me really, really happy. I'm going to have 3 more months in La Habana and I'm really grateful for that. I've learned to absolutely love the people here, they are absolutely amazing and there are so many faithful and humble saints here that have so many problems but know what is important in this life and in the next. We visited Sister Y.... this week, we are now teaching her parents and two of her siblings, and we ended up doing a little bit of a service project. She lives on this hill and there isn't any water there, but there is at the bottom of the hill in this big barrel, so twice a week she fills up a bunch of these 5 gallon buckets and, one by one, takes them up to her house. I didn't know about this until Elder G...  and I helped her with it, it takes here much of the day too. So we helped her with it and it was pretty tough to be honest. It made me realize that despite problems and hard things in this life we can still use our agency to become faithful and honorable members of the Church and that we can still serve God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. 

Anyways, this week was great. It was Obispo B...(Bishop)  birthday so we visited him and it was a great time. It's a tradition in some parts of the mission to crack an egg on someones head when it's their birthday, don't know why but I'm good with it. So we smashed eggs on his head, I'm sure it will be a birthday to remember jaja. This week has been a good one.  

Elder G.... also made a bunch of little clay figures this week that are kinda funny..

Well, that's all I got time for right now until next week!

Elder Potter

Elder G., Obispo B., Elder Potter

Elder G., Obispo, Elder Potter- Nothing says happy birthday like an a raw egg cracked on your head!

Elder G's awesome clay figures

Of course we had to get both views!