Will a man rob Elder Luke?

La Cumbre - Bucaramanga, Colombia

Jan 20th

This week has been pretty good. We have investigators that are progressing, some dates set, and we are working towards baptism and reactivation of members. I still have not been robbed or anything like that, I'm beginning to think that these people don't think I'm rich enough or something. But really if someone tried to rob me, I could just say, "I only have books of Mormon and I'm trying to give these away to people."

 And they would probably respond, "Ohh mmmmm. Well then you can keep those." 

Some of the members have noticed that I have lost weight and they tell me it's because I'm walking too much and eating too little. The day after one of the members told me that, we had lunch with their family. They gave me a bowl of soup, a plate of salad, and a plate of rice, potatoes, beans and yucca. Then they gave me a whole chicken. I almost died. And they were watching me the whole time, so I ate the whole thing. I was full for quite some time.

One of the families we're teaching has a dad who moved out this week because he's an alcoholic. We went over there and one of the daughters was drinking wine. I wanted to ask her, what are you doing with alcohol when you've seen how it's destroyed your family!?!?!??!?!

We are busy have already scheduled appointments for pretty much every night this week, so that it's nice that we can stay busy and have people to teach. Hope life is going well. Love you guys.

Dear Dad. 

Alma 31:5 says that preaching the gospel has a more powerful effect on the minds of the people than the sword or anything else. I was thinking, "Well that's nice, but if someone had a sword and I had the word of God, I still might feel uncomfortable." I feel like perhaps with some people we should get to use both! I'm joking about that, because a true conversion can't be forced.

What's cool about the before mentioned phrase is that there is an example in the book of Helaman. While Moroniah has control of the army, the Lamanites come and take all the lands in the south. Moroniah takes back one half of their lands but wasn't able to take back any more through force of arms. But when Lehi and Nephi go and teach the Lamanites, they are convinced of their wickedness and give back the possessions of the Nephites. So that which could not be accomplished by the sword was accomplished be the word of God. 

I'm noticing a strange phenomenon. The people are all interested in the gospel, the blessing and eternal life, and the idea that families can be together forever-- until they learn they have to work. I guess that's human nature. We want the results without putting in the work.

Hope everything is well 

Love Elder Rallison