Final pictures from Cucuta.

12 August 2014
I've been transferred to Barranca. I guess it's not totally unexpected. It's the hottest area (temperature wise) in the mission. I'll be getting on a bus at 8pm tonight and will drive 8 to 10 hours to arrive at my new area. I went and said my despedidas (good-byes) to some members and investigatores and it was pretty sad. But that is how the mission is. You just do what the Lord wants. Things will work out for the best.

Meanwhile, here are some photos from P-day at different parts of Cucuta.
First the bowling alley. We had a good time here. Who knew it was an entire mall.

Here is a picture of an insect that attacked me right in my face . . . I was just minding minding my own business and all the sudden it was all in my face . . . and so a battle commenced and I won.

We spent a lot of time playing in / on this destroyed church

my comp and I trapped inside the little jail thingy. 

I found an ancient gymnastics mushroom that I could use to do gymnastics

But who need a mushroom! 

For all you who bash Assassins Creed because the guy could climb up buildings and they said that no one would actually build a building like that were you can just climb up . . . I would like to submit evidence one

I am in a tree ! A very large tree.

So this young lady is covered in egg and flour that is because that is socially acceptable to do to someone on their birthday. Jejejeje

Not that we Elders would ever do anything like that. 

As a farewell gift, a member drew me on a globo (balloon).

Like is good. The Church is true. Love, Elder Rallison

Revelations and Understanding

Hey guys I wanted to share with you a reason that we ought to read the Book of Mormon more. There are lots of reason that we should read the Book of Mormon but here are some especially awesome ones.

Our 9th article of faith states that, "we believe that . . . God will reveal many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God." God had many more things that he can reveal. God says to Moses that His works have no end and His words never cease. The Book of Mormon tells us 3 of the things that god has yet to reveal to us.

 

First, 2 Nephi 29:11-13 the lord states that there will be a book reveled (or books) from the lost ten tribes of Israel. And that it is from these books (Bible, Book of Mormon, and this other book or books from the 10 tribes) that we will be judged

 

Second, 3 Ne 26:6-11 in this part of the Book of Mormon Christ is in the Americas visiting the ancient inhabitants of the land. Mormon says  that he can not write a hundred part of the acts Christ did. But he was at the point of writing 'mayor cosas' but the Lord stopped him from doing it. It says that the things that we have now are the 'menor parte' and that we have these things to prove our faith. If we do not cherish these things that we have, if we do not read and study and apply the things that we have the Lord will not give us more and the 'mayor parte' will be with held to our condemnation. 

 

Why would the Lord give us more revelation if we do not know and understand the revelations that He has already given to us?

 

And third, Ether 4:4-7 I hope that you know the story of the Brother of Jared and how he saw Christ. He was the first who saw Him completely and realized that Christ was going to take upon Him a body of flesh and bone. But he saw Christ  and his faith was so strong that the veil was taken from him and the Lord could not withhold anything.

 

Moroni says that the Brother of Jared saw greater things than any other man. That is to say that from Adam down to Moroni nobody had seen anything greater than what the Brother of Jared saw.

Moroni wrote those things in the gold plates and sealed them up. That part of the Book of Mormon was never translated by Joseph Smith. The Lord says that when we repent and become clean and have faith like the faith the Brother of Jared had then we will be worthy to know the things that he knew.

 

Presidente Benson said (and I am not quoting perfectly) that we as a people and as a church have fallen under condemnation we because we are not taking the Book of Mormon seriously. We need to read it and study it more than we are and we need to know Christ more than we know Him. The Book of Mormon is a test of faith and a pathway to greater light and truth and knowledge and we must read and understand it.

 

The Lord has many more thing prepared for us it is, we, who are unprepared.

No Easy-Bake Oven . . . muy triste

28 July 2014

So this week we had a baptism de una joven named Wendy. She is really smart and I am sure that she will progress well in the gospel. We had the baptism Saturday. I had some ingredients left over to make cookies so I thought, 'hey lets make this even a little more cool and make cookies'. A member family told us that they had an oven and that we could do the cookies there so it was perfect.

When we went to the member's house we discovered it was an old gas oven. I didn't know how to turn it on . . . and they didn't know how to do it either . . . We tried a couple times and almost exploded ourselves . . . Not really. That was kind of a joke. Then we got a neighbor to come do it. 

 

I asked for their cookie sheets and they gave my this piece of metal that had the capacity to cook 2 cookies. Ugh. 25 minutes later we had 8 cookies . . . and my comp and I had to go prepare for the baptism. So we asked the member if they could keep baking cookies and then bring them. They said that they were more than capable.

 

A series of unfortunate events later . . . The baptism had started and ended and was pretty good and super spiritual. We went to eat the cookies. These are the cookies I had been bragging about all week to the members because they do not have cookies here or do much baking.  So we all went to eat the cookies. But in place of a plate of cookies was a plate of burnt crisps . . . Apparently the family thought that they should re-heat up the cookies again before leaving. They then explained to me that something strange had occurred. When they put the cookies back in the oven they were really good. But when they took them out they were not so good . . . Sooooo the moral of the story is that you should not brag, ever.

The baptism was really good and we have some strong converts. I have been focusing on recent converts more than anything else. I do not want any of them to fall away. Half of our lessons that we do weekly are to the recent converts. 

We are building good relationships with some of the members. When we arrived here, none of the members would accompany the missionaries. Now we have a group of people who are willing to acompany us all day. 

 

Working for the Lord is the best work that there is. It is sometimes the hardest and it certainly doesn't pay the best, but it is the most rewarding. I have run out of doubts. I know that the church is true and I know that God loves me. I have learned alot about him because I have worked with him. God is so willing to bless those who put there confidence in Him.

 

Love, Elder Rallison