The Living Water

September 30, 2019

This last week was a goody!

Earlier this morning I FINALLY FINISHED THE OLD TESTAMENT! For the last 8ish months I've been reading it whenever I have extra time. Holy cow, talk about enduring to the end! Haha just kidding, I loved reading the Bible and I had a super detailed study guide to help me understand it more, but I'm definitely looking forward to sticking to The Book of Mormon. Over the last year I've read all the standard works and of course the BOM multiple times! Crazy how much I've grown to love and need the scriptures in my life.

I also finished 2 Nephi the other day, but as I read the first 2 books of Nephi, I looked for all the ways Nephi exemplified the Christ-like attribute of obedience. How suiting that the very last words he wrote to end his record was, "I must obey". That is the foreshadowing attitude that Jesus Himself would live His whole life and seal with His Atoning sacrifice. In His words He describes it by saying "18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

19 Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men." That is the "I must obey" attitude.

I also had such A CRAZY DREAM the other day that I woke up, quickly said a prayer, then ran right to my journal to record it. If there's one thing I've learned from the Old Testament, it's that God sometimes speaks to His children through dreams. This is what I wrote in my journal:

"The night of 9/27/19, my dream; One day my dad and I were discussing the doctrines and eternal truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think I asked a question along the lines of, "Dad why do we need to repent?" He pondered this for awhile, and then wisely answered in this manner, "Well son, Christ identified Himself as the Living Water. As you know, water is absolutely necessary for the sustaining of life. In a gospel related way, Jesus Christ, the Living Water, is absolutely necessary for the obtaining, and sustaining of eternal life. Just like how, as humans, we all rely on water to live, in a spiritual sense, we all rely on the Living Water, Jesus Christ, to progress and become like Him and the Father. No matter what skills, knowledge, or talents we have, we all crave and are hopeless without the Living Water. When Christ completed His infinite Atonement, He put that water within our grasp, but the thing is He can't force us to drink it. That would take away our agency. However, through true repentance, coupled with a determination to improve, we reach out and drink the Living Water. We all have an inherent desire to drink this water and satisfy the quench, but Satan is hard at work in his lab of lies, testing and making solutions through different mixtures of worldly things and false hopes to numb us of our desire for Christ and our taste of His Living Water. We need to repent everyday to quench our thirst and know what the redeeming power of the Living Water really tastes like. If we do that throughout our life, and strive to live worthy for such a perfect gift, then the time will come when we leave this life and we will feel the full effects of the Living Water. We will be entirely encompassed in His love. We will be perfected through Jesus Christ, the Living Water."

I invite you all to partake of the Living Water :)

Mission President and his wife. They are seriously the nicest!!

Called To Sing

September 23, 2019

The weeks go by so fast in the mission!

Last Friday, for some reason I thought it was Wednesday, and my comp was like, "What's wrong with you, it's Friday!" I just thought for a moment, and then said to myself, "How did that happen??"

This week, my comp decided he wanted to start doing little lessons, where we sing a hymn and then explain and testify about it, and so we have been doing this a lot. It was fine when we had more people working with us, but it doesn't work the best when it is just us two. I think my comp knows that singing is not one of my strengths, so sometimes while we are singing he will fake a yawn or a cough just to leave me hanging with a solo so I will just have to endure to the end all on my own... Since it's Christmas season here, we sing a lot of Christmas hymns as well. Very cool idea, but I think it's best if I leave that to the sister missionaries...

We're super busy spreading the good word. In fact, I wrecked my back a little bit doing some workouts (looked like I was doing it right in the mirror). The nurse told me I had back spasms and said to take it easy. I texted the Mission President and told him I wouldn't be working, but my comp and I had a busy day planned for us, just in case. When we realized how many appointments we had, I told him that I would see how I do and that we should go work. We were able to have an awesome day with 2 people accepting invitations to be baptized. To get to one of them, we had to cross a small little river that we usually do a little running jump to get across—which obviously I couldn't do with my back. We were about to turn back, when we saw an older man, who offered to lay this big piece of wood that he was using for his boat, to help us cross. Such a blessing! With the help of pain meds and the Lord, I was able to push through it :))

Have a great week and bear your testimony to someone about the church this week!!

Elder Wolferts

It's always a great day when you have to walk home in the flooded streets of a dirty city...

O Wretched Man That I Am!

September 16, 2019

Didn't write an email last week. Sorry!! These last 2 weeks have flown by and I've decided to start things off on a funny note;

So we're currently teaching these two part-member brothers that are 11 and 12. We were confused as to why they aren't baptized, but after teaching them, we think we know why... Their attention span is almost nonexistent. They ask the most random questions. Like we were teaching them about The Book of Mormon (if you haven't heard of it, it's a great book) and I was explaining to them the story of Lehi and his family's journey to the promised land in old America... And while I'm showing them the pictures of the boat, one of them asks, "Is old America on a different planet? Did they take a space ship?!" We went on to explain prophets, and my companions asked them, "What did Moses get from the mountain? 10..." which one of them replies without hesitation, "GOATS". We were dying throughout the whole lesson. And then to top things off the closing prayer went something like this, "Heavenly Father, I'm thankful for... uh... uh... potatoes... uh... in the name of Jesus Christ Amen." hahah... Teaching them is going to put our missionary experience to the test, but I love them both! 

Now to explain the title. I was reading in 2 Nephi 4, the other day, and impressions seemed to flow as I read it! It took me a whole hour to read one chapter haha! I read as Nephi exclaimed, with all his energy, "O wretched man that I am!" and  pondered that for awhile, thinking of how someone like Nephi--undoubtedly one of the most righteous people on the entire planet at the time--could describe himself in such a way. As I pondered this I realized that the more righteous we become, the more dependent we are on Jesus Christ and His Atonement and we begin to understand a little bit more, the cost of which he suffered, and that he personally died for all of us. As we start to grasp this perfect love he has for each of us, we realize how helpless and how carnal we are without His Atonement, and we can contemplate the immense gap between where we are now and our divine potential. Even the little temptations and shortcomings make us frustrated that we fall so short of our perfect Father and our perfect Brother and Savior. I know for me, on my mission, I get frustrated with things that I never even thought were a sin before my mission, because of the subtlety of these shortcomings. I've realized that the things that aren't in alignment with the Father's will are things that we need to repent for. I have  been striving to follow Nephi's example in my personal prayers this past week, when he pleads in verse 31;"Wilt thou make me that I may shake at the appearance of sin?" What a great thing to pray for!!

We also were blessed with 3 baptisms this week, and to make it so this email isn't too long, I'll go straight to the point and say, it was a wonderful experience! We had three investigators attend as well, and one of them told us that she got goosebumps and felt something amazing. We started it off with an opening Christmas hymn!! So awesome! And then while we were changing back into our clothes, those that attended sang Christmas hymns while they waited for us. I heard Silent Night and the spirit was so strong, and I just thought to myself, "This is why they call it the best two years."

-Elder Wolferts <3

Pics:

All you can eat wings (embarrassed my comp ate more than me)

Baptisms feat. their gangster brothers in the bottom left...

The beach we have in our area... yah that's trash

The most useless coin in the world. Collect 20 and you'll be able to buy... 1 mint

Feasting Upon the Words of Christ

September 2, 2019

We are officially in September! For the Filipinos, this means the Christmas season has begun! Countdowns to Christmas, Christmas songs, decorations, and no snow...

This week started out with us getting lost in this super confusing city area, and we were startled to hear someone shout "ELDERS!" Of course we went right over and talked to her, and come to find out, she's a member who just moved into the area with her family, 6 months ago, and hasn't come to church yet. When we asked her why she hasn't come to church, she told us that she and her family checked out the ward building (from only the outside) in their new area, and decided it wasn't as good as the last building, so it wasn't good enough for them... She told us how they moved from a fancier ward that was "sobrang mayaman" (super rich). We were thinking like, "uhhh it's just tithing money, lady." Then she told us how there was a swimming pool in their last church, and we were like, "uhhh... do you mean a baptismal font?" She told us things don't feel the same here in Rosario (keep in mind she and her family haven't even tried going to church here), and said that once things get better, to let her know... This is a prime example of a family that has not been converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. She wouldn't even let us inside her place, but next time we're going to bring the bishop with us and see if they'll lighten up a little bit.

FUNNY STORY:

There's this super mysterious guy in our ward that is super rich, but no one knows where he lives (from unnamed sources, we have found out that he lives around 30 minutes outside of ward boundaries). One day, he told us that he'd treat my companion and I to lunch. Of course, he didn't ask us go to his house, but he asked us to meet him at an expensive, unlimited rice restaurant called Mang Inasal. We set the lunch appointment for Thursday, and he kept telling me that I better eat 11 cups of rice! So Thursday comes along, and my comp and I both somehow completely forget about the appointment! In fact, we had already eaten lunch at the apartment, and I was pretty hungry so I ate some "extra big" noodles. We both finished our lunch... and then we get a call from this member... "Elders, where are you?? I'm here. Did you forget?" my companion was speaking to him on the phone, and he replied, "No of course we didn't forget, we're on our way!" We were both stuffed!! But we didn't want to offend this guy, so we ran out the door and went to meet him at the restaurant. Long story short, I ate 4 cups of rice and have never been more full. After stuffing ourselves with rice, he ordered us large desserts, just to top things off. I think that meal satisfied me for at least the next 24 hours!  

Also, one day we were sharing a lesson with this family that I love, and I asked the question, "When should we pray?" The mom answered, "Before you go to bed, after you wake up, and before you bathe." I laughed a little and said, "Yeah, the mosquitoes come out of nowhere...", But she said, "No I'm serious, you have to pray for there to be water, because sometimes there's no water to bathe." This made me stop and think a little bit. I'm willing to bet there is probably no one reading this email that has ever felt the need to pray for there to be water before you have showered.

 I love the mission because I've been humbled so much, and I'm learning of the things that are truly important in life! :)

-Elder Wolferts

Feasting upon the words of Christ