Carnival!

Well, the week of Carnival is arriving.  Being in the middle of nowhere, I don't think I'll see much of the festivities.  The only excitement that we have had are these drum bands that play in the streets every night.  On thursday, we were having a FHE in a member's home, when all of a sudden one of these drum bands stopped in front of the house and started playing super loud for the next hour or so!  Thankfully we were already finishing up and only had the game left to do!  

So, a funny story, my companion and I were teaching a woman the first lesson.  We were sitting outside of her house, which had large glass doors in a variety of places to enter and exit the home.  The door closest to us was open, but there was another door on the other side of the room that was closed.  During the lesson, her puppy got out and started running around.  At one point, he was so full of energy, that he went tearing through the open garage at top speed, ran through the open glass door into the house, and kept right on going with the firm conviction that the next door would be wide open for him as well...a crash and a yelp told us that the poor bugger had mistaken the clear, glass door as being open, when in reality it was closed!  hahaha!  I completely lost my composure in the lesson, and burst out laughing!  I've only ever seen birds run into windows before; a dog is a first!!

As my companion and I have been working with the less-actives in our area, I have noticed a few interesting points.  First, when we stop increasing our faith and testimony, we lose it.  When we question these members about their testimony, about the Book of Mormon, or even about what they remember about the Church and what the meetings were like, it is amazing to me how much they have forgotten.  If we don't take care of what we have, and continue to progress, we will lose the very knowledge and testimony that we have gained.  Second, the Church is true, even when people make mistakes.  Like Helaman 5:12 states, we need to build our testimonies upon the rock of Christ.  Just because we see other members, or even leaders doing something wrong, we need to remember that the principles of the Gospel are still true and still valid.  Everything that is injust in this life will be corrected through the Atonement - Let us build our foundations firmly rooted upon the Atonement of Christ and the principles that He taught.  Third, inactivity in the Church will only hurt yourself and your family, not the people who offended you.  Is it hard to face people every week that said hurtful things?  Is it hard to love our enemies?  Com certeza!  But, surely the pain of seeing generations of our family without the blessings of the Gospel will be much more difficult and much more painful.  Let us be more quick to forgive and slow to take offense.  Fourth, the Lord cannot teach us something new if we have not mastered the first lesson.  There are many times when my companion and I are preparing a lesson for a less active and we look at each other and say, 'lets teach about the importance of going to church', and then one of us will respond, 'yeah, but that's what we taught the last two times', and then we both look at eachother and say, 'yep, but have they come to church yet?'  The Lord has so many wonderful things to teach us; we just need to be more humble and learn the lessons that He is trying to teach us!  This Gospel is true!  Never give up on it, because the Lord surely will never give up on us!