Sanderson
Family, 01/07/2013
So I just re-read the letter I sent you last
week and there is a few corrections haha. The Brother we are working with is
named Mendoza not Medrano. I assume Heavenly Father figured it out and answered
our prayers because he came to church with his entire family! Boo-Yah! He has a
baptismal date for the 27th of this month.
So an
update with some of the people we are working with. This week we found a cool
kid named Omar (23). He is kinda a crazy kid but wants to change some of his
bad habits. He is really interested in the Holy Ghost and receiving that
guidance in his life. His favorite scripture is in Mosiah 5:2, “Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto
us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the
Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts,
that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” Omar has this horrible Chilean/Puerto Rican spanish (they
don't pronounce the entire word) that is super hard to understand haha. Every
lesson with him really tests my language skills. He has a baptismal date for
the 27th of this month as well.
Another
one of our awesomest investigators is another young man names Pete Villareal
(23). He is sorta what we call a "happy Christian" but is very
receptive to the Gospel. He came to church this week and absolutely loved it!
In Priesthood he even raised his hand and offered suggestions on how the
brethren could improve their home teaching haha que padre, no? The ward has
really fellowshipped him. Last night we had a lesson on prayer and tried to
help him have a spiritual confirmation of his baptismal date. As we helped him
formulate a specific question he wanted to ask God, we knelt down on his dirt
floor to pray. As Pete began to pray a celestial power entered the room. He
offered up one of the more sincere prayers I have ever heard. After the prayer
he even asked if I could be the one to baptize him! haha we have only taught
him 2 lessons and he already is planning out the baptismal service. His
baptismal date is on the 3rd of February.
As of
right now we technically have about 15 "Progressing Investigators"
but Omar and Pete are my favorites haha.
Ok for
the spiritual thought. This week I was studying a talk that was in this really
old Ensign I found in our apartment. I cannot remember who gave this talk but
he used an awesome quote from C.S. Lewis that I love. He is trying to
paraphrase what Christ must say when he asked us to be his disciples.
Christ
says, "Give me all. I don't want so much of your money and so much of your
work - I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self but to kill it.
No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch
there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth or
crown it or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all
the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked...the
whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact I will give you
myself. My own will shall become yours."
I realize
the season of "gift-giving" is past, but may we resolve this year to
give of ourselves to Christ. Not just our time or our means..Us...our whole
selves. Let us resolve to give him our heart. It is the only thing in which we
have to give him that he does not already have.
I have
come to realize that the reason they make Missionaries give up so much is so
that as a Missionary I can now ask my investigator to give up coffee,
lifestyle, or whatever it may be. Christ
gave of himself freely to us...now he asks us the same of us. Give your heart
to him and then we can truly call ourselves "Disciples of Christ." If
we do so the invitation of our Savior is, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” (Matthew 25:34.)
with all
my love,
Elder
Craig Sanderson
Texas
McAllen Mission
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