Elder Chad Peterson: Converted Unto Christ

Hey Everyone, Well the second week here and it was awesome to be able to get out and meet even more of the members and get to know the people here. Honestly the people here are so humble but are so willing to give up what they have to us. I feel bad because I am so happy just to know them but they feel like they have to give us something to make sure that they know we are appreciated. One of these people is the Relief Society President named Margarita. She has been a member for about 10 years now and she is the nicest lady that I have ever known. Last Monday we had a lesson with her future son in law Juan but when we got there she told us "Elders I havent done my family home evening for a long time, can we do it tonight with my whole family" So we quickly set something up and we were just able to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon. Margarita has a hard time with spanish because Zapoteco is her first language so she had so many questions for us that invited the spirit into her home. At the end of the lesson she finished by saying "I love this Church, I love this gospel and I have never been happier in it. I have never once thought of falling away because I just love this so much. I want more than anything for my daughters to be able to come with me to the Celestial Kingdom because they are everything to me and I want nothing more for them than the happiness that they I am feeling here in the gospel" She was so emotional about it but it was such a spiritual tender moment that we were able to share and it was so spiritual for her whole family and Juan there at that moment too. This week we have just buckled down and went to work so hard. Elder Clark pushes me hard and I hope that I push him too and together we are seeing a lot of progress in the area. It has been hard because there has been opposition. I feel like right now we are battling for our lives here. I love it. We come home each night as if we have been through a war, but we are happy. This week we walked a ton. Last week we were able to find many investigators and this week was the challenge of trying to find them. We were walking up and down all over San Blas and we couldnt find all of them, but I have never felt the spirit more strongly at times than we did this week. It was something that Sister Madsen taught us the very first week of the mission, and something that I had heard reiterated several times about what Spencer W. Kimball said. He said "The secret to success in missionary work is simply to work. When a missionary works then the spirit is with him or her to testify of the work that they are doing!" I have loved what we have been doing and I feel like this promise to us is becoming reality. We have looked for the reasons this week in all of our lessons that our investigators need Jesus Christ in their lives, and then have tried to connect that to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has been an amazing experience to really try to come to know who Christ is and come closer to him. This week we are hoping for 2 baptisms. One is a little girl named Naomi, she is 9 years old but her mom was a less active when she was 8 and she didnt get baptized. More than anything it has been fun to see the way that those 2 have come closer to each other to have more unity in their family. The other is a girl named Regina who is 12 years old, again a girl who her family was just reactivated in the church. It has been a great experience this week to be able to teach these families, and more than anything to help them light their testimonies again that they once had. Something that Elder Clark and I have been talking about a lot this week is our love for Christ and all that we do for him. At the start of the week we were able to study the talk by D. Todd Christofferson called "Why the Church" in the October 2015 General Conference. I helped him to understand that the church is simply an instrument that Christ uses to help us draw closer to him. Without this instrument of the Church, this would not be possible and we wouldnt have a full knowledge of the Atonement that he performed for us. The question this week that we have had and asked to many, including ourselves, is "Are we converted to the church, or converted unto Christ" We have tried to focus everything on coming to know him and coming to love him not just for what he did for us, but for the person he is to us. We have learned that a love for Christ as the person he is comes through a total dependence upon him, and we have been trying to depend completely upon him in his work that we are doing. I have loved the spirit that we have felt to be able to come unto Christ, and we have felt and seen miracles here that are too sacred to write over email. I know that he lives, and that he is our perfect example of all things.