The week, in the past tense

So, this last week happened. 

Transfers took place and missionaries did their little jingle jangle switch-a-roo thing that they seem to do. I remained District Leader over my crew of 3 other companionships, and that was sweet. 

Our Zone/District hasn't been doing very well. But that is about to change. We are WINTER SOLDIERS and will perform as such. A popular phrase around the District is "The Lord's SWOLDIERS" because we are SWOLE as a district. 

Life carries on and the wheel in the sky keeps on turnin'. 

Spiritual thought for today: 

Alma 8:15

 15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you.

We always have reason to rejoice. Alma had it pretty bad. Sometimes we have it pretty bad. But we can rejoice because of our blessings.

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This week: cooler with a chance of a 70

ALERT: Member of the Quorum of the 70 came

ALERT: He came to our ward council

ALERT: Complimented me on my Spanish (probably being nice because I am white and can't speak a lick of it)

ALERT: psych only three alerts this week haha.

Hugo Montoya (A.K.A. a member of the 70 that spoke in this last conference CLICK HERE) came to our branch and shared many things with us. First, he offered a fireside on Family History. That was pretty terrific. He shared stories on people in his personal family line. Some of it was very interesting, but I was busy translating for the man next to me, so a lot of the content was a little lost on me.

He then came to our Branch Council. He sat, listening for a good long time, and then spoke up. There were some Less Active members of the branch that we were speaking about and we were troubleshooting some ideas of how to best serve them. He was pleased with this, but then asked who had given these members a priesthood blessing. When nobody could offer a response, he became a little frustrated. He went on to explain that the blessings that the Priesthood could offer should be made available to those people, and that somebody needed to go and do that quickly. A direct quote from him:

"Por Favor, USEN su Sacerdocio a bendecir los hijos de Dios"

"Please, USE your Priesthood to bless God's Children"

So that was pretty intense. Then, the council moved on to other issues. These included activities, projects, and other stuff. Elder Montoya was not having it. A good quote that I picked up from Bishop Jerry Eddington of the BYU 51st ward is [about ward council]:

"This Meeting is about People not Activities"

So, Elder Montoya basically said that to our Branch Council. They probably felt a little bit chastised, but that is the way that it has to be. 

Lastly, he taught a class during the second hour about, well, a lot of things. He went on to tell a story. To save some time, I have pasted it below from an account that I related to some good friends of mine:

He shared his story of how he was kidnapped and held at gunpoint by sons of his clients at his tortilleria in Mexico. There were four of them: two holding them at gunpoint, one wandering around, and one in the doorway out front. From where they were, they could hear the one in the front yelling "Matanles, Matanles" (kill them kill them). He prayed in his heart that he would be able to live to provide for his family. His wife was held at gunpoint next to him. In the end, the thieves took his car and left after assaulting them. Scary. Then his wife goes home to be with the kids. So she's at home. He fixes things up at the tortilleria and heads home to find that his wife and daughter are at the hospital because the daughter's health has taken a turn for the worst. He goes to the hospital and his daughter is having an operation. He leaves the hospital and goes back to work, because he is about to be down a couple mil dolares and then while he is working without the usual assistance of his wife, two "angels" show up (his home teachers) and help him make tortillas. He said that they didn't know what they were doing, or how to make tortillas, or anything, but they said that they were there to help him. He gets home and all of his shirts are pressed and his house cleaned spotless and hot food ready and his truck recovered by police and sitting in front of his house. His daughter is fine and the three thugs' mothers came and apologized and then brought each of their sons in to apologize.

So, his story has two points, as I see it. One, in our church, in our gospel, in everything that we believe, our responsibility is to help each other. Without this, the infrastructure of the church would be nothing. When people fall, it is our duty to help them out. When we fall, others will be there to help us out. It is really an amazing thing. Secondly, the power of prayer is incredible. Those thugs had every ability to kill them. One of them even shouted to kill them from the doorway. But through the power of prayer, they were preserved, and he lives today. 

Hey,

I hope that y'all enjoyed hearing what I so much enjoyed

Love y'all

Hit me back!

Elder Matthew Busi

This week in review

So. Here we are again at the end of another fabulous week.

A lot of things happened, and a lot of pictures were taken (click the link below to see them ;))

We went to fair on Monday, which was AWESOME!!! We walked around, didn't get to go on any rides, but it was great! We went back on Friday to do service and pick up recycling. It was cool to see the different exhibits and how big the State Fair was. 

We had a lot of lessons this week, which was great as well. A lot was accomplished, although right now I can't remember exactly what. I went on exchanges with some elders in the YSA area and that was really great. 

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I know that this church is true. I know that the Lord is with us, whenever we need him. No matter what happens, he is there watching, waiting for us to reach out to him so that he can pick us back up. 

If you need help, turn to him. Pray to him. He will answer

And with that,

Adieu

Elder Matthew Busi

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WEEK OF THE WOODWORK

So, this past week was good for a number of reasons. And thus begins the weekly

RIGO: So on Monday, we had our preparation day. It was fantastic, and when we got home, we did some planning for the approaching day. This was routine, and we were just trying to decide what to do. So, here comes the miracle. We had been sent a referral through the internet, and we had kind of neglected to contact them. We figured that we would plan it into our schedule in case something fell through. So, I suggested that we put it in after an appointment. 

Tuesday came, and our appointment ended early. We didn't have an appointment for a while, so we went to our next backup. Our backup, a 12 year-old boy named Abraham, was always at his house at this time, but he proved to be absent. Needless to say, we were a little confused at what to do next. We were about to head to someone else's house when we remembered the referral. We were in the area, so we drove the 6 miles to get there. When we arrived, we noticed that there were children in the yard. They all ran inside and the family peeked through the blinds. Not usually a good sign. We approached the door, which was slightly ajar, and they invited us in. 

Rigoberto Flores had been taught by missionaries for a long time, but due to some issues, he was not able to be baptized. He was frustrated at this, and ended discussions with the missionaries. He said that he had not filled anything out online or asked for the missionaries. We were very confused, and the internet said that it was an anonymous referral. His wife was a member, and one of his children as well, but they had not come to church in a long time. She was talking to us about some issues with their marriage and family and earlier that very day, about 1.5 hours before our visit, she had narrowly been missed by a pickup truck that had been t-boned and flipped multiple times through traffic, careening past her. She said that it had been going over 100 mph and it was incredible that it hadn't struck her. 

Rigoberto and his wife said that whenever crazy things happened to them, the missionaries always showed up, and there we were. 

We consoled them and tried to help them. They said that they recognized the light in the gospel and the presence of the Holy Ghost in their lives when they went to church, but since they had stopped, their life had been in limbo. They wanted to get baptized and are getting baptized soon. Crazy how the spirit can work in such interesting ways. 

There were a number of other interesting things that happened this week, but this was the most important. 

Love y'all and have a blessed week!

Love, 

Elder Matthew Busi

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