The American and the Indigenous

Pretty cool week as you can tell by the title.

So here are the highlights of the week:

Remember the American referral I told you about last week. Well we contacted him. His name is Lance and he’s a great guy. He´s really honest too. He said that the missionaries that taught him a couple years ago pushed baptism on him a lot and he said they didn’t teach him much. The thing about Lance is that he wants to know what the Church believes rather than how he can change his life, he’s a very philosophical kind of guy, but at the same time he told us "who knows, this could be a new start for me." He was going to come to church with us but ended up not. We’re visiting him this Wednesday.

After working a good couple days in our area we shot over to Ocosingo and went on splits with the elders over there. It was great. They had a baptismal candidate and so I got to interview the man and that was a great experience. The missionaries there have been struggling with some things so we were able to talk with them and work some things out.

Juan Pablo isn’t doing too good, he hasn’t been to church for 2 weeks in a row now, and the last time we went over there he looked pretty messed up and was definitely hung over. We asked him what happened and he didn’t go into too much details, which I’m glad for because just what little he told us he’s getting into a lot of trouble. We’re trying to help him as best we can, but it’s hard when they don’t apply the principles we teach them into their lives.

Sunday was pretty good though. I went to Oxchuc( Ōsh- Chook) with a man in the ward named Fernando. We have what they call here a "family group." That’s when there is not enough priesthood holders to be a branch. Basically it’s just a group of families who are too far away to go to the ward or branch and gather together to meet. In that area most people speak Spanish but the indigenous language is something called "Tseltal". So I and Fernando went there while my companion stayed in San Cristobal. It was quite an experience. There’s a special spirit there. Our sacrament meeting was held in the courtyard of a tiny little group of apartments. There was about 24 people in attendance including me and Fernando. Everything was in Tseltal except for the hymns, sacrament prayer, and my talk. I was thinking a lot about how the Church started. It was organized in a little log cabin with only a handful of people present, only 6 were baptized and confirmed. How did they feel about the church at that time? I know they knew it was the true church, but did they have any idea what it would become? That it really would go to every nation, kindred, tongue and people? It was a beautiful feeling being able to witness that prophesy comes true and that I know that this is Christ’s church set up upon the earth. Yesterday, in that little courtyard, my testimony was strengthened by those faithful members and their testimonies and desires.

I love you all so much and can’t wait to see you all soon!

Elder Hunt