Apresuraré mi obra en su tiempo

Sorry, I didn´t have much time to write last week.  I have a ton of things to write all of you, but I´ve got a bunch of other things to do too, so we´ll see if I have enough time.

My mom recently asked me for ideas about how to have more refferals to give the missionaries.  I wrote this to her, and then later decided that it´d be something good to put on the blog.

The idea is:

1.Make a list of all of your friends, family, and aquaintences that don´t know the gospel, and might be interested in listening (when someone doesn´t know that many people, this list should basically be all of the non-members that you know within the ward boundaries).

2. Pray and ask for help from the Lord to know which of the people in the list is prepared to recieve the Gospel (D+C 88:73 "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time" - the Lord is hastening is work and SOMEBODY in that list is ready to recieve the Gospel).

3. GO with the missionaries and with Dad and try to teach, invite, inspire, or get to know better the person in the list.  (Call them and say, "hey Elders I have a referral for you")

Trust me, this works.

You can also read this article, especially the Section "Bringing people into the Church" for more ideas.

If after doing the 3 steps and reading the powerful words of President Hinckley, you still don´t have anyone to present to the missionaries.  Go and visit a less-active member and invite him to go back to church.  Ask him who he knows that could receive the missionaries.  The less-actives always have a bunch of non-member friends.

Elder Casdorph

Casi Carnival

Next week is Carnival, a Catholic, Latin American holiday that celebrates giving up carnal desires before the start of Easter.  Well...... the idea is giving up or denouncing carnal desires, in reality it is 3 days of giving in to such desires such as drinking (a lot) and basically every other type of iniquity and immorality, and well.....carnal desires.  The point that I am trying to illustrate is that it is 3 days of stuff that a missionary should not have anything to do with.

During carnival, the missionaries aren´t allowed to leave the house at all, which means that I won´t be writing next week.

All is going well here, we don´t have many investigators, but we have recieved some pretty good references fom a couple members (something that the missionaries in your ward surely need as well).  We will have a couple of baptisms in the next couple of weeks, but they don´t hardly count, because they´re just re-baptisms of members who for some reason don´t show up in the church record system as being baptized.

I know that this church is true and that this is His work.  The Lord is hastening his work right now as the members and missionaries work together.

The missionaries worldwide are extremely able, but sometimes clueless as to what it is that they need to do; just a tiny bit of help from the members can make a big difference in a missionary´s mission experience.  Please help the missionaries to change that experience so that you and they can change the lives of many.

Elder Casdorph

Las Misiones

I got transfered.   :(

I am now in Santa Cruz again.  May ward is calles las Misiones.  My companion is Elder Laura and he has 21 months in the mission.  The ward seems really strong, partially because my last 2 areas have been wimpy little small-town branches.  There are more active priesthood holders in my ward than in the last 2 branches combined.  Among those members are the 2nd counselor of the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission and the former president of the Bolivia La Paz Mission.

Despite the strength of the members, the area is pretty weak.  There have not been any baptims in my area for the last 5 months, and we currently have next to nothing as far as investigators.  The only investigators that we do have is a young couple, the Hinojosa family.  They are from a tiny, rural town, and speak very little Spanish.  They mostly speak quechua, a common native language here.  A member who also speaks quechua accompanies us in the lessons to help translate.  They understand about 75% of what we say in Spanish and we understand about 50% of what they are saying when they speak Quechua, and the member tries to make up for the rest.  They came to church Sunday and really enjoyed it (or what they could understand of it).  Thay are progressing slowly, but surely, and if we can help them to get married, they will be getting baptized in mid-March.

Elder Casdorph

Paola

I don´t have much time to write, but what I will write is that Paola got baptised and Alex Rodriquez (the 19 year old that got baptised 2 weeks ago) baptised her.  Last Sunday he recieved the Aaronic Priesthood in the office of a Priest and Saturday, he performed his first baptism.  I´ll write more next week.  The tranfers are in 2 days and it´s pretty likely that my days in Bermejo are over, but I´ll let you all know next week.

Elder Casdorph

Paola y Alejandro

Alejandro (Alex), the investigator who got baptised last Saturday is doing REALLY well. He is now the #1 miembro misionero in all of Bermejo (and I know all of the good member missionaries in Bermejo).  He´s given like 8 referrals, and has gone with the missionaries to teach those referrals. Friday, he went with one companionship in the morning, another in the afternoon, and with us in the evening.  Yesterday, he brought his girlfriend to church.  Two weeks ago he gave her a Book of Mormon and a couple of days ago watched The Testaments with her.  In church yesterday, a couple of members mentioned baptism to her, and she asked, "Who do I have to talk to to get baptized?"  Today we are going to have our first lesson, but it looks like thanks to a couple simple efforts of a recent convert with a powerful testimony, she´s ready and willing to receive the Gospel in her life.

We will be having another baptism this Saturday.  Her name is Paola.  She´s a single mother, who really likes the church and the Gospel because she feels like it will help her to be a better mother (and she´s right).  She was also a referral from a member in our branch.  Her whole journey in the Gospel started when Bro. Meriles gave her a copy of The Family:a Proclamation to the World about a month ago.

The prophet recently said: "Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work."  I can see the Lord fulfilling His prophetic promise here as the members and missionaries work together.

My mission changed June 23, 2013, because of what the prophet said.  I don´t know how things have changed back at home, and if they have not really changed much, I invite you: Go and find the missionaries and ask them how you can help them.  Share your testimony with a friend. It worked with Alejandro, it worked with Bro. Meriles, and it will work for you.

Elder Casdorph

Alex Rodriguez

I though that you all my like to know that I am teaching an investigator named Alex Rodriguez (sorry, he´s not A-Rod the famous Yankee Baseball player).  Actually his name is "Alejandro", but he gos by "Alex".  He is actually going to get baptized this Saturday.

He told us Monday that he had been praying for a couple of weeks to know if the church is true and that he had had a dream that he thought might be his answer.  He told us that in that dream that he was reading the book of Mormon, when a group of teenagers came up to him and wanted to fight.  In his dream, he decided to pray for help.  He said that as he was praying that I and a group of other Elders that he didn´t recognize appeared and started to talk to the angry teenagers.  The group of teenagers dispersed and a few of them decided to enter a nearby church while others simply left from his sight.  Later when the teenagers left the church, Alex decided to give them his Book of Mormon.  They accepted, went on their way and the dream ended.

"Do you feel like that dream was an answer from God to your prayers?" I asked.
"Si"
"Do you think that the book of Mormon is true?"
"Si.  Sé que lo es."  (Yes I know that it is)

Sorry, I´m out of time, but I just wanted you to know that Alex is awesome and that he will be getting baptized this Saturday.  And that he decided to go on a 2 hour trip to Oran, Argentina, where his girlfriend was with her family for summer vacation, so that he could give her a Book of Mormon.

Elder Casdorph

Seguimos en Bermejo

The transfers came and I´m still in Bermejo! (which is what I was hoping for by the way)  My companion is still here in the same area too.  This is my companion´s last transfer cycle which means that I will get the chance to "kill" him (they say ´kill´ or ´die´ when someone finishes their mission and ´birth´ when someone arrives in their first area).  That also means that it´s pretty much a sure thing that I will stay in Bermejo for 2 more transfer cycles so that I can show my new companion the area after Elder Galarza leaves.  Right now, we´re in Santa Cruz for an important meeting, but our flight was many hours before the meeting, so my companion and I asked for permission to go to one of my old areas (Jardín del Sur) because my companion also served in the same area, and we want to go visit our converts.  The whole ´Noche Blanca´ thing has been working really well here in Bermejo, so we decided to program another one for January 25th.  Anyway, we want as much time as we can get to go visit our converts while we are in Santa Cruz, so I´ll have to write more next week.