Concordia Week 1

This has been a fantastically wild week! I feel so excited here in the Concordia ward after only one week!  My companion Elder Santos, from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico is really awesome and i feel like we are learning so many incredible lessons together!   The ward here is very animated to take part in the missionary work and in order to better encourage the ward, the bishop called on us right before the start of sacrament meeting to give 10-15 minute talks about missionary work, which was a little stressful but it was amazing how Elder Santos and I, due to a lack of time, didn´t have time to prepare or talk about anything beforehand but our talks combined into a beautifully harmonious message which just strengthened my testimony of how the Lord truly guides us as companionships here in the mission!  Elder Santos spoke about 1 Cor 14:9 and our need as members to declare the gospel to others as the trumpet mentioned in the verse above and prepare everyone for the Second Coming of the Savior which was an amazing way in which he applied Ven, Sigueme (come, follow me) with his discurso, and then I went on to share a personal experience of having been lost in the woods as part of a Scouting Trip and how Hope is what got us through the challenge and then applying how there are so many people that are lost today that are looking for the light of the Gospel and that as we open our mouths, we illuminate the lives of others about the gospel and as well we find light to our personal struggles and difficulties and it is a little bit difficult to shorten the whole talks together but overall it was a wonderful spiritual experience.  

We have several wonderful people that we are teaching, but due to some family opposition, we had to postpone their baptismal services this Saturday!   The Hermana Nallely, a college student,  is one of them that is a escogido (golden) investigator who had passed her baptismal interview and was completely ready to be baptized on Saturday but in the end, due to some opposition from her mother, she didn't get baptized but we are praying and hoping that Nallely can find a way to help soften the heart of her mother!´

We are working more with the members than ever, and the results are definitely showing!  We have members accompanying us with every single lesson that we have planned so far this week which is going to be incredible!  We have a ton of less active young men that we are hoping to work with as well to be able to find Part member families and possible friends that aren´t members to be able to strengthen the ward!  This is the dream ward to be able to work in, and I am so excited for the time that I am going to have here!

Anyway we found some really exciting new investigators this week as well with Rey David (King David is his actual name), Obed, Kevin, and Jose, who are some awesome young men we met playing a bit of street soccer with them for like 10 mins who are coming to church this next Sunday and Rey David contacted us as we were passing by and he asked for a bit of help moving a refrigerator onto the back of his truck.  He is an awesome older gentleman who has a lot of personality and a very strong desire to follow Christ and still remembers when Elders shared the gospel with him over 15 years ago and he lost contact with them suddenly and he is really animated to continue learning about the gospel and he is the first man that on a first contact said, I am willing to follow Christ more than anything else in this world, and I hope that you guys can teach me how it is done!  He is super escogido and we are going to be visitng him throughout the week to help him come unto Christ.

Anyway tons of cool things happening here and I wish I could share more, but for now, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Raven

2 Ne 31:20