Star Wars
reference fully intended. It has been another cold, cloudy, rainy week
here in Berlin. It's true tropical weather. Torrential downpours at
least every other day. It's awesome.
It has been a very
interesting week here in the San Salvador East Mission. Hard not to be
when we have MultiZonas (multi-zone conferences). More interesting when
you live in the area farthest away from the conference, which starts at 9:00
AM, and you have to be there at 8:30. Not that I'm complaining
though. MultiZonas are always worth getting up early for.
Especially this one. Oh my goodness, President Vasquez has received some
crazy awesome revelation for this mission. It's a new way of work that he
calls "The Inn."
I assume that most
if not all of you readers are familiar with the Parable of the Good
Samaritan. If you would like to read it again to refresh your memory just
follow the link and
read verses 30-37.
Now, I don't have
time to give a full explanation of what President and his assistants taught in
the multizone, because that is a good hour of instruction. But I will
give a brief summary.
The parable is
likened to this earth life. We started off in Jerusalem, the Holy City
(the presence of God in the premortal life). The idea is that we can go
back at some point. However, we all get a bit lost along the way, and
start heading towards Jerico (hell) because of bad decisions. When we
make a really bad decision, we get beat up by the thieves (sins) and are left
half dead on the wayside (we are spiritually dead, or separated from God.
See Alma 12:16-18 for a more in-depth description). All of the priests
and levites (false teachers and prophets) in the world cannot help us.
Only the Good Samaritan (Jesus Christ) will bind up our wounds (atone for our
sins) and take us to the inn (His church) where we can rest and heal before
starting our journey back to Jerusalem.
Now, this is where
we come in. We, the members of the church, are the staff of the
inn. It is our job to keep everything in order for those poor, half-dead
travelers that the Savior brings to our inn. That's what we're going to
teach in every ward and branch in the mission this Sunday: How to make our inn
a five-star hotel.
Unfortunately,
time's up for us. I'll tell you all next week about how we're improving
the inn.
Love,
Elder Colton West
El Salvador, San Salvador East Mission
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| A bridge in part of my area. It's really only useful when it's raining because the street floods out something fierce. |
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| Crazy cloudy weather |
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| More crazy cloudy weather. They kinda get stuck to the mountain for the abrupt altitude change. Makes life really cool, literally! |
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| MultiZona photos! Elder Perez (not an ex-comp, but a friend from Zona Ilopango) |
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| Elder Scheel, another buddy from Ilopango. |
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Elder
Durbin! We were in the same room in the CCM
(MTC for you gringo types)
|
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Elder
Williams! I finally have a little brother!
He's with Elder Hood in
Moncagua.
(Elder West served in Moncagua;
Elder Hood was Elder West's trainer
in his first area, Ilobasco.
|
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| Elder Aranda, another friend of mine from Ilopango |
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| Elder Lopez (Lopecito) from Honduras. Friend of mine from Zona La Union |
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| Elder Hood! |
