Dear Everyone,
Sometimes I think that as a missionary, I worked as hard as humanly possible one week. And then the next week comes and we work even harder. The amount of labor that we do is nothing short of a miracle. Missionaries are one of the greatest miracles of the restored church of God.
Speaking of miracles! I have another excellent story today! It is about a sister named Ofelia. A few weeks ago, Elder Sevilla (I still miss him) were having lunch with a family and we asked if they had any ideas for people we could visit. Sister Zurma, the mother, said that there was a less-active sister named Ofelia that was offended by one of the members years and years ago and had since stopped coming to church. So we tried to pass by her house the following week, but we were having difficulty finding it. We knocked on one door and the lady that came out said "I don't have time right now! Another day!" By the by, that's usually a response of someone who isn't interested. But we persisted a little bit, and tried to find another day that we could pass by. "What's your name?" "Ofelia," she replied. BINGO. She gave us her number and told us to call her.
That following Sunday was General Conference and by some miracle, she came! But that's not all. She didn't come to church the following week, so we knew that someting still had to be done. So we set up a day to go to her house and brought Oscar Baez. To my everlasting shock, Oscar did not know Ofelia personally. He only knew every single member of her family by name. Parents and siblings alike. So even though he didn't know her, I excused it because he still knew of her. So we talked.
Many people might not know this, but we as missionaries don't go into every lesson with a set idea of what we are going to teach, point for point. This is especially true for first lessons for less-active members of the church. We talked about a lot of things, about her baptism, the baptism of her children, that her husband died before hearing about the Gospel, but that they were still sealed together in the temple, and about the things she was hoping from life right now. As missionaries, we really have to pay attention to the Spirit, because if we don't, then we won't say what God wants us to say. It isn't difficult to have an ear for the Spirit, but we definitely have to pay attention to it.
We were able to sing the hymn that was sung for her baptismal service decades ago. The Spirit was very strong. We talked about preparation for the life to come, that this time here is so very short, but has eternal consequences. And so we must do every thing we can to choose Jesus Christ and follow his commandments, keeping our covenants. As we testified about how much we loved our families and how important it is to return to Heavenly Father united as a family, we invited her to come back to church, to restart preparing herself for this event.
"Will you come to church with us this Sunday?" Then, two words that aren't usually spoken afterward were pronounced: "Por supuesto." Which is interpreted to mean, "of course."
She said that she had been waiting for years for this moment and that she was finally ready to come back. The Spirit was so potent and I knew it was because she was finally accepting it back into her life as a guide and companion. The bigger miracle after this was that she was there, that Sunday, sitting in the Sacrament room. She told us that church was everything she had hoped for and more. What a blessing it was to be a part of this lady's life.
Honorio is still going strong. He really wants his family to get baptized, too, so we're thinking of ways to help them like us more so they'll start listening to us again. He is super excited to be baptized and came to church this week with a white shirt and tie. He is such a wonderful guy! We have been teaching him about the temple and the work for ancestors and he is excited to be baptized vicariously for his father, who died twenty years ago.
This week was fantastic. The life of a missionary is not easy, but never have I felt more purpose or joy than I do now in the service of the Lord. Everybody should be looking for people to be taught by the missionaries! We should be filling their agendas, like it was said in General Conference! The saving ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins is completely necessary to live with God again and must be performed by someone who holds the Priesthood authority of God. So we must help those we love come unto Christ!
I love this work and know that anybody's testimony can grow through helping the missionaries. I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.
LOVE,
Elder Plautz
Me eating Flan in the house of my Ward Mission Leader. I didn't like it at first...but when you eat something enough, it grows on you. And now I'm a fan of flan.
Me with my new companion Elder Teran from Mexico
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