I had blood sausage for the first time this week and it was gross!

Dear everyone,

 

What a conference it was, right!?!  Can I tell you what makes conference EVEN better?  Watching Honorio intentively listening, building his testimony of modern-day prophets.  Yeah, that's what makes it better.  Unfortunately,  his marriage doubts are slowing things down a bit and we are still trying to put a date on his baptism.  We're gonna try to place a date tonight.  I really hope that it works!  We witnessed TONS of miracles today and seriously, after watching some other people witness miracles, too, and then a few days later rejecting them, it broke my heart.

 

For example,  we found a man named Feliciano last week, who, when we clapped his house, immediately began telling us that it was becoming more and more difficult for him to believe in God because of how many different churches there were.  Well, we told him that we had the answer to why this was and he invited us in.  

The Spirit felt in that lesson was powerful, and Feliciano could feel it.  He began to describe it.  "I'm an alcoholic and a smoker, but now I feel like I can get over it," he said, "my brother died a year ago, but knowing I can see him again makes me so much happier," he said.  

(side note, we went with Oscar Baez, who told us that he didn't recognize the name Feliciano de Leon, but when they saw each other, they both started shouting for joy because they used to work together and were good friend a long time ago.  Yeah, he knows everybody.  It makes me laugh every time) 

We went back to his house a different day and when Elder Sevilla began to testify of the plan of Salvation, Feliciano, this fifty-eight year old man, began to tear up, saying that he wanted to do whatever it took to get over this life and become a new person.  It was SUCH a miracle that we found this guy!  

But we returned for a third time, and he literally didn't want anything to do with us.  It was like a completely different person.  It broke my heart.  

I pondered about miracles and what they are for me, and I think that there are two types of miracles.  There are the miracles that God has control of, like moving mountains, or guiding His missionaries to the people that need Him, and then there are the much, much bigger miracles:  the miracles that we have control of, or our actions.  

Everything that we have, God has given to us.  And no matter what we give back to him, whether it be our time, our money, or our talents, we will only be giving back a small portion of what he has already given us.  What he doesn't have control of is our heart and our mind.  Those are the only things that we can give to God that he doesn't already have.  And the biggest miracles that there are is when someone chooses to change something about himself or herself out of there own free will.  Especially when the odds are against them.  I suppose that this would be a miracle by God's standards.  Maybe moving mountains is pretty cool, but He could do that any time he wants.  Somebody changing him or herself, though.  That's a huge miracle.  That's why Honorio is such a miracle.  He is changing himself.

 

On Saturday before General Conference, Elder Sevilla and I traveled to the Stake Center in Maldonado (about 40 minutes away).  Before the session, we went to a nearby supermarket to get some snacks and a man on crutches began to yell at us from across the street, saying anything and everything that one wouldn't want their children to hear.  And the threats!  Oh yes, there were threats.  But since he was on crutches, he couldn't walk toward us very quickly.  So he just screamed.  We didn't pay much attention to him.  

Well, fast-forward to the nighttime.  Elder Sevilla and I decided to proselyte a little bit in between the second session of conference and the priesthood session.  As we were walking, we saw the man again.  "¿De donde consigió una bicicleta?"  I though to myself.  Or, "Where did he get a bicycle from?"  He was now screaming, and a lot more mobile.  And he began to ride toward us. We didn't really think much of it until we saw that he still had his crutches and was holding one in the way that a knight would hold his 'thingy' to go jousting.  And he was coming straight for us.  

He came up behind us and Elder Sevilla urgently said to me "We might have to run.  Yep.  We have to run.  RUN, Elder."  

This crazy guy began trying to joust me!  It wasn't even a fair match!  We booked it to the nearest supermarket.  He left.  

Satan, right?  He will use any which way to frustrate this work!  But the work will continue.  If you can think about what you were doing in between those sessions of conference, just know that I was being chased by a crazy guy on bike.  

Anyway, the work continues!  I had a magnificent week.  I hope you all did, too!  Have ANOTHER great week, now!  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

 

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

Me in the beach of Punta del Este enjoying myself. The Elders of the zone and I went to Punta del Este last Pday.  It was sandy. 

Me going back to my roots and doing chimney with "los dedos,"  which are the fingers that stick out of the beach in Punta del Este.

I am from San Carlos!

Elder Sevilla and I with the Herrera family  I love them so much.