Remember to Look Up!

Dec 14, 2015

Stitches!

Well this week was an adventure for sure!! Thursday we went to the temple to buy a Bible for L*** the mom of K****. She only has one of the New World Translations. Some of the writings are subtly changed to suggest other meanings of the scriptures more along the lines of another religion. We called Presidente G**** (President has an E on the end), stressing the brevity of the excursion, and he granted permission. We left in a calafia (small bus, but nor derogatory) at 10:00 and arrived at the temple at 11:30. Almost short. We set back for our area at 12:00 having bought her a beautiful bible and other Mormon propaganda (she isn't our investigator yet, but her whole family's getting baptized, even her sister), and then, to save ten pesos, or sixty cents, we changed routes. Around 12:30, I was ferociously attacked by a stand-still sign. (I was walking with my head down when I hit the top of my head on the bottom edge of a sign. The momentum forced me downward and my pants ripped.) I fell to a crouch, heard a rip that meant trouble in the pants, and said something creative, like "OW!", or "Nombre!" or both. Then Elder Ruiz looked at me like, Seriously? and saw that I was bleeding. We went to the doctor (there's one on almost every corner here) and she sent us to a hospital to get stitches. So much for a short trip to the temple for a Bible. However, we were walking around the city and looked like refugees of a bible bash. Elder Ruiz had a torn shoe, and I had torn pants, a bloody sweater on top of my head (which Elder Ruiz let me borrow from him so I wouldn’t get blood on my white shirt), and blood in my hair. Yes, the pants are fixed. There's a member here that sews who fixed them. Our "short" excursion turned into an adventure, almost, of a lifetime. I have learned a great deal from this incident. Most importantly, however, is "to look up". In fact, there's a general conference talk about it. I believe it's by Arnulfo F. Valuenza. (There are actually two recent General Conference talks about looking up. One is called Look Up by Elder Adrián Ochoa and the other called It is Better to Look up by Carl B. Cook.)

At least he's happy!

I translated a couple of conversations for a couple from Builders without Borders over the weekend. They came down for the dedication and happened to be in our same chapel. In fact, they had worked in my area during Thanksgiving. They were nice. Translating is really weird. I start talking in English but then go back to Spanish mid-sentence. I would ask the english speakers a question and then realize it was Spanish when they looked at me all puzzled.

C*** is changing a lot!! She's keeping commitments. She's asking to learn, not just to pry. She actually asked us to teach her about the law of chastity, which was about the most unexpected question out there. She told us about her crazzzzyyy life about 2 or 3 years before. She wants to change and improve.

All y’all in the united states. Be grateful that your stakes tell you things before they happen, and not when they do. Here, if we know anything more than a day beforehand, we're sitting pretty. We receive an announcement and run our whole area delivering the information to everyone.

D****, a new investigator, is progressing really well. When I extended the baptismal invitation, I basically retaught lesson 1. However, she is progressing. Our third lesson, she had an answer concerning the Book of Mormon. She wants to get married to her boyfriend so they can get baptized. She has very good questions too.

Eye Spy President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The cultural celebration was really cool. There were a bunch of fun songs and a bunch of cool things. Actually there's a Chinese colony in our mission (they speak Spanish) and they performed the fight between the dragon and the loin tiger thingies. It was really something.

Tijuana Temple Cultual Celebration

The next day we went to all three sessions of the temple dedication. The gentleman who is not baptized did not show up, and so we never had to deny him access. PHEW!! In the first session, the first counselor in our branch sang along with the choir (the dedication was broadcast to our stake center and we watched it on a screen). He was the only one in the entire congregation signing. I thought he would have noticed by the end of the first of four verses. Here they sing even longer than in the US.

In the second session, one of the speakers quoted someone of saying, "What is the price of infidelity? of divorce? of broken families and broken dreams? What is the price of pornography, alcholoism, and their broken hearts? There is no price for these, but the Temple fortifies the world against these plagues."

This is a great response to the question "why do you spend an incredulous amount of money on your temples?"

Another speaker said, "The most important things in this world are: one the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. and two that which occurs in the temples as its result." So please, go to the temple, take advantage of the blessings. Work vicariously, just as the Savior, and help those whom you cannot yet see.

Love,

Elder Brown