"Just come to church!"

Oh my gosh, we just don't know what to do!!!!  It seems impossible!!!!

The saddest part of this week was losing a golden family!  The Carrizo Garcia family do not want to listen to us anymore.  Their nephew, who is very involved in the evangelista church, saw us talking with them and told them "you can't switch churches, because that shows you're playing with God."  We testified that looking for the truth and seeking God is not a sin, but a belief created by man.  We left them homework to read, pray, and even fast.  The Carrizo's accepted to do it!  So we return only to find that they didn't read, pray, or fast.  They just said "It's like we're playing with God if we change religions."  In one ear and out the other.  I feel like we're trying to make water come from a stone, it's just not going to work.  So we have to leave them.  I was sad, but I know that there are people that are willing to listen, and BE HUMBLE before God.  Fear God, not any man.  It is never a sin to look for God.  It doesn't matter if being part of one religion has been followed only out of tradition in your family.  I testify that if we ask God to lead us his to his church, He will.  At some point we must be willing to ask God which church is truly his and once we have our answer, we must be willing to obey God's will and do what he asks of each of us in order to receive all the blessings that he has for us.  I am trying to be patient.  I am leaning great lessons in honoring people's agency, no matter how frustrating at times it feels.  

So we were supposed to have 6 people in church and NO ONE CAME!  Oh my gosh these people are sooooo lazy I can't stand it haha!  Thankfully, we still got chill vibes and are just trying to love these people.  We got up early and walked 30 minutes to go pick up a guy named Miguel Quiroga, whose 80 years old, and I'm pretty sure that he didn't wake up on time because he didn't answer the door.  Next, we went to the church and a great member family that was supposed to pick up our other investigators went, but found that our investigators were all sleeping too!  We got desperate and in between classes we went to go look for a guy named Diego.  He was there, but he said "Ooooooh, I have to......go to my......aunt's house!"  We just laughed after because it was so funny as he's terrible at lying!  In our last attempt, we tried to pick up a drunk guy on the street and he just said he'd come later.  I know we did our part and God will bless us with someone in some moment.

I'm not going to lie that the work of salvation is not easy.  It can be really hard and frustrating.  I'm learning to let each week just come one week at a time.  Sometimes there are highs and sometimes there are lows.    

So what was the blessing this week?  We ate asado with the Lopez family for lunch and made tacos for dinner!

 

Also, a huge blessing at church was a super special message that the senior missionaries serving in the temple (all are from the states!) shared with us.  They talked about the importance of the temple and how we need to attend as often as possible as there are no excuses because we have temples so close to us (especially in the states).  After church, we got to chat with them.  They are all from Utah, but guess what?  One of them, Elder Nielsen, was the mission president for the Ventura mission!  It was so fun to have a connection from home.  I was so sad as he told me that everything is getting burned up with the fires in Ventura County!  I can't believe no one told me!

With all of the sad world events happening, I know this world is going down as foretold by the prophets and that's why we can have so much hope through Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.  Everyone says that we are all going to die, but "through Christ we shall all be made alive."  The Book of Mormon is true!!  I love it as it gives me answers for everything!!  

Sorry for the lack of photos this week.  Next week I'm gonna have a ton!  Also, I might have a new companion...we'll see!

Con amor,
Elder Pomar​