Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 46: Disappointment is hard

Well another rough week, but also extremely rewarding as well. First I will begin with an experience that had me on the edge of tears.

So as many of you know, we have had a family for quite some time named Eliza and Duarte- a family that we thought was golden! We got them started on their documents for marriage, and as soon as they started those, they stopped coming to Church! What the Heck! So we went by on Friday night to see what was going on with them and to teach about the Day of the Lord. Let me teach a little bit of Portuguese so that this argument makes sense. So in Portuguese, the words, Saturday, and Sabbath, are the same word, but with only one difference. The Capital "S" means the day of the week, and the lower case "s" means that it is referring to the Sabbath "Sunday". So we told the husband that he has to come to Church. That it is a commandment. As we started getting more bold with him, he began getting a lot more defensive and argumentative. He told us to show him in the scriptures where the commandment was. So we gladly opened to Exodus chapter 20 to show him the commandment. Then he proceeded to try arguing with us for 10 minutes about how the "s" in the bible was an upper case "S" and that it was referring to the day of the week. He told us that some other church worshipped on Saturday because that is how they interpret that scripture. Then I told him that false churches are always misinterpreting scriptures and I basically called that Church false. He laughed in my face, told us that we didn't know how to speak or read Portuguese. The Spirit was not in that lesson. On the spot, we dropped them. We told them that if they wanted to see us again that we are there every Sunday at 9 and they are welcomed to come. We didn't close with a prayer; we just stood up and left. The look on Eliza's face as we left broke my heart. A couple of weeks ago they were our family most progressing, now they don't do anything.

But, when one door closes, the Lord will open better doors to those who have faith. We met a man named Suite (Sweetie) as we were knocking doors. He recently moved into the neighborhood with his wife and daughter and still haven't gotten completely settled into their new house. We got his number and invited him to church and only talked to him that one time. That Sunday he showed up with his whole family and stayed for the whole time. We came to find out that they are really good friends with the First Counselor's family! We visited Suite and Sarita this past week and met his brother and 2 cousins that are living with him. We taught about the Restoration and this family is full of genius's! It all just makes sense to them! They all accepted our invitation to pray about our message and they accepted a baptismal date for the 11th of Junho. The following Sunday, all 6 showed up to church! Whoo Hoo!

Our other family that God has been preparing is Tony and Carolina! Their marriage process is coming along well. They've been coming to church each week but are behind on the marriage process by 2 days, so we need a miracle to get them married by the 14th of Maio. But they are keeping the Law of Chastity really well. Tony tells us that sometimes he has to run away from her so that he can keep keeping the commandments! Haha!

As for everything that happened on Sunday, we woke up without any power or water. Great. The whole city of Beira and Manga were without power all day. At church I wasn't able to play the keyboard because there wasn't any energy. But I also was asked to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting. I chose to speak about obedience- Mainly about coming to church. I talked about the sacrament, about the 10 Virgins and how they were told that they didn't know the Bridegroom because they came late and the door was closed to them. I compared it to the Sacrament. They come late and aren't able to know Christ by taking the Sacrament. Our problem is that at the beginning of Sacrament meeting we have 30 people, and after sacrament we build up to 180 people! And you thought that Mormon Standard time was bad. Now just imagine Mozambican Mormon Standard Time. It is horrible.

We've been getting rain still, but it hasn't been too bad.

Elder Perez is doing really well. We still get along really well and the area is progressing a whole lot.

Last week we did play futebol with President Koch and it was a whole lot of fun! He is really good! You could tell that he was much better in his prime but was now limited because of physical limitations. But it was really fun.

I think that this is all that I've got for this week. If you have any specific questions feel free to call us at 843987305, (it only costs $20/minute). Or you could just write me an email and ask.

So, have a great week. Devon, I'll see you here in a couple of months. Good luck with the mission call. Mom, you can let Sister Koch tell me when Devon is coming here. Alright?

Elder Rash