Good week. Honestly, I'm ready for a nap... I'm pooped. With the month coming to a close we had to manage the miles so we didn't go over. So Elder Gonzalez and I were on the bikes most of the week. Blech. I miss the desert heat. It is so much better! When it's hot it's hot. There is no trickery with the humidity. Hopefully August gives the heat a hard taper.
Now that we have the formalities of the weather out of the way I can move into the juicier topics. This week we had our interviews with President Nilsen. When you talk to him, he doesn't have that daunting countinance that Pres. Jensen had. We had a good interview, and he truly does want the best for the mission... It seems so long ago... I can barely remember it!
I also headed out with Elder Ramsey for exchanges this week. (Sounds familiar right?) We headed down to Western Hills to see a member for dinner. On our way we saw a good ol' American fruit stand. That was one of the best cantaloupe, and watermelon I've ever had. Pics to come next week. I forgot my camera.. :P
Really the climax of the week was Sacrament meeting yesterday. The Branch Presidency asked the missionaries to speak, and perform a musical number. So Elders Ragan, Ramsey and I pulled the weight speaking. I was second in line after Elder Ragan, and I expounded on the last paragraph of the Book of Mormon.
It was a rather simple talk. No Bruce R. McKonkie, Jeffery R. Holland, or snippets of the King Follet discourse. Rather it all came out of that good ol' triple combination. I've never walked away from a discourse more full of the spirit than after that lesson. There were errors with my Spanish, it's to be expected, but it just seemed to flow. I've never been able to easily say what I've wanted to say in Spanish. In fact I wrote out the discourse (I'll send it home if ya'll don't lose it), but I only looked at it to see the scriptures. Oddly enough what I said over the pulpit was about what put on paper.
I really think that talk had some meaning after talking to someone on Saturday. He looked rather shady to begin with. Black, with dreads past his shoulder, wearing a white tank-top (just can't call it the slang term). This is the outward description, and it matches quite a few of his beliefs. As we talked to him we found that he believed that Heavenly Father is God. Although he couldn't accept Jesus Christ as the Savior. He pulled out weak examples of how he couldn't be, and made jabs to his divine calling. He did his best to pry us from this belief. On the contrary I grasped to my knowledge. We taught him of the Book of Mormon, but he still wouldn't listen. I feel so badly that he was lost, but wouldn't go to the light and see salvation. This experience with Gershon (was his name) really fueled the testimony I had during that talk. To hit the first thing that you will learn from the Book of Mormon. That Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world! He revealed himself, with The Father to Joseph Smith, to once again give us the way to have salvation.
Little by little I'm learning to appreciate this Gospel more and more. Oh, and T. Here is your advice for sis: Mosiah 12:27
Love you all, and have good week.
Para Siempre,Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission
