Transfers are here and I am staying in Dynamic Dallas and will be training once again. I love the excitement that each new transfer brings. The future is so bright for Dallas and I am incredibly excited to get a new missionary and to show him the ins and outs of the mission field. I am so excited to knock on his very first door with him and to watch with him the Gospel manifest itself in the lives of all of the incredible people that we teach. I can remember my first area, my trainers, my first apartment, the first door I knocked, the first person I taught, and the first ward I was in like it was yesterday. I believe that those first weeks in my mission were perhaps some of the most important weeks of my life. I am so grateful that I could have good, obedient, and wise trainers. I hope to be all that and more for my new companion.
This week was definitely a step up from last week. Like I said in my previous email, I know when we have a down week, it just means that something good is waiting to come around the corner. And this proved to be so true. We've had many great lessons this week and so many incredible experiences. Unlike last week, I now have a myriad of experiences to choose from to share with y'all, but I have only time to select a few.
I'll start of with Linda. This week we had the opportunity to teach our investigator Linda twice.The first lesson we taught her, her daughter, and her boyfriend. All very great and nice people. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had an incredible lesson. Her daughter and boyfriend had a lot of great questions about how their church ( a Penticostal Church) is different from our church. We dove into the scriptures together and explained many of the differences and they seemed to understand quite clearly. I love the scriptures so much. I love the New Testament with all of my heart. I love serving here in the South where people believe in Jesus Christ. I love using the Bible to relate and come to common ground with the people here and show them that everything that we have to teach, and share comes out of their own book of scripture. When you do it in the right manner, it does not produce an argument or "bible bashing", but it produces a friendly and accepting envioronment where the Christians you're teaching feel that they can trust the message that you have to give. The Bible is so incredibly important to use when teaching the Restoration and other PMG lessons. And of course you always tie the lesson in and focus on reading and praying about our unique book of scripture, The Book of Mormon. Everywhere I go I carry around a mini New Testament in my pocket and a Book of Mormon. Since I've done this I've been able to "Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." During this lesson we learned that Linda's birthday was on Friday. So Elder Anderson and I made a note of that and on Friday we went and sang Linda happy birthday and gave her a present and a birthday card we made her. You could tell that she was very touch by our thoughtfulness. We met with her again that Saturday night. Her best friend was there with Linda. Her friend is a Jehovah's Witness. An extremely kind and out going lady. She was very accepting of us and wanted us to teach her the first thing that we taught Linda. In the short time that we had with Linda and her friend we were able to teach all of the Restoration, a ton about the Book of Mormon, and parts of the Plan of Salvation. I must've been talking a million words per minute. This was another incredible experience that I had with teaching by the spirit. As I looked into Linda's friend's eyes and taught and testified, you could see that there was understanding and something being felt. Even though it was a short lesson, and much was taught. The Spirit of God was felt.
We had a great lesson with David and Carmen again this week. We met in the Sandoval's home and watched a Church video and had a spirit filled lesson about the temple. Carmen's understanding of the Gospel is growing and so is David's. I feel like they will join the Church very soon. Carmen has been unable to come to church because she works on Sundays. She is working on getting Sundays off. Please pray for her. David came to church this Sunday and we had some great discussions about baptism and The Book of Mormon. He is still trying to seek his spiritual wittness. He is so excited about the Gospel though. He wants to come on team ups with us and wants to go tracting with us. Haha. It is just a matter of time before he sees that changes that have occured in his life, and the fact the truthfulness of the Gospel has already manifested itself in his life. Please pray for them both.
The Style family came to church! All of the girls and they even brought a friend! They loved church and we are so excited about them! I love this family so much. I don't know what it is about this family but they are just so cool and I feel so comfortable around them. It is so easy for me to speak my mind and to make them laugh. They have a lot of potential to be baptized very soon. Please pray for this family!
That is a quick rundown of what happened this week. I love being a missionary and I love teaching the Gospel. It is something that I never want to stop doing. One of my favorite things to do is to read my past journals from exactly a year ago and see who I was, what I was thinking and what happened exactly a year ago. This past week was the week that I entered into Dunwoody and trained for the first time. It is crazy to think that that was a year ago, it is also crazy to think about everything that has happened between then and now. It is like watching a movie that you've already seen, but this time you notice things that you've never noticed before because you already know the ending. It is amazing to see how God's plan rolled out before me. How when Elder Grassley went home and I was very upset because I really loved Elder Grassley, but if that wouldn't have happened I would've never met my most influental companion Elder Armenta. And how I was so dissapointed that I wasn't serving a foreign mission and then realizing that if I would've gone anywhere else than Atlanta Georgia I would've never met Brother Asper, who absolutely changed my life. My love for the Gospel and for Jesus Christ would not be what it is today without meeting the people that I've met. My knowledge and conviction of the Gospel would not be the same without meeting Brother Asper. I would not be who I am today without having come to Atlanta Georgia. It was amazing to read about my desire to leave Dunwoody after four transfers because I was so fed up with disappointment, not knowing that God's plan was to keep me there another transfer and assist in the Roldan family's baptism. When I look back at my experiences in the mission field I realize that God's plan was always so much greater than the plans I've had for myself.
Thank you all so much for reading my emails. I love you all so much.
-Elder Ryan Romero
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