QUE PASA MI LOVES!!! haha Campana, Buenos Aires is still alive and well but Satan is for sure on the attack as usual. Even though we have great people with baptismal dates that we are very excited for, Satan too has been switching up his game plan so we are re-adjusting ours as well! Since my amazing companion Hermana Romo came to the area and hermana Allen left, we have worked harder than ever and the work has become even harder. She has joked around a lot like, wow, you had a lot of baptisms for your first bit here, Im worried that when I come to the area everything slows down, I must be bad luck. I just laugh at her because shes incredible. Im just grateful for all that my amazing trainer taught me and left with me. I love and miss her very much. Hermana Romo is full of life. She keeps me laughing on a constant basis and has taught me a lot more Español. Im so grateful to have her as my companion and I know that Satan wants her to think shes bad luck. She is an amazing girl. So a lot of our plans have changed and are being revised in this area. I have worked three times harder than I did when I first got here and I know the people and the area well enough that ive been doing exactly what our leaders have asked of us and yet, people are not committing!! The have excuses that I just cant seem to understand. One is an ex- missionary and her whole family and her wont go to church anymore all because she says she doesnt have a long skirt. so I tell her she can have one of mine and she says, she doesnt like wearing a long skirt so she wont. She says she does everything else but will not go to church and she doesnt think its a big deal. We have tons of great families but no matter what we do they will not come to church, they say they are to shy or cant take all their children and even when we figure out every possible answer for their problems, they still say they want to listen to our message, they will read scriptures and have us come over but are afraid of committing to church. We travel to the farthest villa to make sure that they are committed to coming and they promise they will yet they never show up. We have even tried picking them up but that also doesnt solve it. So we have realized, instead of lacking faith and getting discouraged like the adversary would like us to do... we spoke with our zone leaders Elder Bond and Elder Macavilca and they said that we are going to keep going. Keep working with the members, continue the hard work but now see what we can add to our recipe. So Hermana Romo and I are setting up a Noche De Hogar meeting with all of our ward members to get them excited about helping the missionaries with finding and welcoming people. We have some pretty inspired thoughts and analogies we are preparing and we are using the prophets inspired questions in the end for them to think of people they know who are ready for the gospel. We re-colored the area map to start tracting and contacting in a more effective patern rather then traveling to far away and wasting time with random appointments.
In my morning studies as I have been reading in the Book Of Mormon I was reading in Mosiah about all the wars between the Nephites and Lamanites. All the good and the wicked people. My teacher in the MTC really had me focus on recognizing Satan´s counterfeits for everything in this life and since then especially now this has become a greater search of mine. Ive been realizing Satan´s counterfeits for EVERYTHING. For example, this past Sunday in Church we heard the example of two cups of what appear to be clear water, but really Satan has dropped in clear chemicals into one of them, fooling us to believe the if its not completely cloudy then its probably ok. Point being that Satan is all of the following things: Cunning, sly, craftiness, lying, evil, dark. These are all proof that he is skilled at these things, he knows exactly how to lead us astray, discourage us, get us down, little by little. He does this especially by making us forget these three things: 1) who we are as children of God 2) what the Savior has done for us and what that means exactly 3) that we can recieve personal revelation. Satan wants to confuse us entirely but he Does this a little at a time or all at once in our weakest of times. Ive realized that he, from the very beginning has always had a way of getting people to wander from the iron rod even a little at a time with his counterfeits. For example: in Mosiah 10:13-18 it describes why the Lamenites had such hatred towards the Nephites... They believed the traditions of their Lamenite fathers who believe Satan´s counterfeits. They believe that when Lehi was commanded by God to travel into the wilderness with his family, that they really were foolishly tricked, They believe when Nephi was commanded of God to retreive their Plates from the wicked king, that he stole them, They believe that when they were punished it was because God favored Nephi over them, but really it was that Nephi was courageous and righteous in all things the Lord required. Therefore, Satan´s craftiness has been on going ever since the beginning. I also noticed with King Noah taxing the people for his pleasures and his many wives was as if it were Satan mocking tithing. Taking righteous and sacred hard work and sacrafice and turning it into things of the world or in King Noahs case, for building up his riches and his palace rather then building up the kingdom of God. We can recognize his counterfeits from the times he tried tempting Christ during his ministry here on earth. The poisens Satan slips into our minds while he tells its oh, its ok, its not THAT bad or well, its just missing a little truth. He does this with everything that the world is so comfortable with excepting as normal. Countless counterfeits throughout the scriptures can keep us far from falling into the trapts he leaves around us today. With worries of the latest fashions and looking our best on the outside, when we forget the most important attributes our Father in Heaven has bewstowed us with from within.
This reminded me of a talk by Boyd K. Packer when he spoke of the Iron Rod in Lehi´s dream."vs. 1 nephi 28:33 - that was the test... then... Lehi said: "and we heeded them not!" and THAT was the answer. Largely because of television, instead of looking over into that spacious building in Lehi´s dream, we are, in effect, living inside of it." Elder Packer warns: "After baptism/confirmation you take hold of the safe iron rod. But you are not completely safe. It is AFTER you have ´partaken of the fruit´that your test comes! If you hold to the rod, you can feel your way through darkness. FEEL your way forward with the gift of the Holy Ghost. Grasp the iron Rod tightly and never let go!" He asks, "Who wrote this incredible vision? There is NOTHING like it in the Bible. Did Joseph Smith compose it? Did he write the Book of Mormon? Ofcourse not. That is much harder to believe than the account of angels and golden plates! Joseph Smith was only 24 yrs. old when it was published." Just as Holland says in response to the critics and non-believers, "No evil man could write this book, and no good man would, unless it were true and inspired by God."
Being an official representative of the Lord Jesus Christ at this time in my life that Im but one missionary out of the millions of incredible others that serve in this work, I leave you my testimony that the miracles ive seen in this Gospel are real. I have seen countless works of Heavenly Father transform before my eyes. I have read the Book of Mormon through and through again and I will continue to -ponder the message and - ask God if its true... and I will continue to recieve the answer "yes my daughter, it is" I am only one of the millions that know these things are true and Im so humbled that he has called me, at 21 years old, to carry His love to the people of Argentina when I never thought I could. when we feel that we are lacking one thing or another we need to search for Him more diligently. Because He is the ONLY one that carries us. I LOVE YOU ALL. I COULDNT DO THIS WITHOUT EACH OF YOU AND YOUR SUPPORT AND CHARITY! You all make a difference to me and to this work of the Lord! Til next week, Suerte y besos! Chao,
Hermana, Ashley Ann Gillum
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