Week 22

 What's up guys, how's it going??? Gotta make this one quick because I don't know how long we gonna have power for. Our power had been out for over 24 hours because of that crazy cartel stuff happening. It's crazy cuz a very big portion of the cartel just so happens to live in Xochistlan soooo... yeah. We were in church on Sunday and we received a message that we had to leave immediately and go to our house and not leave cuz the cartel was going to start shooting anyone in the streets.  We are on lock down for like 3 days cuz there are like 3 burning buses right outside of our house lol. We good.

Anyways, this week was great, couple highlights: 

- We were in a very powerful lesson with a divorced mom and her daughter talking about the Holy Ghost at the church when my comp tried to say that the "espiritu santo, lo va a quitar de sus calcetines!" That does NOT work in spanish. hahahahha

- We always drop this line at the end of every contact and ask if there is anything we can do for them before leaving. Without a beat these people always say no se preocupe but THIS TIME a lady said yes... she just asked us to take a bunch of puppies and move them so we gladly picked up like 8 lil dude dogs and moved them to another house. The house happened to be a member's house. Super cool how Heavenly Father will give us opportunities to serve when we choose to help others. 

- Most of our recent converts and people in teaching are youth. It's a little difficult because I want with all my heart to help people have eternal families but anyone over the age of 20 here has an obligation every Sunday to do a community service called tequio. This is because of the corrupt system in place over their housing land and if they don't do this tequio, the government of this area will just take their house/land (most of em barrily have a house). It is so sad to see the great struggle of these people but there's something I've learned from these kids. While the parents are pretty much unable to attend the church making it very hard for them to invite the Holy Ghost into their homes, when we are able to help their kids come, they almost seem to bring that spirit of love back into their homes. It's incredible to see the change in the whole family because of the kids ability now to invite the holy ghost into their homes.

This reminds me that even only the presence of the Spirit of God has the power to change lives. I know God has a plan for these people and I can't wait to see when they are able to come unto Christ and receive his love. While these people are in a situation that makes it almost impossible to progress on the covenant path, I realize how lucky we are to live in such a great country, the great USA. I implore y'all, make time to come to church and progress towards God. When we sacrifice time to study his words, renew our covenants, and serve others we will receive those blessings tenfold. I know these things are true because I've seen them with my own eyes. 

Love yall!

-Elder LaBass