Losing Myself in the Service of the Lord

January 26, 2010

Dear Family,

Wow… another week down and I just can’t believe it. Time is really starting to pick up and really going fast. To be honest, I’m getting kind of scared that it’s going to continue to get faster and faster.

First, I thought I would get some business out of the way. I went to Montevideo and had a great time. I went to church distribution, bought garments and some new supplies for teaching. I bought some other stuff at a store called Tienda Inglesia. It’s pretty much a store in Montevideo that sells American stuff, so that was cool. I took some money out of my account for myself. If you want to see what I spent, go online and look, it’s all correct. I also found out that the phone call to you guys on Christmas is not fully reimbursable. I’m kind of worried about this. What should I do? I haven’t received the bill yet, but I’m expecting to receive it in the next week or so and I’m expecting it to be well over 1500 pesos (about 75 dollars). Only 400 pesos is reimbursable. If you’re confused about the whole matter, you’re more than welcome to call the mission office and ask them. When I called them about it, that is just what they told me.

Okay… so this is how my week went. We proselytized a little on Monday and Tuesday of last week, but didn’t really make any progress or have anything exciting happen. On Tuesday night, we took a bus to Durazno. We had a zone conference in the stake center and then split up to go the different missionary’s homes to get some sleep. We woke up at about 2 in the morning, got ready and at about 2:30 got on this micro bus with all 20 missionaries from the zone. It was packed, very uncomfortable and it was slow too! We finally arrived at the mission home about 6 in the morning and had breakfast with the president and his wife. The president told us that there will be only two times on our mission that we get to go to the temple, now and when we leave. Well, we went through a session and I can’t describe how amazing it was. After living in a shack in the third world countryside of Uruguay for a while, you start to forget about the luxuries that are in this world. It was so beautiful. It was so spiritually uplifting and really helped me out a lot. I definitely received much needed spiritual guidance.

After going to the temple, we had interviews with the president. In my interview, some interesting things took place and some interesting things were said. I kind of complained that I didn’t have investigators who were progressing. The president told me that I needed to step it up in my area and realize that when an investigator progresses, it’s a miracle. He said that miracles are from God and we need to be worthy of our miracles. He asked me to look at myself and my situation and decide what I needed to change so that I can have miracles! We have a saying for this kind of talk in Spanish. It’s called “baja la caña” or dropping the cane. But it was so good and I really needed it. They are really having problems in the mission with obedience. Last week, the Montevideo West mission had 80 baptisms, while we only had 16. Also, there are fewer missionaries in the West, less people and less area. When you consider this, you realize that we all need to step it up a notch. So that’s exactly what my companion and I are doing. The Mission President gave me one more change (six more weeks) in my area of Sarandi del Yi.

We have now made a lot of changes. We are optimistic about our small population that we have to teach and are already starting to see miracles. We had 5 investigators in church on Sunday and have started teaching a woman named Patricia. Last night she asked us if she could get baptized... awesome! We also found some new investigators that we think will be ready for baptism soon. So it’s been good. (Dad, I loved the story you shared with me about Joe. That too is a miracle and I will keep him in my prayers.)

Then, the other night, we had a little chat with the Bishop. I really felt impressed to say several things to him. I told him I thought it was pathetic that we have 300 members in the ward here, but only about 50 are active. I told him that this is the fault of the ward, his ward and I could see that this was because of the lack of a home teaching program. He was confused and asked me, “What is home teaching?” I went over the whole program with him and I think he liked the idea. Afterwards my companion said that I was the craziest gringo in the whole world! He had never before seen a missionary “baja la caña” on a Bishop…especially a missionary from the United States with only five months in the field using a completely new language. He did tell me though that I spoke pretty perfect Spanish for this one, so he believes it was guidance from God.

Anyway, I think it worked because on Sunday the Bishop announced a special ward activity. He said that everyone needed to come to the church on Saturday and that he would assign them a less active family to visit and teach at least once a month. After they get their assigned family, they would immediately go teach them and give them a special invitation to attend church this next Sunday. Wow! Crazy huh? There are still several things to do that will make the plan better, but I think this is a good start. Our goal now is to help out the whole ward. We have been doing a lot of service projects this past week. I have farmed. I have cut pasture. I have built homes, moved mounds of dirt by hand and many other things. I see how the skills I acquired at home can now be used help these people. It is so awesome. I’m loving it. By the time I complete this next six weeks, I will have been gone for just over six months. Amazing huh? I expect for a while to lose myself in the service of the Lord and the joy that it has brought me so far in this life is immense.

I’m so glad to hear that all is well back at home. Keep it up dad. Mom, I love you. And everyone else, I’m grateful to have you in my life and so very grateful for your support.

Love you all,
Elder John P. Sluder

P.S. My heath has returned to normal and so don’t worry about me.