Because of transfers, this week has been kind of crazy. I have to fill in Elder Gonzalez on all the people we're teaching, all of our potential investigators, which churches to go to on Sunday--Everything. It's all good, it just puts a lot of responsibility on me. I actually have to know what I'm doing! Luckily, I do, so it's been pretty good.
We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, the tenth of June. Both of them are pretty solid, so we are planning on both coming through! It's going to be really exciting. I will definitely have some pictures of it then.
We met one guy this week who told us, "If you can answer my questions, I will quit smoking and go to church every Sunday." It was interesting... We have another appointment scheduled soon, and we're really hoping to help him out. I kind of think that if we answer his questions, he'll just come up with more to throw at us, though. We have to at least try, though, so that's what we're going to do. And who knows, maybe one day we'll get through to him.
I've been reading a lot in the Scriptures recently, especially the Bible and the Book of Mormon. It amazes me how much I don't know about both of them. I've really enjoyed being able to read them and learn new things. It's also really cool to read the Bible in English and in Spanish because he translations are often different. Usually it's just slight, like the omission of the word "then" or something like that, but occasionally it's pretty different. One example of a difference is the use of the word "Jehovah." The Jews didn't like to use the name "Jehovah" because it was too sacred, so they replaced it with another word, usually "Adonai" meaning "Lord". The King James translators kept with that tradition, so the word "Jehovah" is found only four times in
the Bible. In Spanish, however, the translators didn't really care about using the name, so they used it all the time. Another example is the word Sheol (in the Old Testament) and Hades (in the New Testament). In English they are translated a few different ways, but in Spanish, they kept the words as "Sheol" or "Hades." That's just something I thought was interesting because one of the fundamental
doctrines of the church is that the Bible, although it is the word of God, is not perfectly translated, and these little differences kind of show that to an extent.
I hope you guys all had a great week!
Elder Rowe
Pics:
Elder Gallegos with Lon Prete, one of our Ward Mission Leaders, who is a super awesome guy. This is the last picture I have of Elder Gallegos!
A gun Brother Prete carved that won a competition. This was super cool, and I know that some of you who are reading this would be interested in it.
This is Elder Gonzalez! He's my companion for the next six weeks. He's pretty great!
That's all the pictures I've got for you this week!
