Monday, April 1, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Another week on the mission has passed by and it is crazy how fast the time is flying.  I have less then two months left on the mission.  The good thing is that I am not really trunky so I am doing well with concentrating on the work.  We are working hard everyday.

Unfortunately, we are not having the greatest luck with investigators.  We only had one at our last sacrament meeting.  We did have a family that showed up to church but they had to leave just before sacrament meeting. (Here sacrament meeting is the last hour of church).   We are going to work with our investigators this week. Sadly, we may have to stop teaching some of them if they don't continue to keep their commitments.  It's kind of what our mission president wants us to do.  If they aren't progressing, stop teaching them and work with the ones that are.  It is always sad and I don't like doing it but I understand it is necessary.

Though it can sometimes be difficult with our investigators, this time I am not going to allow myself to get discouraged and lower my expectations.  That was a big mistake that I made last January and I learned from that.  Instead I am going to look forward with hope and the knowledge that I am preparing souls and planting seeds.  I do hope that in the future many of these good people will come to accept the gospel and the hope and happiness it brings to us.

So, on Friday we did that little bible study about two topics: Sabbath (when it should be) and eating pork.  By just the Portuguese Bible, they attempted to prove that the Sabbath Day should be on Saturday and that Christ actually was resurrected on Saturday and not Sunday.  After I went home I looked at the prophecy of Daniel about the Lord's death being in the "midst of the week" and realized that the Portuguese bible mistranslated it to the "mitade da semana" or the exact middle of the week, being Wednesday.  Also, they said that the scriptures about the apostles meeting on the first day of the week and "breaking bread" was just them getting together and eating and not an actual meeting of the church.  difference in interpretation.

Eating pork and the arguments that they had were only differences in interpretation.  They said that the vision of all animals being clean and able to eat, was only a metaphor that the gospel can be preached to the gentiles.  They don't look at the law of not eating pork was a metaphor in itself that the gospel could not be preached to the gentiles (at that time, of course).

Anyway, my knowledge of the Bible grew a lot after this little Bible study.  My faith in the restored gospel grew and my knowledge of the scriptures as well.  Unfortunately, the only thing that I could do in that instance was to bear my testimony of the restored gospel, and that there is a prophet on the earth today.  I pray that one day their hearts and minds will be opened to the truth.

Anyway, that was my week.  I hope your week will be great.  I love all of you.

Love,

Elder Kevin Brady