Week 41: Be Obedient!

Dave Zimmerman, the man on the right, was traveling in
Spain and met Elder Hendrix and two other missionaries.
The man in white is a recent convert.  They were at a park
 in Madrid when they attended a conference with Elder Bednar.

There is a brand new chapel in Coruña (like 45 mins from my area in Santiago) that was just built and it's dang beautiful. It's the first chapel in all of northern Spain. So last week, our entire zone went out there to spend a whole day passing out flyers for the open house. We were paired with other missionaries from the zone, and I was out with Elder Holt and we had a ton of fun! He's one of my best friends in the mission. Together, we passed out just under 2000 flyers.

We found a new golden investigator! His name is Juan and he's 25 and from Venezuela. We found him in the street a few days ago. We finally got to meet with him this week for the first time. We taught the restoration of the gospel and it was so powerful! We got to the Joseph Smith part and read the verse in James that Joseph read when he was searching for a church. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." I asked him if he's ever had an experience where he asked God a question about something he wasn't sure about and then received an answer. His reply was money solid. He smiled and said it's funny that I ask that question. He said he is in the exact same position as Joseph Smith, looking for an answer of what church is right. And he said at that very moment, he had received his answer. He said while we were sitting there teaching him, he found his answer. He said he doesn't know hardly anything about our church, but for some reason he feels it's right. We asked him to be baptized and he said yes! And he even came to church yesterday! Miracles are happening here in Santiago! We're finding!

Funny story... So I've been really sick this week with congestion and headache stuff. Well, one day this week when we were in the church, I turned around to sneeze right as one of the Hermanas' investigators walked through the door behind me and I accidentally sneezed all over here and I'm pretty sure that's the reason she didn't come to church yesterday.... Oops.

I've been studying my notes from the Elder Bednar conference a lot this week. One thing that I've been thinking about a lot is when he said "knowledge is gained by obedience." Like Nephi explains, the gospel is plain and precious. It shouldn't be difficult to understand. But our faith, diligence, and obedience are what help us better
understand gospel principles. Exercising faith by acting helps us understand why we have commandments and helps us see promised blessings. Sometimes it is difficult to explain this to investigators. When we talk about blessings that you receive when you go to church or read the scriptures, it might seem weird or not make any sense to them. But if they're obedient and have faith and act, they will better understand why it is important. For example, not drinking coffee seems dumb to a lot of people. They don't see how it will bless them. But once you act and exercise faith and avoid coffee, your understanding of the importance of the Word of Wisdom will be more familiar and you will be able to see the blessings that come! Knowledge and understanding is gained by obedience!

Out of time! I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hendrix

Elder Hendrix visited La Playa de las Catedrales near Lugo.