Boldness, Dogs in Sacred Places, and Sabbath Breakers

Elder Chiquival

It was a wonderful week here in Sonzacate, El Salvador. We worked diligently and had a lot of success in teaching people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

It was very hot this week but the heat has been going away a little bit, march and april are the hottest months so I'm almost out of the woods with that sweltering heat! My sunscreen has been a dear friend these last few weeks. 

We went to a baptism on Saturday in one of the town in our zone called Izalco. Two adult men were baptized and it was a great service. The only thing that bothered me was when I saw a dog come into the room, I was going to kick the dog out but everyone assured me it was fine. It was the dog of a relative of someone was getting baptized, but I don't think dirty dogs should be present for events like that. But, the people didn't care and nobody thought twice about it, the service went as planned. I guess that some of the cultural differences I will just never quite understand.

We found a man named Adalito a couple of weeks ago but we hadn't had a good opportunity to talk with him in a teaching setting. This week we did and something surprising occurred in the lesson with him. We were very very direct and bold with him in explaining gospel principles and to our surprise he readily accepted a baptismal invitation. You can never go wrong with boldness, a good direct explanation or invitation to do something is always the best. 

El Clasico, the name bestowed upon the matchup between Barcelona and Real Madrid, is a highly anticipated and viewed event in Latin America. Yesterday was El Clasico, everyone watched it and it reminded me of the Super Bowl. Everyone spent the Sabbath day watching soccer instead of thinking about God, it is interesting to see where our priorities lie. 

Everything is going great here in El Salvador, I'm enjoying each day and I love the people here. There are many wonderful people who genuinely want to follow Jesus Christ, and a general belief in Him among almost everyone, it is a pleasure to serve among these people. 

Have a wonderful week, 

Elder Gardner