I Have A Parable For You...

A mother has three children. 
The first child comes up to her and says, "Mother, I love you". She happily replies, "If you love me, then wash the dishes". The child says "OK" and leaves, but doesn't wash the dishes.

Then the second child comes up to her and says, "Mother, I love you". She happily replies, "If you love me, then sweep the porch". The child says "OK" and leaves, but doesn't sweep the porch.

Finally the third child comes up to her and says, "Mother, I love you." She happily replies, "If you love me, then pick up the toys". The child says "OK" and leaves, and washes the dishes, sweeps the porch, and picks up the toys.

At night the three children again say, "I love you" to thier mother, but who really loves her?

Another parable to get you thinking:

A man stands at the door to heaven, and while standing there three people come up to him.

The first comes up to the man, and the man asks "Who is Jesus Christ?" The person raises his hands and replies: "He is the Son of God, my Savior from death! I love him more than anything else!" The man nods his head, motions his hand to the side and says, "OK, please wait over there".

The second comes up to the man, and the man asks "Who is Jesus Christ?" The person shouts "He is my Redeemer from my sins! My shepherd and my guide! I love him oh, so much!" The man nods his head, motions his hand to the side and says, "OK, please wait over there".

The third person then comes up to the man, kneels down, kisses his feet and shouts "All hail Jesus, my Savior and Redeemer! I love you for all you have done for me! Thank you, thank you!"

Hi friends!

I figured that I would share a spiritual thought first to get your minds going. These were two parables shared during sacrament meeting yesterday, and I gotta say, the members in this branch give amazing talks! Super direct and focused on helping us improve! I'm definitely taking a ton of notes with these talks! The topic of the talk given yesterday was: Do we really love God? If we truly love God, then we must keep his commandments (paraphrasing John 14:15).

Anyways, this has been a very full week! It's also been my first full week in San Marcos. In a short summary of this week we've contacted So. Many. People.  Even though this is a small town, it's still sizable enough to get me lost in it's many streets and endless houses. We haven't seen too many fruits of our labors so far, but we did meet the cousins of a recent convert that were going to get baptized in the past but then moved away. Well, they moved back this week and we managed to find them and see if they're still interested in learning more! We had an amazing lesson with them yesterday where their whole family (plus a few uncles and cousins) joined us for a lesson, and at the end of it they commented that they were interested in getting to know the church and going to a meeting. I'm excited to see where things go with them!

I've been meeting so many people, and I'm struggling to remember all of their names, but I'm happy to have so many friends here. The pensionista is also a great support for missionary work (and a great chef too). 

Story time: We went contacting down a certain street and a series of unusual events passed. 1st, we knocked on a door and an old lady in a bath towel came out. That became one of the quickest contacts we made that day as we rushed to share our message and get out of there. 2nd, as we reached the end of the road something caught the eye of my companion, and as we approached it we found a rat trapped in some sort of torture device. It was a very sad situation. why do people do that kind of thing?

I'm excited to go through another week of San Marcos, and I'm excited for what's going to happen this week! Things on the menu this week are: An English Class I'm going to give on Tuesday. Divisions later in the week. And moving to a different house on Saturday! 

To prepare for the move I'm packing up my stuff again, and cleaning the house. We're scheduled to move to a house closer to the pensionista on Saturday, so it'll be interesting reporting on what a different house is like next week.

Anyways, that's all for now! I thank you all for reading this email! Please keep working hard! I love you guys so much! Thanks for all you do!

- Élder Grant








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