7-6-25 Lost Tatay

Huuiii aloha nō kākou! Magandang araw sa inyong lahat! Fo da fam: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vV5H2ga7QtRdt7ig6 Another awesome week as a missionary, in which the Lord continues to remind me how little time I have left, and pushing effort and urgency, further than ever before. These past weeks have been filled with the hardest points and the best points of my mission, in which my journal is filled with testimony builders, that I am grateful for to the Lord. The experience that I want to share this past week, happened as Elder Palamos & I did a clean on our teaching pool. Returning to the resources, we counseled on what we'd do strengthen such. Praying in behalf of our goals and plans, we set out to teach a family weve been teaching. As we arrived, she asked us to wait, as she walked down the street to ask her uncle to join the lesson. This man walked in with his cane, and crutch, and took a seat. He explained his story, that hes been bed ridden for almost a year, but only recently began gaining strength to walk. He explained a dream he had, of being lost. While asking people in the dream where he was, they would answer the place he was from, but never recognized any of it. The conversation got back into Church, as he asked what were we as members of the Church, guided not to eat or drink? We asked if we could open with a prayer, and invited the spirit. The lessons started as we explained that if there's one thing first, that we need to agree on before we understand each other, is that God is our loving heavenly father, and because he loves us, he gives us ways to recieve blessings, called commandments. We asked about how God gives his children commandments, as we began to talk about prophets. Tatay's dream fit in perfectly as the spirit guided us to connect this lost feeling, to a life without a prophet. We living in the same world, but finding truth is unrecognizeable. We continued to share our belief of Gods unchanging nature, and his love that gives us living prophets today. We told tatay the 5 things that prophets have guided us to refrain from. For the non-members (Cigarettes, Alcohol, Coffee, Tobacco or drugs, (Green or Black) Tea) but focused on the blessings the Lord gives us according to our faith to this commandment. These are the blessings.. 18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones; 19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures; 20 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint. 21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen. We asked tatay, if he felt, that these blessings would help him in this situation, and before he could respond, his niece, the person we were going to teach originially jumped in and the best way I can think of saying what she said in English is, "Let me be the one to tell you that what they say is true" and went on to share her testimony. Tatay committed himself to following the Word of Wisdom, then began sharing with us, about his nephews and nieces, cousins and siblings, who needed to hear that message. Following that lesson, we were taken by them to their neighbors and introduced to them. They were so happy, to wake up their friends, hair auu hamma jang, bebes wit hanabada, ladies feeding their babies but their house being made a highway, by their cousins (the mother and tatay) as it was pretty late, to introduce them all to us, as we set return dates for those extended families. I know these things I have the opportunity to share are true. Not because I have studied these lessons for the past almost two years, but because Ive seen the tested results of its applications. Ive seen lives change as they choose Jesus Christ, in their lives. Ive seen disasters turn into happiness, as people recognize and understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The urgency we need to share about this, comes with our own experimenting upon the Words of Christ. Let us not focus on what's not allowed, but on the eternal blessings that we can experience, by following the example and accepting the teachings of Jesus Christ, no sked um, jahs trahs🤟 ELDER ISHIBASHI