Week 42...5/25/15...Bayron and the Bus Pastor

Alright, I'm gonna be honest..... I had no idea was Memorial Day. It just doesn't exist here. I am just so grateful for the amazing country of the United States of America. I read a quote by Joseph Smith about how the Lord prepared the Restoration by helping the States gain liberty from England. It was amazing. Also, a special thanks to all of the people that have served, are serving, or will serve our amazing country. I'm so grateful for all of the sacrifices that have been made to give us the freedom we have. Also . . .Shout out to my Bud Andrew Mikulski who's just the man in the Air Force Academy. I don't know a person more selfless than he is. 

But this week was fantastic! We've been working really hard with 4 of the grandkids of Hna Francisca. They love going to church but just haven't ever accepted to be baptized. We found out one of the reasons was one of the other Grandmas went to talk to all of them and she gave them a ton of anti-Mormon stuff about how terrible the church was and everything. But we set up the lesson on Friday to teach the four youth and challenge them to be baptized. We brought in members and decided to have the lesson in the church. I taught the seminary class while the Zone Leaders taught about baptism with the investigators with a member and my companion. The Spirit must have been really strong because one of them named Bayron accepted to be baptized and said he wanted to do it the next day! So we did it! And Celeste accepted to be baptized this Saturday! So we were so pumped about that! I'll be sure to send the photos we have from the baptism!

Hmn Francisca and some of her grandchildren including her grandson, Bayron

Bayron's Baptism

Bayron!

Tuesday, I had divisions with Elder Admundsen who's about to go home this Wednesday. We did divisions and then got word we needed to get back to Reu before night time so he could go to the temple the next day. So we headed back and got to Reu with nothing to do. So 'we just grabbed a box of Book of Mormons and headed to the Central Square where we just went to town placing Book of Mormons with everyone that we could. So that was awesome!

Oh, the other highlight of the week happened on Wednesday. We were on a bus ride home from Reu to head back to our area. I had fallen asleep but was quickly awakened by one of the Preachers that oh so frequently get on the bus. They always get on, sing a song, offer a prayer, preach something about the Bible and then ask everyone to give them donations. We usually just let them do their thing, even though it's totally against the way that Christ established His church and usually, their teachings are just soooo confused and just confuse the people even more. For instance, Christ never once in the Bible asked for money for what he did; never for the miracles, for his teachings, nor for the sacrifice that He gave His life that we may have eternal life. But anyway we were just chilling waiting till he finished. But then finally he passed by us and stopped. He put out his hand which in this situation was not a sign of respect... I just kind of blew it off but then offered him a Book of Mormon. He then just freaked out. He got into the seat in front of us and stood up and started calling us Anti Christ's and false prophets. He opened the Bible and shouted scriptures to us telling us we would be thrust down to hell and receive eternal damnation. (Really it's not anything new but just in this situation it was on a public bus.)
 My comp asked him where in the Bible it says Christ once charged people money for what He did. He just called us Anti Christ again and started to tell the people on the bus that we represented the Church of the Devil and worshiped a false God. At that point, I don't really remember what happened. I just remember having the thought to stand up. I stood up and turned around putting my back toward the bus preacher and then started to preach to the people on the bus. I don't remember everything, but I can testify that not everything I said were my words. I know that The Spirit was there helping us testify of the truth. We testified of the True Church of Jesus Christ and about the Restoration of the Gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith. We testified about how we had prayed and by an answer of God had come to know that The Church was true. We challenged everyone to pray and ask our Heavenly Father where the truth was. We testified about how the Book of Mormon was evidence about how really the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of God. We had 6 people ask for a copy of the Book of Mormon and gave them all out that we had. Then we just sat down and waited till our stop came. We paid the bus driver and got off.  It was awesome. We were so filled with the spirit we almost forgot to pay the next driver for our ride to our area.

But ya, that's basically been our week! I can testify that this church Is the only true church of God here on the earth.  I can also testify that Satan will do anything he can to destroy it.  But it's true.  It's all true. Never Doubt that.

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Mom's email back to him, "Scotty I was laughing out loud! That is awesome! I love how you just stood up and started preaching! I so wish I could have heard it! It will be one of the first videos I asked to watch in heaven." 

His response:  "Well there was a lady who pulled out her camera but as soon as we started testifying she put it away and listened and then asked for a Book of Mormon."

The countryside

Awesome Sunset

Here's a photo of a mango. Basically, the best thing ever.