Converting Vegas One Casino at a Time: Spiritual Horizons and Smiles of the Savior

This week has been full of lots of ups and downs. It started with a Zone Conference all day Tuesday which was located an hour and a half away in Lake Havasu. Our mission president talked a lot about having an eternal perspective. He used the analogy of a ship out on the ocean and whichever way you look it’s just ocean and sky meeting at the horizon. He then started talking about what horizons we create in our own lives and what prevents us from seeing further. We know there is land, but we just can’t see it. We know there is a life after this but how easy is it to forget when we can’t see it or forget that it’s there. For a long time the world was thought to be flat. It took some people to overcome the notion that it wasn’t and that there was something beyond the horizon. I just really liked that analogy.

This week we had a lot of problems with our investigators. It just seemed that no one was interested and that those that were had lots of issues come up. One was going to get baptized soon and she moved yesterday, but hopefully she finds the gospel in her new home. We are going to send missionaries there. And then another one of our steady investigator had some drama with members of the branch and needed to take some time off from meeting with us. That was really sad to see. We never know what our actions are going to cause with people and it’s important, especially for those investigating the church that we take precious care of them.

It’s hard to accept that your work is good enough for the Lord when there are not a lot of results. But I know it is our job to invite people and they all have their agency to choose. I think if Heavenly Father rated himself on how He was doing by how many of His children followed Him, He would feel very unsuccessful. He is saddened by it, but He knows there is no other way it can be. We have to accept Christ as our savior and do all that He asks to receive all that the Father has.

We have had some miracles this week. We are teaching a 15 year old Spanish boy and he said he would be baptized. I just pray things work out with him and we do all we can to get him there. We are also talking to his cousins who live next door and they said they would read the Book of Mormon as a family! They are so amazing. I really know that we can bless their lives and it would be so cool to baptize a Spanish family while I am not even in a Spanish area!! Spanish people are just so humble and ready for the gospel - it’s amazing! There is always work to be done and as we try to listen to what our Father in Heaven wants us to do we will be successful. I am really trying to rely more on the spirit than on myself. What I can do alone is nothing close compared to what someone can do with the spirit. I am nothing without it.

A little bit of some sad news. The brother we baptized last week is now in the hospital with congestive heart failure. He is 81 years old. Hopefully all will work out okay. I am so grateful he made the decision to be baptized before this, because he probably wouldn’t have been baptized in this life if he would have waited any longer. It really just shows that the Lord knows what is needed and he puts us in the right place at exactly the right time.

I hope you all have a great week! I want to leave with a quote from Joseph Smith.

"I step forth into the field to tell you what the Lord is doing and what you must do; to enjoy the smiles of your Savior in these last days." I love that - smiles of your Savior. (3 Nephi 19:25, 30)

Que tengan un buen semana! Buenas suerte con todo en sus vidas y familias.

Elder Clark