News from Elder Green, Wednesday May 12

Well so I'm going to describe the experience in full and it will be my letter for the week, because (a) I talked to you guys on sunday (b) I need to go so that we can do some stuff like get my suit and go go-cart racing.

Bear in mind that all of this happened in spanish so nothing is perfectly translatable.
On monday, Elder Cuentas and I were walking down Valerie Dr doing some Old/Potential Investigator contacting. We went to the two flats where the potentials lived, and neither one was there. So we decided to just walk back to the car because we could then go talk to our member friend Felipe. As we were walking back, we both noticed a hispanic man standing outside of his apartment. He was out enjoying the afternoon in front of the building. I had seen this man countless times before, but for one reason or another had never contacted him. I resolved right then that I was going to talk to him no matter what my companion said. How great was my surprise when, in stead of objecting to it, he was the first one to start walking toward the man before I had ever said anything. We later learned that his name was Alfredo. Well, I had noticed months before that Alfredo was always standing outside and that he had been on crutches as far back as I had been here. Having been here for four months, I realized that it probably wasn't just because of a simple fracture.

Upon talking to Alfredo, we discovered someone who was very kind and open to talk to us about the gospel and very open about his life. He informed us that the 50 years of his life have been very difficult, emotionally and physically, for him. He has throughout his life had, all summed up, over 25 operations of various types and has had many difficulties with some of his tendons. Then a few years back there was an accident which took the life of his brother and left him very injured. He didn't care to discribe much about it. In the course of his life he said that he has talked to various ministers and people of differing denominations. He had asked them, "Why have I been through so much in my life? What is the point of all this pain?" He had been informed by these ecclesiastical leaders that in some life prior to this one he had sinned, and thus was being punished for it.

This reminded me of a story from the bible. A man, afflicted since birth, coming to Christ (or His chosen representatives), who had been told that he was suffering for past sin... I remembered reading John 9 about the blind man. The disciples asked Jesus, "who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"

The savior responded that none had sinned, but that he had been born with this condition so that the works of God could be made manifest through him. I shared this message with our downtrodden friend. Immediately he was very animated and said that he had never read the bible but that now he was going to. And then, after a moment of consideration, he looked at me very firmly and said, raising the Book of Mormon in his right hand, "Well, I'm going to read that part in the bible, but I'm going to focus on this Book."

He knew that we had a sacred calling and that we were working by the power of God. He realized from what we read that you can find solace in the scriptures. I'm excited that he is going to read John 9, because it talks about spiritual blindness, which he has also experienced. Also, next time we speak with him, we plan to share the story of a young man, who also had a problem with his legs and many persecutions, through whom God worked mighty miracles.

It's truly amazing to me how much and in how many ways we can find application from the scriptures into our personal lives. I know that what we are doing is the work of God and that we are His chosen representatives on the earth.

I love all of you and I'm excited for when I can next talk to you.

Love,

Elder J.

P.S. Tell Grandpa Max happy birthday. Sounds like they had fun at the party.