Dádiva - Elder Jacob Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Peru Lima West Missionaries

So if you guys don't already know, there's a kind of huge missionary campaign with ''He is the Gift'' video that the church posted. We pass out little cards with the webpage and talk to people about it. Well, the word ''dádiva'' means gift, but it's an old word that is only used in the scriptures. So many times, when we're passing out cards that talk about the new video, I find myself explaining to native Spanish speakers what the word ''dádiva'' means.

The interesting thing is that there are many churches here that don't celebrate Christmas. I'm not talking about Muslims or Jews. I'm talking about Christian churches that don't celebrate Christmas. The Christian Church, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and other evangelist churches in Lima are convinced that Christmas is not acceptable before God because the word isn't found in the Bible. The words car, computer, and Easter aren't in the Bible either ... but they seem to be able to justify those things....

It's been a really great week. We found three new families to teach. Two of the families are cousins in the same building. That makes it very easy to teach them and to make sure they're keeping their commitments. The first family has 5 members, and they've always been at a loss with what to do concerning religion. The husband is Catholic, the wife is Evangelist, and they haven't baptized any of their three children because they don't know what church to baptize them into. I'm pretty happy with their progress! They're going to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. L** was actually pretty excited to receive a Book of Mormon and to read it.

The other family listened to the missionaries while they lived in Trujillo, but they don't remember ANYTHING about the church so we're refreshing their memory. They're a family of 4. The dad of that family read the whole beginning of the Book of Mormon and 3 Nephi 27. He's a stud. We're taking them both to the church to do a tour this week and just praying that they go to church for the service.

I had three goals to finish before Christmas. One was 10 baptisms, which is still in progress... but the other two were to read the Book of Mormon one more time and finish Jesus the Christ (which is a thick book). I finished the Book of Mormon this morning and I'm finishing up the other. And I have to say I've surprised myself because before I left on my mission I hated reading and didn't like studying either. However, in the course of my mission, I've found so much joy and enlightenment in something as simple as reading the scriptures.

I'm just rambling now, but I've also found that I'm much more happy and feel the Spirit more when I think about my investigators during the day and how help them solve their problems. It's like a spiritual run-through before doing it physically. Like we read in the scriptures, all things were created spiritually before physically... so this makes sense.

Just to finish up. I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and I hope that we all find ways to serve and find something to give Christ for Christmas. I know that He lives! That He, the Great Jehovah, taught us a lesson by the humble circumstances in which He was born. I hope we can keep Him close! I love you guys!! #SharetheGift

Elder Jake Avery

I am a Chess Piece (December 15, 2014)

Shepherds, Why this Jubilee?  (December 29, 2014)