Today I got to teach the jovenes by myself during church and later we left Huehuetoca to go to Las Aguilas church service for the first time. Teaching the jovenes was pretty cool and seeing a different type of church service was also pretty neat. Also, it’s hard to believe but this day starts the one-month countdown until we leave Mexico.
I woke up today in Huehuetoca and was ready for church to begin. Today Andrew and I were filling in for the host missionaries here, so I was excited to be a leader. I got over to the normal church site to find Juan (a fellow church member) already setting up. Andrew and I joined in and soon we had everything ready to go for the church service. Generally church starts around 11:45 or so, but today we started right at 11:30am. The girl interns were riding with the Carpenters to meet us at Huehuetoca and from there we were going down to attend a Las Aguilas service so I kind of wanted to wait until they arrived to start. But Juan wanted to start so I said I felt we should pray before we began worship.
I didn’t know this before I said it, but I basically volunteered myself to pray for the service when I made the suggestion. So after I said this everyone looked at me and pretty soon I was on my feet praying in Spanish in front of the few people that were there at that time. After this we started worship and people began filling in the seats as they usually do. Eventually the girls and Carpenters arrived and we continued to worship. Following our worship time we prayed over the young kids and then they started walking toward the mission house. After the prayer Juan looked at me and asked if I was going to be teaching the jovenes. At this point I knew there had been a miscommunication somewhere because I had no idea they were expecting me to teach today.
Anyway, I said I would teach the jovenes and together the young ones and I walked up to the mission house. There were 4 jovenes present for the class and none of them had attended our class yesterday. I asked them what they usually do during this time and they told me they had a lesson and then played Wii after. So I started thinking about what I would talk about with them and eventually asked how a person obtains salvation. Just like yesterday, the first response had something to do with doing good deeds. From there I went in to Romans 10:9, which clearly says how one receives salvation.
After I had explained how to receive salvation I had them flip over to James 3, which is one of my favorite passages. This passage talks about controlling the tongue and how difficult it can be. In the end I related this all back to salvation because without a pure heart you can’t have a pure tongue. Before we started to play Wii, I challenged them to read their Bibles every day and told them I would ask what they had read about at the next class. I felt very good about the lesson today and was glad I was able to teach it. I hope that God moves in the lives of these youngsters so that they will make the decision to receive true salvation.
Following the church service in Huehuetoca, Andrew and I loaded my things in Steve’s car and we all headed south on the freeway to eat lunch. For lunch we stopped at a place called Sanborns, which is a nice restaurant with a pretty cheap menu. I ordered some pork tacos and they tasted like BBQ. It was really good and I think that’s been some of the best food I’ve had in a restaurant while I’ve been here. After we ate we left for Las Aguilas and at this point it was pouring rain. Sometimes it rains really hard here, and it was so hard that we could barely see out of the windshield. Steve is a really good driver though so it didn’t really affect him.
At Las Aguilas we found out that they have an hour long Sunday school session from 4-5pm and then the service is after that. Andrew and I went in to the jovenes class and then after went to the main service. In the main service we were introduced to the congregation and we received a warm welcome. Following worship, Steve gave a message about Paul and when he wrote his letter to the Philippians. After the message we went home with the Carpenters and played cards until quite late.
They taught us a game called Dork here and it is quite addicting. We played that and a little bit of Euchre until about 2am. At this point we decided we were all too tired to play and now we’re getting ready for tomorrow (Independence Day!).
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