A More Excellent Way

The Gospel is such a powerful tool. It truly can repair any problem in anyone's life. This week we saw a few different testaments of that.

Last transfer we started teaching two men named Americo and Lito, they came to us looking for help with their drinking and smoking problems. Americo lives alone and because of that beer was his best friend. He started drinking and smoking when he was 16, because it was the cool thing to do, and hasn't been able to stop since. Over the past two months we have been working hard with him and telling him just how important it is that he says his prayers and reads his scriptures daily. For the first little while he didn't really have the desire or will power. But we never let up and kept pushing it on him. Yesterday Elder Yeanoplos and I stopped by just to see how he was doing (we like to suprise him). I talked to a totally different Americo, he held his composure, didn't slure his speach at all, and we actually had a real conversation. He said that he has gone a solid week now without even having a desire to drink. I won't lie, we just about gave up on this guy, after a few months of no progress at all, but we kept pushing him and kept testifying of the power of the Gospel in our lives and he is now starting to see it. Lito is a very similar story. He is part of that huge family that we are teaching, and he is really the only one that has problems with the Word of Wisdom. It has been so cool to see how everyone has been supporting him. He has gone a little more than a week without smoking or drinking. And yesterday he came to the church for the first time! It has been so cool to see his relationship with his "wife" change over the past little while. They are now talking marriage and hopefully will be baptized in the coming months. The Gospel is incredible. It has been such an incredible opportunity to introduce these people to the restored truth, and see the blessings manifested as they obey what we teach. I hate alchool!!! It is such a powerful thing! It is so sad to see it completely destroy lives here, every morning we see guys out in the street completly drunk, literally fallen on their faces... Satan is hard at work.. But the good thing is that God is working even harder. 

We had a great week! Hopefully this one will be even better. I hope that you all have the best week of your lives! 

Love,

Elder Hyde

HAPPY B DAY SAMMY!