How do you describe a long awaited (mom was waiting and counting every day!) homecoming? Elder Solomon said "the biggest sacrifice of his mission was coming home." How wonderful that he loved it that much! Welcome home Elder. Well done, thou good and faithful servant!
OK, well I thought about it a little more and it would be cool to have everyone there when I get home off the plane so invite them all! It’ll be fun! It was great talking to you all and realizing how different I talk. Cuz of the Spanish, I talk a lot faster and thanks to forgetting English the words get all crashed up in my mouth and I stutter and try to remember the word... what a mess. I’m sure you all will have a blast listening to me.
Ok well this week I’m gonna do it right. Go out with honor. I’m gonna work for that title of unprofitable servant. In Spanish they use the word “inutil” which means like useless, I like that translation too. Lately I learned an important lesson from the three Nephites. The ward here and a lot of people I know wanted to throw a farewell party for me and I was thinking, “whatever, that’s cool”. But then in the zone leader council we were reading about Christ’s ministry here in the America’s and I read the parts about the three Nephites. All the 12 disciples were incredibly spiritual and powerful men, in fact when Christ was with them in 3 Nephi 28, he asked them what they wanted of him. Nine said that they wished to serve him to the end of their days and then speedily come to Him in His kingdom. Another important lesson is that desire. They wanted to work till the end of their days. They knew they couldn’t take a relax here in this life. We shouldn’t think that because we’ve been serving the Lord that we can take a break. We have to keep working till the end of our days. Completing a mission doesn’t mean I can take the easy road for a year or so like a lot of Elders here think. Ok, but then he turned to the other 3 asked. And it’s interesting what they did. In verse 5 it says that they sorrowed and durst not speak the thing that they desired. Surely this request they had was not a bad thing. They were not asking for anything wrong or selfish. In fact their request was very unselfish and very sacred. They must have been really humble and faithful men. They loved the Lord and desired to be His true disciples and instruments in His hands. Christ read their thoughts and told them " more blessed are ye" hmm more blessed? Why more blessed? They stuck around to see the works of God here in the earth and are still performing in their very special mission. It seems to me that their request was more of an offer than a request. More of a sacrifice than an easy way out. Look at all the things they went through: thrown in furnaces, and with lions, buried in great pits, stoned and thrown in prison etc. Not easy stuff despite their changed state. They continue to this day. The work continues but one of the most important parts for me is this. In verse 25 Mormon says that he was about to write their names but was forbidden of the Lord. Now why would the Lord forbid that? He has a reason for everything He does so what is it? Maybe it’s easier this way. Why would Mormon write down their names? In the scriptures a lot they write names for geneology but this wasn’t the case, Mormon usually didn’t worry too much about geneology unless they were prophets or chief judges. Writing their names down would be in recognition of what they did and are doing. But the humbleness and nobleness of these men is much more. They don’t need that recognition. It’s the blank face, it’s the mantle, the calling and the message not the individual person. What is the most important part here? Their glory is the glory of God and His success in the Work. I wish I could explain better these thoughts and impressions the Spirit has given me on this subject. Anyway, let us all continue in this great work. I hope we can all become worthy of that great title of unprofitable servant by at least doing what He asks of us. Take care, love you all and will see you soon... in fact Saturday.
-ELDER SOLOMON
Hey everyone, still here, late but still here. We had a fun day, finally got permission to go to the famous “centro” and check it out. We went to a huge market of artisan stuff and I bought a lot. Got most of my souvenir shopping done. But it was exhausting. In Mexico shopping means battling over the price a lot. Some times they see that you are white and hike the price up. Some of them even got mad today when they realized I speak better Spanish than they and I told them they were just trying to rip me off. Who are the racist ones? But it was fun. After that we went in the big cathedral and saw a bunch of apostasy. It is a super gloomy feeling there, nothing like a chapel or less the temple. We had some fun encounters with drunks and people are starting to get a little crazy when they learn I’m from Arizona. They say, “Oh so your a racist”. I just say practice what you preach. All my white buddies are saying Arizona is gonna start world war 3. Sounds pretty crazy over there, I just hope they don’t cancel any flights!
This last week was hard. On Wednesday and Thursday we had to return to the house so I could take a quick nap and recover energy to keep going and on Thursday I got sick. In fact I threw up at about 11 at night. To my memory, that’s the first on my mission. A half hour later we got a call from a family in the ward to go to the hospital to give a blessing... there is a R[ecent} C[onvert] family in the church that the mom and the daughter got baptized about 9 months ago but the dad was a very intelligent man and fought with the missionaries over doctrine and never really accepted a lot of things. But he was sick, had a lot of serious ills that the doctors never could really take care of. His name was Abdon and when I knew him for the first time he was bed ridden. I only saw him standing once. We always visited with him and did little passbys. On Monday I was informed that he fell in a slight coma and that they had taken him to the Ticoman Hospital. He had become a dear friend but we couldn’t get time to go see him but visited his daughter in their house Thursday. So on Thursday night when they asked us to come to the hospital even though I was sick we went. He was pretty bad, not very responsive but not in a coma. We gave him a quick blessing and his breathing slowed and he seemed more calm. We left and returned to the house to sleep. They then informed us that he passed away at about 3 am. The next day was hard because we had ZL council. The GA[general authority] didn’t show up cuz he was sick too, but it was good anyway. The next day we had a small service for Abdon with some members and took him to his burial place. I learned many many things from Abdon. I will miss him even though I knew him so little time it seemed like. I’m glad we followed those spiritual impressions to visit with him. Today even though it was p-day we visited with his wife and daughter for a while, it was peaceful and rewarding for me. It’s a good thing they have the gospel. They both are ok and calm with a hope that he will accept the gospel on the other side. I told them that he won’t escape Elder Solomon cuz there´s one over there too, not just that... but a Sister Solomon [London]! The good thing was the last people he wanted to see on his deathbed was his family and the Elders.
We are going to marry some people tomorrow so hopefully we will have some baptisms this week. To end one funny story. We were waiting with Elder Vary and his comp to do an interview one morning (him and his whole district baptized by the way) and we were sitting on a curb by a chapel and we saw a huge pile of pigeons going crazy in a group, obviously fighting over some food. There were a lot. So what is the natural reaction of a boy? Me and Elder Tuft took off towards them and they all took off... spectacular. Then we see and hear some one running towards us yelling. A crazy lady was yelling, “How could you do that?! You guys come from the church and you are scaring God’s creation!!” ...Sorry my halo kinda slipped... by the way I hate when they pull out that church crap when it has nothing to do with anything. So we sat there while she yelled some more and I gave some smart alec responses and Tuft tried to explain us out. After we walked back to Elder Vary and Elder Guttierrez they were laughing and we had a good laugh about it for a while. We then decided not to scare birds cuz if you do the pigeon guard will get ya! Anyway 11 days left... can’t believe it. Ok pray hard, see you soon!
Love you all,
-ELDER SOLOMON
