This week
we got to go to Cusco for a multizone conference with Elder Uceda. Elder
Uceda is a seventy and president of the area. He did two conferences
with us - one in Puno, and one in Cusco. So basically every missionary
who's serving outside of Puno was there, which was sweet because I got
to see a lot of friends. Elder Uceda talked to us a ton about
repentance. There were two things there that I found extremely
interesting. In our modern culture, we tend to associate the word
"repentance" with pain or punishment. We think of it as something bad,
something that we never should have to do. But that word was never
intended to have those implications. In the Old Testament, when they say
"repent" or "repentance" they use the Hebrew word "Shoov." Shoov
literally means "Volverse, darse la vuelta, to go back, to turn back."
It's not a punishment, it's simply a return. We go back to the way of
the Lord, we turn back from our sins. It's not something painful, it's
something joyous. In the New Testament, they use the greek word
"Metanueya" (or something like that) This word translates to "An
interior change". We can't truly repent of something unless a change
takes place. Elder Uceda described it as "Seeing a sin and truly and
sincerely being able to say 'I know that sin, I've been there before, I
know how it feels, and I have no desire to be there again.'" When that
change has been effected from within, when we honestly have no desires
to feel that sin again, we can say that we've experienced repentance.
Once again, it's not something to fear but something to embrace. We
should all repent daily so we can free ourselves from the weight of sin
and be happy. Repentance is a principle of perfection.
We got home from Cusco friday afternoon, and Saturday
the other elders had a baptism. We went to support them and the
investigator who was getting baptized. It was a great way to end the
week. Funny experience though, afterwards the guy came up and asked when
he could get a HLJ ring. Elder Alzamora told him "I'll bring one to
sacrament meeting for you tomorrow, but you need to come early" and Victor says "Ah, dang it." He did come early though, so he must have really wanted that ring.
Hope you guys all had a great week. I'll hear from you all next week.
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