hey all you cool cats!! there isn't a lot of time, but this email is going to be about something that isn't really talked about while out here on the mission field! and thats the LGBT community and the gospel.
sometimes there is a large taboo about whether or not LGBT people can be in the gospel or whether or not they can participate in church services or the sacrament. when i came out on the mission, i knew very few LGBT members of the church. Some have gone on missions some have received there endowment. Some struggle, and are maybe less active...but are you ready for this? you guys...... GOD LOVES ALL OF HIS CREATIONS AND HE WANTS EVERYONE TO COME BACK TO HIS PRESENCE......NO MATTER WHAT!! HE LOVES EVERYONE!! (and the really cool thing...he DOESNT judge anyone!) why am i reminding you all of this?? well, we actually had an experience with a trans gender in our sector who has desires to come to church ! we have a list of people who are less active and inactive in our ward. basically there is a total of 800 members that live in our sector, but only 130 of them go to church activity. when we were looking through the list, we found this girl on the literal BOTTOM RIGHT corner of our sector. we thought that it would be a cool idea to try and go visit her. when we showed up to her little humble house, a man opened the door. we asked for an anna, and the guy responded with,"that was my previous name. my name now is Geraldo". longhurst and i were in shock! we have never really interacted with the trans communits before the mission, so we asked about Geraldos story to see what happened. basically, when he was a girl, she was abused by her husband to get baptized. she got baptized, was about to get sealed to this guy, and the husband fell off the face of the planet. then anna (geraldo) became a drug trafficker to try and support her fam, when she also realized that she felt weird about her gender and decided to make the switch, and ended up leaving that old life behind. ok, fast forward to current day..... he literally reads the book of mormon every single day and knows the truthfulness of the book! the only reason why he doesnt go to church is because of fear of being judged, but he has the desires to go! we were in shock! we asked out bishop about it and he literally responded with "god loves all of his children and there is no way in heck that this child of god can find happiness if they dont come to church and receive the fullness of the gospel. i want to meet this guy! ill set up an interview with him right now so i can get to know him! there is also an asexual member in the ward that you can take with you on the lessons with this member." wow!!! it really opened my eyes on how much god literally loves all of his children. he sent his begotten son to die for literally EVERY SINGLE PERSON in the history of existence, and he wants all of his children to come back to his presence! ah! i love the gospel too much! i have to RUN now, but i hope that you guys can find a way to feel how much god loves every single one of you this week! look for those small blessings that you receive on a daily basis! ekw
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Elder Karson Wattles
Chile Santiago South Mission apartado postal No. 544 San Bernardo, Chile Archives
May 2019
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