Elder Wakefield's Trip to Guadalajara

A few weeks back, Elder Wakefield took a trip Guadalajara. This is where the Luz del Mundo church is headquarted. The Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) church believes a little like we do. They baptize in Jesus name and kinda sorta have holiness standards. We have a Luz del Mundo church right down the street from our church. Nicole and I visited it one time. It was, of course, very dead. They don't believe in musical instruments and the women have to wear veils. The main difference between us and them is that they have a prophet that they believe to be God. His name is Samuel Joaquin. Every church has a throne inside that only this man is allowed to sit in. They sing songs to him - it is very creepy.

The Luz del Mundo headquarter's church

The goal of Elder Wakefield's trip was to spend a couple weeks preaching on the buses, knocking doors, and planting as many seeds as possible. Prior to this trip, Elder Wakefield had done some serious investigating in their doctrine. He was armed and ready!!

A few years back, Elder Wakefield went into one of the Luz del Mundo churches here in Puebla. He had some questions about what they believed and wanted to talk to a minister. He went in a found the pastor of the church. Elder Wakefield began asking him some questions, but got to a very important one. "Do you believe Jesus is God?" This man suddenly became extremely angry and replied through clenched teeth, "That is blasphemy!" He escorted my Grampa out of the church.

When Elder Wakefield arrived in Guadalajara, he began looking around for a place to stay for the next couple of weeks. He found a very nice lady that offered him a room in her home. However, when she found out his reason for visiting Guadalajara, she said that she could not, in all good conscience, board him. She was a Luz del Mundo follower. So he kept looking and found another room for rent.

His room is the one with the t-shirts hanging out in front

It was a nasty little place, and very primitive - lol!! You can see this in the next few pictures...

This was his kitchen.

Notice the clothes hung everywhere? He had to take his clothes to the laundromat to get them washed, but they did not have dryers. So he brought his wet clothes home and hung them on hooks, nails and chains that were on the walls. We got a good laugh out of this when he told us!! :)

His bathroom

More clothes hanging out to dry

He told us that the bed they gave him was as hard as a table and it had one dirty, holey blanket on it. So my Grampa had to go down to the store and buy a towel to lay on and another one to cover up with. (That is his little prayer mat beside the bed :)

The kitchen

The stairs leading up to his room...eww, dirty!

So as you can see, this girl's Grampa knows how to take care of himself! Even in the most primitive of situations, although I am sure this is not the worst conditions he's had to deal with through the years.

A Catholic church in Guadalajara

In the weeks Elder Wakefield spent in Guadalajara, many contacts were made. Pray that God would continue to work in the hearts of the people he talked to. Too many parts of Mexico do not have a church - there are just not enough men to start works! Pray not only for Guadalajara, but for all the cities in this country that need a church. That God would place a burden on someone's heart to come and labor in these cities.

~Bethany~