August 29, 2016

Thanks mom! That’s awesome that donavan is back! Give him a big hug for me please! I’m glad the girls are doing good too. Don't worry I’m sure the Lord will find me a wife.. I hope it’s not too hard to find one that loves the Lord more than anything else. Keep an eye open! :) 

This week we baptized Jessica Lemus and Abigail Barbero. Jesica is a reference from our recent convert Sharon Cruz that has been participating in Nunca Voy Solo. Jesica has struggled to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet, but has been coming to church non stop for about 3 months. We decided to stop visiting her because she hadn’t been reading the Book of Mormon. Last Sunday I asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon. She said yes with a big smile. I asked when she was going to be baptized. The 28th she said. The 28th of what month? August she replied! I’m ready! It was really awesome. She thanked me for being patient and continuing to invite her to church every Sunday and that she had felt it was all true. :)

Abigail has been coming to church with her older sister for about a year. She is 12 and has wanted so badly to get baptized but because of her age hasn't been able to. As a rule of our mission only 14 years and older if parents aren't members can be baptized. We helped her read and understand every chapter between 3 nephi 11 - 18 and had her write a paper over all she had learned. Then sent it to the president asking for permission for her to be baptized. He was very impressed and gave her permission.

This month we have a few baptisms planed too.  :) We did a missionary activity as a ward about a month ago and had them invite non members. The family Canel invited their uncle who loved the activity. He asked after how he could join the church. They presented us to him and we have taught all the lessons as of last week. He comes to church every week and helps out in all the activities like he is a member :) I love him to death. He is like 55 years old.

We are also teaching Dulce. She recently moved in with her mom, Olympia, our recent convert. She is aunt-sister of Andrea the little girl that we baptized.. It’s a really weird story, but the grandma of Andrea (olympia) is the mom of Dulce, but have have the same dad..... Dulce got pregnant at 18 and moved out with her boyfriend. Recently Olympia did a fast that her daughter would have a change of life style and would come home. 2 days later she did haha... she has been listening to us and likes the church, but still needs to feel the power of the Book of Mormon.

We also are teaching Esperanza. She is our contact, and an interesting one too. We were contacting some apartments a few weeks ago but after 3 hours of no luck, so we decided to say a prayer that the Lord would guide us to where he needed us most. We felt that we needed to go to some apartments half a mile away and went. We contacted Esperanza that rejected us right off the bat and said that she had already heard the missionaries and went to church but didn't like it at all. After a few minuets of talking with her she said thank you and we left. We kept contacting there, but didn't have success there either so I was a little disappointed because I thought the Lord needed us there.

Later in the day we went to some contacts that we had made in the first set of apartments. We knocked and Esperanza opened... Turns out  earlier that day she was babysitting for her friend and it wasn't her house we knocked and we had put an appointment with her son at her real home. She was like well I can’t seem to escape from you guys come in :) We had a very spiritual lesson over the Book of Mormon and at the end she grabbed it from me and said she would read it. The next visit I asked her what her favorite bible story was. She said job because it teaches her that to be grateful and not complain. We shared an awesome lesson about Nephi and how his story teaches us the same thing. She was satisfied at the end. She confessed to us later that her husband is a Jehovah Witness and that he hates Mormons. She doesn't like Jehovah Witness though and has been praying that God would send her the truth and help her to unify her family more. She said that after the first time we contacted her she felt bad for not listening to us and said to herself if they pass by again I’ll let them in haha.. I’m sure the Lord led us to her! :)

Mom and dad I love you so much and miss you a lot. Please don't stress out about coming here if it isn't going to be easy. I would be just as happy coming home and watching videos and eating peanut butter and waffles with my family. If it easy to come down here it would be fun to show you the country but it’s not a priority for me haha... I’ll probably come down alone in about a year with my wife to visit.