October 24, 2012

E-mail time! How is everyone back home? Well I hope. Well let´s get to it.

First of all, some bad news. We had another lesson with Beatriz and Kancho last Thursday (we are trying to visit with them a lot) and it turns out Beatriz is actually going to Barcelona now and won´t leave until November. So we had to push the date for Kancho back. Acutally we don´t have one set as of now because we don´t know when Bea is leaving exactly. So that´s too bad, but we are definitely going to baptize Kancho still. It turned out to be a really good lesson and I think we found out why he has been a little hesitant. He said he wanted to make sure he knew everything before he made the commitment to baptism. This is from the guy who has been investigating for over a year! But it was awesome because we were able to testify that baptism is just a step, you don´t need to know everything there is to know. We still don´t know everything and we are teaching people! I told him that I was baptized when I was 8 years old. I didn´t know hardly anything when I was eight years old, but I knew God wanted me to baptized and knew I wanted to follow Him. I told him what an amazing blessing baptism has been in my life and we were able to tell him how much we love him and want these blessings for him as well, but in the end it is his choice. It is between him and the Lord. It was a really heartfelt lesson and the Spirit was powerful. I´ve been praying everyday since that he will make the decision to be baptized. Thank you for your prayers as well. I know that they really do help.

Some better news, we have found 3 new investigators since last Wednesday! Albert, Carlos and Andres. The first, Albert, speaks perfect English and prefers talking to us in English to practice, so it has been like cheating talking with him. We actually haven´t had a lesson with him yet, because he is super busy everyday, but he told us he had time Sunday morning so we invited him to come to church. He came (about a half hour late) and seemed pretty into it, even asking questions and making comments. He balked a bit when we explained it was 3 hours long and said he had to leave for something after the first 2 meetings, but when it came time for the last hour (sacrament meeting) he said he could stay. We went into the chapel and while we were waiting for the meeting to start he said: "I feel good today. I feel really good." It was awesome! He had told us earlier that he didn´t believe that there was a God per se, and I was able to explain then that those good feelings came from God. It was an amazing experience! We have a lesson set up with him tomorrow, so we will see how things go. We´re really excited about him.

The others are 2 jovens (teenagers) who are cousins. They live with a couple of members and Andres´ mother. We had a second visit with them on Sunday. We have only shared spiritual thoughts with them so far because we want to have the mother there as well before we start teaching lessons, but she is always busy. They said she wouldn´t be available until the end of next month, so I´m not sure if we are going to wait any longer. But the boys are awesome! They come to a lot of the ward activities and they have showed a lot of interest in the messages we share. I´m excited to keep working with them.

Finally we had a lesson with Tatiana who has had one lesson before I got here. She has a 14 year old daughter who was baptized recently and she is really open as well. We taught her the Restoration and I realized it was my first time teaching it to an investigator. We taught maybe the best we have together, it was really smooth lesson and she was really interested. The best part is at the end we soft committed her to baptism (without a date). She didn´t hesitate to say yes and even said she wanted to, she just wants to know more. We assured her that we would teach her everything she needs to know and be with her every step of the way. We have another appointment with her for next Tuesday. The Lord is really blessing us with people who are ready for the gospel. I´m just realizing now how true that is and how grateful I should be. We have some good things going on here. 

On Saturday the ward put on a "day of countries" activity. There was a presentation from every country represented in the ward and traditional food. It was super fun! The traditional dances were awesome and the food was amazing! The missionaries of the ward (me and Elder Rigtrup, Elder Peña and Elder Pluim - our piso-mates - and the Hermanas Cassinat and Johnson) represented the US. We made cookies and brownies and the sisters made an incredible peach cobbler. For our "traditional dance" we did the YMCA, the Cotton-eyed Joe, and some EFY dance. We also dressed up (I was a cowboy). It was terribly embarrassing and a lot of fun. The crowd was cracking up and we got a lot of compliments after. It was a fun night. 

Oh, something else super important that I almost forgot. On Monday I made lemon chicken from the recipe Mom sent me and it actually tasted like it is supposed to! Elder Rigtrup even said it was "delicious." I´m pretty proud of myself.

I did get my package, thank you very much! I´ve already used my sweater a ton and the Sour Patch Kids went fast. I didn´t have any trouble getting it (it was actually in our mailbox) so I think that´s fine. 

Yes! I was so worried the letter wouldn´t come on time! I´m glad she liked it. 

:D HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIN! :D

Woot, ranging is a. . . blast. Luckily it doesn´t take too long. Good luck Sarah! (Does Bekah have her own car now?) 

Ok, questions. We get fed fairly often, it really depends on how well we do setting up appointment with members the Sunday before. We eat every Tuesday as a district (and usually the Hermanas cook so it´s good!), and every Thursday night we have an eating appointment with a recent convert´s family. We´ve eaten 4 times since last Wednesday, just for an idea. Not too often, but I´m learning how to cook so it´s ok. 

The ward is great and I´ve been told it´s best in the whole mission. The members are great (I´ll be honest there are some weird people) and they are pretty helpful about missionary work. We are just working on getting to know as many of them as we can and we hope to set up a Question and Answer activity for people to bring their friends to while we are here. 

So far for the Metro I´ve had to buy 10 trip tickets (I think I´m on number 8 right now) but on the 30th I get my card. With that I´ll just add money on to it whenever I need to. Luckily I get all my travel reimbursed so I should get something like 150 euros back next month! And I do have a Himnario.

Thanks for checking up on me and letting me know what´s going on back home. I love you and can´t wait until next week! Bye! 

(PS I included some photos for you guys and for the blog)