I love love love you guys!! Man I bet that was so fun pulling that surprise off with dad and having that movie night. Trunky!!! haha that´s how they describe missionaries when they think about home, trunky. But it’s okay I am about used to it by now and am focused in my work, don´t worry. OH and tell freaking David and Ashleigh CONGRATULATIONS!!!! So awesome!
To start off I will answer the questions that were posted. Our zone conference is on Wednesday, where we think we will meet our new president. We shall see. Question and answer session done.
This week has honestly been one of the longest, hardest, but most rewarding weeks of my mission. I want to apologize for the pathetic email i sent last week about my new comp, I was just mourning the loss of my buddy Elder Reynolds. Anyways with Elder Lopez we have focused a lot more in how we can better the work here, and get some things organized. We’ve probably worked harder than any other time in my mission, but still Molina is a slow sector and we saw little BUT great results. First off the Bishop here told us that we needed to put a new baptismal date for the 27th so that she has a goal to work for, or else she’ll just be drifting along. We put the date along with Fernanda, I don’t know if I’ve told you about her, but she’s the girlfriend of Kiara’s cousin, Ignacio. We taught her a few times before Elder Reynolds left and she is awesome. Anyways on Saturday we were at the house of the Oyarce Family (Kiara´s aunt and uncle, and Ignacio´s family) teaching Kiara and Fernanda about the Law of Chastity. At the end of our lesson there was a knock on the door. It was an Elder who formally had been in Molina that was now ending his mission named Elder Smith. He came up with his parents to visit Molina and the Oyarce´s. That was really cool cuz I got to talk to gringo parents, which was a change for me haha. Anyways we were eating and having a good time when Kiara told me that she wants me to baptize her on the 27th!!!! She and Fernanda are having their baptismal interview today! Awesome awesome news.
Katherine and her family didn’t attend due to being out of town visiting family for fathers day. We were finally able to teach them in their home instead of in the Chapel, and it was a great lesson. I was able to leave a priesthood blessing on their home, and during the blessing I was filled from head to foot with the power of the Priesthood and the Holy Ghost. As I prayed for the protection of Katherine and her family I just started to cry, pathetic I know haha but it was powerful. We have high hopes for them, but they are going to have a long road and a lot of difficulties. They suffer from money problems, a husband and father who is a member of the church, but now is an alcoholic, Katherine is very addicted to smoking, but wants to change, and a very difficult and unhealthy in home environment (the reason for the blessing on their home). The good news is that Katherine is very committed and has a lot of faith in us and the Gospel that we’ve been teaching. She even surprised us when she told us that they have family prayer and scripture reading together. We did not teach them that, but it was awesome to hear! She’s reading the Book of Mormon and praying, and has a story to tell us about how these things she´s doing has been changing and blessing her very difficult life. She’s awesome and i love them.
Camilo has been a little less successful. He still is coming to church, and hasn’t missed a Sunday since we met him, but he’s feeling a lot less enthusiastic about things. He had a baptismal date for the 13th but told us he didn’t feel ready to be baptized. Ever since that he’s been a lot less excited, and a lot more difficult to teach. He’s a great kid, but he’s not taking things seriously anymore, and isn’t reading the Book of Mormon. When we try to talk seriously with him, in order to invite the spirit, he asks us why we’re mad or why we’re being so serious. When we’re laughing and joking to try to make him feel better he completely loses focus during the lesson afterward. It’s a very complicated situation. It reminded me of the scripture where Mormon is writing to his son about the Nephites and says ¨when I speak to them with severity, they tremble and are angry with me, but when I speak the word to them without severity they harden their hearts against my words.¨ Not a perfect quote, but that’s okay. Anyways that’s how I feel about Camilo right now. Pray for him that he can read the Book of Mormon and that we can have the spirit with us during his lessons.
That was one of the problems we’ve been having. We’re finding people to teach, but there’s been a definite lack of the spirit in our lessons. So on Saturday we went home at night and decided to begin a fast and pray that we may be blessed with the spirit as we teach. The next day in Sunday School class we taught a lesson on how we can invite the Spirit to be with us. It’s a basic lesson that we often teach to motivate our investigators to read, pray, and attend church, but this lesson was very different. I felt the spirit so strongly, and felt so much love for our investigators in that class that I began to cry, you guys know me, and know that I don’t cry. That was a powerful lesson, and it truly strengthened my testimony on the importance of fasting.
Anyways with Elder Lopez the quality of my conversations and my amount of fun has definitely dropped, but I’m okay with it. I’ve refocused in my study of the scriptures, and I’ve felt a difference from that. We’ve been able to give blessings and teach with the spirit, and I’m excited for this transfer, even if it probably will be my longest and hardest one so far. That’s about all I can think of for this week, pray for me and us. I love you all and look forward to Wednesday and the hope of packages that it brings!!
Love,
Tanner
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