Monday, August 6, 2018

Zone conference with a special guest, trying to find new investigators, and a birthday shout out during testimony meeting

Hola mamá! Como estas? To answer your questions I’m doing good and my birthday was really good (more on that later). We just found out that we are going to go to the temple next Thursday! I still have some names I can take to the temple too!

So last Monday after we emailed, we went to visit Lorena and her family to give her mom a blessing, which went well. We are going to work with her mom and teach her and help her progress to baptism. We also talked with Lorena’s sister Maria de la Luz and Sylvia. They both don’t really want anything to do with the church right now. I could feel some contention with Maria. I think she is still mad with what happened with Elder Aguilar. Other than that she doesn’t want to get married or separate from her partner so we can’t baptize her until either one of those happens. We are praying for God to help her change her heart but she is a stubborn woman.

Tuesday we had intercambios with Grimaldi and Rivera in the area of Campestre. I was with Grimaldi. It was super hot at first and we walked a ton and contacted a ton of people as well. We had a couple of lessons with their investigators but we mainly contacted. I remembered some of the houses we contacted last time so we passed by them again and found out that the elders hadn’t been back to visit them since we were there. Grimaldi wrote down in his agenda when he and his companion could go back, I hope they actually do it this time.

Wednesday we had our zone conference. Which was really good. We talked about how we need to actualize our area books and how we need to strive more to find new investigators who will progress to baptism and that we need to contact everywhere we go. We got to hear from Victor Manvel Cabriera, a man from Monterrey Mexico that President Urrea knows. He has a story in Preach My Gospel (page 169) about the missionaries that contacted him in 1994. We got to hear more of his story and he gave us advice. He was super friendly. It really was an awesome conference. I also got my birthday package that day!

Thursday after we got back we headed to lunch with Fernanda at DateunRoll. She made us a big pot of ramen with vegetables, chicken and chilis. It was super good and I even ate a couple chilis. They were super hot but I wanted to try to eat them. It was Fernanda’s way to celebrate my pre-pre birthday. Most of our appointments fell through that day but we did talk with Laura and Juan for a bit and when we did, Laura gave us 4 references of family members and people that live close to her who are interested and want to learn about the gospel!

Friday we went to visit an investigator in her little tienda and found a guy in the store talking to her who was drunk and smelled like he bathed in alcohol. He offered to buy us drinks or whatever we wanted because he is rich. Anyway, because he was there we didn’t want to have our lesson with Jazmin so we scheduled an appointment for another day. Then we passed by the Hernandez Velazquez family because we had lunch scheduled with them. We also left a box that had pamphlets, pass along cards and videos in their shop so they can hand them out to people as they go there. It is working pretty well but we are going to make two other boxes and see if we can put one in Victor’s restaurant and also with Fernanda at DateunRoll.

Saturday was my first birthday in the mission! In the morning my companion made sincronizadas (which is basically a quesadilla), with cereal and orange juice. Later in the afternoon we said hi to Laura and Juan (Vianey and Priscila were at a church camp for YSA). Because they weren’t going to be there on Saturday, they wanted to celebrate my birthday on Sunday with their parents and Victor at their house after church. In the evening we went by DateunRoll and made panini sandwiches, then Fernanda gave me a cheesecake she made and it was so good and really fun! It feels strange to celebrate a birthday on the mission but we were able to celebrate and still work as well.

Sunday after church my companion, Victor and I went to the casa of Vianey and Priscila with their parents and celebrated my birthday with burgers, fries, sodas, t-bone steaks, chorizo and cake. It was so fun that I got to celebrate with all of them. We took a bunch of pictures together so we can all remember the fun day we had. At church once again, none of the people we invited to come were there. There were a lot of members though and that was really great to see. We went almost 30 minutes over in sacrament meeting because there were so many people who shared their testimonies. Laura got up to bear her testimony and while I don’t know if it was completely appropriate, I was happy because she gave me a birthday shout out during her testimony. Saying that she gave me a shout out doesn’t sound good, but the way she did it was actually reverent. When we ended testimony meeting, a lot of members came to wish me a happy birthday. Vianey gave me a tie that she made herself from jean material and sewed flowers in it as well. It is a gift I will always be grateful for. Later in the day Fernanda showed me on Facebook all the people who wished me a happy birthday on my wall, that was really awesome to see :).  

I love the pictures you sent as well! I really like that thought you sent me! Thank you for everything! I love you so much Mama!








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