Hola Mamá y Papá! I’m doing good. After our p-day time ended last Monday we went to try and visit a couple of contacts but they weren’t home. Thankfully we were able to have a lesson with Joselin in a park. A friend of hers who’s a member joined us to help her feel better and understand what we taught. When we ended we did all we could to get them both to promise they are going to come to church on Sunday. They said yes, but you’ll hear what happened with that later. We also got a new goal from our leaders to have 15 contacts daily, this is to help us find someone who will come to church since our numbers have been low lately.
Tuesday we had our district meeting where we talked about how we need to plan for every hour in our day and have backup plans for if plans fall through. We’ve talked about this before but it was good to go over it again. We only had a few appointments so we were able to contact for a good amount of time. A little after 7 p.m. we had 10 contacts and my companion told me he was satisfied that we had 10 and said he didn’t want to contact more. I told him he’s still got 20 more months of contacting so he’d better get used to it. Plus the goal is 15 contacts and it’s not for the leaders but it’s for us so we can find more people to teach. So we continued to contact and were able to find 2 more. Even though we weren’t able to achieve 15 that day I was grateful for the 12 we found.
Wednesday we had a lesson with a woman named Belia and her 2 daughters Diana and Dania who are both in their 20’s and going to school. We had a great lesson about the restoration and talking with them to get to know them. It went really well. They didn’t accept to be baptized because they are baptized in the catholic church and they want more time to learn and understand. We were running a little late so we weren’t able to answer their questions and doubts about baptism before we had to leave but we are going to go back again next week and do more. During the rest of the day we didn’t have much success with contacting. We didn’t get our numbers that day, we tried hard but we could have done better. I know and feel it.
Thursday we went to see Karla and when she came out to talk to us, the mom of her boyfriend came out and was just standing there. So we tried to talk to her but she said she’s catholic, has her bible and doesn’t think the Book of Mormon is from God and wasn’t interested. I’m not sure why she was standing there then… She finally went inside but we feel like she may be playing the Devil’s advocate to Karla and trying to get her to stop talking to us. Karla told us she had just been reading the Book of Mormon and has some questions but had to leave and said we could come back Friday. We were also able to find some new contacts throughout the day. We didn’t get 15 but we are improving and finding more contacts than before.
Friday in the morning we found a ton of scriptures that talk about the similarities of the Bible and Book of Mormon and prepared to answer Karla’s questions but when we got there she was having a hard time from her dentist appointment the day before and could barely talk so we just invited her to keep reading the Book of Mormon, pray about it and confirmed we were going to pass by Sunday in the morning before church. We were able to contact more people that day too, which was good.
Saturday was such an amazing day! We had to get up super early to go to the church in Villa de la Hacienda where I first started my mission, for our meeting with Elder Holland. We waited until he got there then took a big group photo with him in the parking lot. Then we all got to shake hands with him one by one, tell him our names and where we’re from as we entered the chapel. We first heard messages from Hermana Urrea and Presidente, then from Sister and Brother Pingree and then from Elder Holland. I don’t have enough time to write all the things I loved from what he said but it was amazing and just what I needed to hear to help me know what I need to do to change and do better. I know he truly is an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an honor and a real privilege to meet him, shake his hand and hear his message. After we got back we had a ward mission activity by the main supermarket where we tried to talk to people about families and give them a Family Proclamation page along with the pamphlet My Family. It went okay we just needed more help from the members and a better location next time.
Sunday I realized I have 20 months in the mission! I’m sad to say though that we didn’t have any investigators at church, despite our efforts to confirm with our investigators throughout the week about going to church. That morning we called Joselin and her mom said she left at 6 a.m. to go to work with her dad. We also passed by Karla’s house and knocked for a long time but nobody answered. We later passed by and to our surprise she answered and had the pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation in her hands. She didn’t go to church because she was trying to rest from the pain in her mouth, but before we went by she had just woken up and had been reading through it. We were able to talk to her for a bit about it and help her understand it more, but it was a real surprise she was reading it. I really hope she is interested and that she will come to church this next week. Later we were able to visit the Relief Society President and her family. They gave us food and took us back to the casa. They are an awesome family!
Sounds like a super fun time you guys had and are having! Thank you for the thoughts you guys sent! For my thought, I want to send you a talk from Elder Bednar titled: Accepting the Lord’s Will and Timing from August 2016. I found it from a Liahona, and it’s really amazing and opened my eyes more. My invitation is that you guys will read it together! I will be expecting a report next week from what you read together! 😀
Thank you guys so much for everything! I love you both and am so very grateful for your love and support and prayers!
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