A Good First Week With His Last Companion

Hola! I’m doing very good. Thank you guys so much for the birthday wishes! I love the quotes too! I had a good week last week. Tuesday we had a district meeting and got a surprise visit from the assistants which was way cool because they are good friends of mine. Later we went to visit with Joselin to see how she’s doing with prayers, reading scriptures, and so my companion could get to know her as well. We also found 4 contacts. It was a pretty good day.

Wednesday it hit me that this is my last cambio with my last companion. I feel like with God’s grace, mercy and hard work we were able to baptize Joselin; but as of right now for this cambio, we don’t have anyone progressing to be baptized and I’m super stressed. I still have 6 weeks with lots of work to do before I go home. Another part that stresses me is that so many people cancel appointments we set with them that it’s hard to actually find new investigators. I just need to keep going, working hard, have a positive attitude and more faith.

Thursday was the first weekly planning session with Elder Curran so it took a bit more time for me to explain to him about our investigators. We finished really late but were able to plan really well. Our appointments fell through so we decided to visit the sister who is a member but her husband is not to see if we could find him home. She told us he’s busy with work. He drives diesel trucks and can be gone for days or even weeks at a time. She never knows when he will get home but the crazy thing is that about 5 minutes after we got there he showed up! I know it was not a coincidence. Although he does want to be baptized to be sealed with his wife, he has quite a bit of doubts and questions and doesn’t trust people a lot because of past experiences; but we were able to address and answer them to start to help him. Later we visited a former investigator named Fabiola who hasn’t been visited by missionaries for a couple years. We tried contacting her before but it never worked out. Elder Curran and I were finally able to visit with her and get to know her. She lives with her mom but her mom isn’t interested in talking with us. She is super nice and friendly! She has some issues but would really like to take the lessons again and go to church! We see a lot of potential in her. It will take some work, I know it’s not impossible though!

Friday we walked all over creation trying to find new contacts and going to other appointments. It had been really sunny the whole week so we got sunburned but oh well, the work must go on! We worked really hard before lunch to achieve 4 new contacts, which was really great because we’ve been trying super hard to talk to everyone we meet, everywhere we go. Later we decided to go look for a reference we got from the internet and didn’t realize how far it was until we got there. At first nobody answered so we decided to go contacting for a bit then go back. Right as we got back, he got there too! His name is Jorge Velazquez and he has 4 kids between 16 and 10 years old. We weren’t able to talk with them but we did set another appointment. We also had a lesson with Joselin to start reviewing the lessons. We got her to share her testimony with us about why she decided to start taking lessons, about the Book of Mormon and some other things. It was really great to hear what she said. Our goal is to keep helping her grow her testimony so she will be strong in the church and be an example to her family and friends.

Saturday we went looking for a reference from a sister in the ward of an older man who has been inactive for some years now. His daughter recently moved here and is interested in going to church and talking to us. We weren’t able to find them so we went to the family Cruz Roa for help; and when we finally figured out where it was, we had to go back home for the night. Another experience we had was with a guy and his wife (Francisco and Frida) who are super nice and accepted for us to teach them, but every time we go by, they aren’t there. We ran into them in the street in the evening and were able to talk for a quick minute and invite them to church – and they accepted. 

Sunday was my birthday!! Anywho, before church we passed by with Francisco and Frida to see if they were going to come to church and they were getting ready. We were all able to go to church together. Them and their 2 little kids Haley and Richard. They were only able to stay for the first hour but it was so awesome they actually went. We had a cita planned with them later but when we went, they weren’t home… We went to see Fabiola later and talked with her about what she wants in life. She’s 24, her parents are separated and her mom isn’t super supportive of her being baptized. She wants more than anything a family and a home based on principles and values of the church. We had a really great talk, very spiritual. We set some goals and plans to first help her and to start heading in the path she wants to go! She has so much potential and we are going to do our best to help her! We ended the day by going to visit the Familia Cruz Roa. Hermana Roa is going to make the cake you sent me too. It was a really great day!

Thank you for the pictures, I loved them. Thank you for everything. Have a great week! 

Me and Elder Loomis