Email 21 Feb 2011

Things are progressing well! Juan Carlos will be baptised on the 26th! So, Happy Birthday to Mick! It´s his gift to know that someone will be making life changing covenants and entering into the straight and narrow path on his B-Day!!! Cool gift huh?! This kid is awesome! He´s so smart! He loves reading and learning, and his Mom (Rosa) is really nice! And the plan now is that after his baptism, he can receive the Priesthood and baptise his Mom once she gets married! And they are both really excited about that! Through them we have also found and are teaching Rosa´s sister Beatrice and a cousin of Carlos, Joanna! And they are great wonderful people as well progressing nicely! We are also working a lot with less active members and it really gets frustrating at times. We recently talked with one who we found was pretty much just baptised for the missionaries, maybe even because she just had a crush on them and she was just looking for any accusation she could make... really quite sad. Saying it´s just an American religion and we have a different culture down here and that Joseph Smith was just a yankee that wanted to start his own church! We get called yankees a bit, it´s kind of funny.

I´ve gotten some valentine letters, the one with all the scripture hearts and Alana´s valentine, and the one with Daniel´s letter and April´s Valentine! Good stuff! And I was actually going to tell you I need another card because this one is about filled!!! So... NICE!

Man.... I miss good American pizza, you can find real good pizza here, but it´s not the same and it´s not common, and expensive! So ya, we´ll have to go to Doc´s when I get back! And because there is root-beer there as well!!!! :) :) :)
I noticed that it was President´s Day today with my new calendar! If I didn´t have it, I probably would have forgotten all about President´s day! I´m moving a little slower through the Bible, I´m in chapter 33 mas o menos in Ezekiel... But That´s because I´ve been reading other stuff as well, I´m about half way through the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith book! REALLY GOOD STUFF!!! I´ve been learning a lot about the prophet recently and I am groing even a deeper and more profound respect for him than I had before. Really a great man!

I also think that sometimes we are led to people that we really can´t teach, but it helps us realize our falts and humble ourselves and improve.... opposition in all things!

Alright, other little things that have happend lately!......One of the other missionaries here in Dolores got really sick and went to the hospital... while he was there we took some shifts so his companion could get some sleep, so that night I swapped him places at 3 in the morning and stayed until the morning so he could go sleep. Then, so he could go to the zone conference we had, abunch of members in the ward took shifts and watched the Elder while his comp went with us. Turns out they couldn´t really find anything wrong with him.... they said either he had a lot of stress or was missing home too much! But he´s out and working now, just taking it easy. The zone conference was really good, it was all about the Atonement! And I got to give a little talk, it was really nice and a great opportunity. I shared a story about a couple missionaries teaching and they were asked by a very excited and happy lady what is your favorite thing about your church, and one said living prophets, the other said personal revelation, then the lady lost here excitement and her smile went away and she said, oh... my favorite thing about my church is that sinners can be forgiven because Jesus died and suffered for them. The missionaries felt really bad afterwards. That wasn´t a personal experience, but I´ve had one similar. Sometimes we hear about it all too much or we look for the more unique things about our church and we fail to realize the very center and rock is Christ and His Atonement. Random Atonement fact.... Getsemani actually means oil press, what they used to squeeze the oil out of the olives, it gives ironic meaning to the blood that was spilled from Christ. Other things that happened... we contacted an Arabian named Hussan! And someone told us that they wanted to tar and feather us.....we didn´t even get upset we just were amazed that we actually heard that. Well... I´m probably forgetting something, but that´s all I can think of for right now!

So the photos .... we´ve got Rosa and her sister Beatrice at a Noche de Hogar (FHE) that we had, me being crushed on the bunk bed because my companion is pushing the pounds I guess (JK), and then my handy dandy workman photo when we repaired the bed... and the Elder Hancock sign that´s still hanging up! :) I hope you enjoy the photos! And I hope you all have had a wonderful week! I hope all is going well and that you are reading and praying every day!
Thanks for the update! Con amor! Chau!