This week was pretty awesome. I got Aunt Debra's package and all of her letters! We were pretty excited that we finally had something at the office. Tell her thanks so much! I haven't received any of your letters though.
First we got 2 more baptisms. Their
names are Ariel Oswaldo Aparicio Valles and Manuel Diego Gonzales. They are great
kids with tons of energy. I baptized Manuel and confirmed Ariel and it was
awesome.
I asked my companion if I would would have to confirm one of them this Sunday because I wanted to know because it's something I've never done before so I wanted
to know if I needed to practice. He told me that it would probably be a member. I decided to look over how to do it anyway just in case.
Sure enough when we
walked into church on Sunday, the Bishop told us we had to do it haha. It acutally
went pretty good, the words kinda just flowed. It was a real gift a tongues
moment for me.
A funny story for this week is that we went on divisions and I
was with this elder whose name is Elder Salgado. We were walking and this
huuuge dog bursted out of this gate and went straight for us, barking so loud
and it was so aggressive, I thought for sure I was going to get attacked!
It was
like 3 feet away from me and I just started throwing punches lol. Like I wasn't
close enough to hit the dog but he didn't want to get closer because I was flinging my
arms like a helicopter. haha
I was looking for a rock too but I couldn't find one
so I pretended to throw one but the dog was unphased. We did manage to get
away and once we did me and Elder Salgado just died in laughter because of how I looked, it was
really funny.
Then later that night we went to go teach an inactive family
and we started off with a hymn and we were the only ones really singng and we
didn't know how the song really went for like the 2nd and 3rd verses so it was way
awkward for a second and so we kinda started laughing and then the family started
laughing and then we really started laughing and before we knew it everyone was
lauging really hard haha. It was cool because I think with that hymn we gained their
confindence pretty good because they all came to church next Sunday.
Another funny
thing that happend this week is when we were trying to start the boiler to fill
up the font for the baptisms, the sparker thing didn't work so we ended up like
lighting paper towels on fire and jaming it through this whole in the box. I
remember thinking it was really dumb but my companion says he has done it all the
time and sure enough it worked haha.
I decided to fast an extra day this week so I could talk in Spanish without being nervous and I think it worked a little for the confirmation and other stuff.
Also, I had a pretty cool experience. I was saying my prayers and one of my friends from the MTC popped into my head and I had the impression that I needed to email him to see how he was doing and his reply is below:
Elder
Ligeee! Dude thank you for the email. That was a straight miracle: here´s my
group email to explain why.
So,
this week was very interesting. Ateo in spanish is aethist. I have talked to
about 25 this week. Actually, about 10 aethists, 2 Jehovahs Witnesses, 5
Christians, 5 or 6 Catholics, and 2 agnostics. All of them want nothing to do
with Mormon Missionaries.
Here´s the miracles: we have recently reset our area
and our goals, and have made it a habit to pray in the street several times a
day. Each time we pray we go to our appointments, thinking of what we can do
after, as recently we have lost a lot of our investigators. So, basically our
days are no pretty much open. Lots of prayer for guidance. Means we´ll find all
the people who are just waiting to be baptized, right? We´re trying to be
obedient and are studying and searching for revelation, so here come the
blessings? Wrong. Without fail this week, each time we prayed, we ran into
someone who would be open to talk.... about how we were wrong.
By about Saturday
at 8ish, I realized what was happening. God answers prayers. No doubt about
that, but he is trying to see how far his missionaries are willing to go
without a reason to go on. Not to mention, all but 1 of the people we are
teaching told us straight up that they don´t want to listen to us anymore, or haven´t
been at their appointments or after when we pass for them. Funny week huh?
Don´t worry though. It´s been a really cool week at the same time. We´ve found a
lady that was already reading the Book of Mormon, and has a friend in the
Church, All the atheists and Catholics and Christians and Agnostics were there
for their appointments, that is a miracle.
And, one I see as I sit down to
write, I have twice as many emails as usual. In the subject line of one (from a
friend from the CCM serving in Chiuahua Mexico) says, I was praying this week
and your name popped into my head, and that I should email you. First email from
him in about 2 months, very interesting. Super grateful, and a straight miracle
for me.
So
you know, it has been a rather difficult week, thanks so much for the email. You
are soooo awesome. Nunca olvide que tu eres un misionero poderoso y guapo! I´m
praying for you too man, stay strong and you´re a classy man!
Elder
Gee
(The Spanish line above says: Never forget that you are a powerful missionary and handsome).
