Visitor's Center, teaching, baptisms, visa

Hey Family,

How’s everyone doing? Hope you are enjoying the boat. I imagine this week you are going to go a bunch. And you are probably planning on going tonight for FHE if the weather is nice, but it’s going to rain, so instead you are going to be reading this at the dinner table.

A quick recap of the past week. On Tuesday we had our district meeting. The zone leaders ended up coming and I literally had no idea what to teach. Luckily the night before I had a good idea and did a game of how to teach with the object of the investigator understanding. It went pretty well and I think it was fun. Hopefully I can think of something good to do for tomorrow!

Later that day we found this member who just moved into our area and speaks English (his mom is American). It was pretty weird to be speaking with someone else in English about the Gospel. It’s pretty hard to do. This guy lives in this super nice area. It reminds me of Italy. They also had this funny dog that reminded me of Peppy a bit. I decided to take a picture with him.

On Wednesday I had to go do an interview for some hermanas in the zone. This guy was super funny and kept bringing more and more food. We were trying to get started on the interview and he just kept bringing a buffet of food. He was a nice guy and I am excited for him to get baptized this next week.

On Friday, Elder Roca’s brother was in town and he dropped off a package at the offices. Elder Roca got permission to go see him for 30 minutes which was nice for him.   Saturday was Elder Bird’s (an elder in my district) birthday.  My companion decided to go over to their house and decorate the door. Birthdays aren’t very exciting on the mission, so I tried to make it a little exciting. :)

Later, we were able to get permission to bring some investigators to the visitor’s center at the temple. It was super nice. I love the Spirit there. The open house is in two months and they rededicate it in three. I don’t think though we will be able to go through. The trip was nice though because Elder Huber and Alegre Soto brought a big group of people and we brought another 2 cars full. We saw Conozco a los Mormones. It really helped clear some of the doubts of some of our investigators. I think they thought that everyone had to serve full time missions like us. They really felt the Spirit.

Right now, we are working with a few investigators. Unfortunately, I think that the people we found in the beginning of the change, don’t really have interest in the church. But we do have some people that are progressing. That lady named Nancy and her mom Maria went to the temple and accepted baptism! We are planning for the 28th of June! How cool would that be to have baptisms that day! We also have another family that we are working with who like the Church a lot, but work all the time. We are trying to see if we can help prepare themselves for the 28th as well, but we will see this week. 

So today, I went to renew my visa! I have almost been here in Mexico a year! Crazy stuff. I remember thinking a year ago that the time we have to renew our visas is forever away and then here I am again. I was able to see Elder Olvera and Huber from the MTC and also Elder Whatcott. They are all super funny guys. It was a good reunion.

My companion and I had an interesting contact yesterday. This lady started telling us that she “wanted to take advantage of this moment to talk to us and advise us of the wrong we are doing.”  She told us the Book of Mormon is fantasy and that it is all made up and that Joseph Smith was crazy. She told us we need to come closer to Christ through the Bible. It obviously bothered me that she couldn’t understand the truth of the message we have, but I really thought about how grateful I am for my testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the Church. We don’t need physical evidence to show that the Book of Mormon is true, but we can gain a PERSONAL testimony through the Spirit. I am so grateful for the joy and happiness this Gospel brings. I love you guys! Hope all is well!