Hey!
It was really great to talk to everybody yesterday. I was disappointed that I couldn't talk to Julia, I wanted to speak Spanish to her! Alas.....I'll get a chance sometime. I know I said that I'd send pictures this time, but I forgot the cord for my camera, so that will have to wait until next week.
Mom, you wanted to know what kinds of things I eat here. Well, lots of rice. I decided today after lunch that I will never eat rice again after I get back. AND alot of meat too. Plus, the people load up my plate for me and it's always so much food on it....I'm not going to lie, my stomach is kind of sensitive still and it doesn't feel too good. We have had some delicious pasta though. Sometimes the rice isn't too bad....If it's got some stuff in it. The fruits here are pretty great though and there are some that I've never seen before in my life. There was this one that was kind of like a pomegranate but inside was seeds and goo, and you just eat it, it's delicious.
We have a very supportive ward here in El Eden. The bishop really pushes the fact that the members are the peopel that need to find people for the missionaries to teach, so we have lots of references. Some members just like to follow us from lesson to lesson to bear testimony and help us teach. We've got some investigators though that don't want to fulfill their commitments and so we can't decide if they are progressing or not. The two of us are both new to the area and we have a couple investigators, David (18) and Maria (12) that it really rocked their world when new missionaries (sister at that) came in. So we have to kind of start from the beginning with them, but that's alright. I think that they are starting to realize that getting baptized isn't about the missionaries but about the testimony and the faith that they have in Christ.
We do have an amazing woman that we are teaching. Her name is Olga. Her husband isn't really into the idea of her getting baptized this weekend, but then again, when the other missionaries first started to teach her, he didn't' even want to listen. She has a little boy Bryan that wants to get baptized. We bought a B of M picture book so that he can follow along with his mom. The husband doesn't want him to get baptized. He says that he doesn't want Bryan to feel forced at all to do anything, and so far for some reason won't let him go to church anymore. Olga actually had a baptismal date for the 1st of May, but her husband freaked. So she told him, "I'm going to get baptized in 15 days whether you like it or not." I was very proud. A lot of the women around here don't stand up for themselves. They get baptized and know the church is true, but then they go to the Catholic church because their husband can't stand to have them away for 3 measly hours a week. Whinos. But Olga is awesome . We talked about the husband in our district meeting and our district leader suggested taking the Ammon approach serve the father. So we're going to see if we can find a job for him at the church employment center. He did say he wouldn't believe unless a job fell into his lap as a sign from God that it was true. I think that little by little he'll realize how important it is to live the life that God wants for him. It just takes time.
We have a few FHE nights planned for tonight with a couple of different families. One is the Guachamin family. Their one daughter is very interested and we hope to help the rest of the family catch the flame of the awesomeness that the Holy Ghost has. The other is with the Brito family, a reference from one of the families in the ward. They are very interested and the husband has lots of sincere questions. I love talking with people that are ready to learn about the gospel. Me and Hna Groesbeck have the discussion all the time that we just don't understand why in the world people don't just fall at our feet and want to be baptized. The Gospel is amazing!
I was reading the conference talk by Robert D. Hales in the October conference when the thought occurred to me: This is not a religion. Someone that is truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a practicer of religion, but rather they live the life that God has sent as a ways to return to Him. This is the life that He has intended for all of His children to live.
I used to think that maybe some people were just not ready or something for the gospel, that they needed to have more personal growth or something. That's so silly. This is the ONLY way to find complete happiness. The scriptures say that misery is living without God (hence the reason Satan is miserable). We've all been created to live and be divine. It makes me sad to think that some people throw away the chance (like the lady that told us that she was going to sick her dog on us two days ago...)
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