I can't believe it's already been a whole year since I was saying goodbye to all of you! Crazy how fast it goes. We had a great week this week and were able to teach a lot of lessons. We've been teaching this new family pretty consistently and they look like they might have some potential. The mother is very committed to her church so she might be a little tough, but her two 30ish year old sons are a lot more open. The only problem is, the 2 sons live with their girlfriends and the girlfriends are both white and don't speak Spanish. So when we teach we are having to switch back and forth between Spanish and English A LOT. They all seem pretty intrigued and willing to learn more so we're trying to help them have a spiritual experience.
So on Thursday we ate dinner at C's house with another missionary companionship in the branch. Up to that point in time, C. hadn't told her son ,J., (about 40 yrs old) about the baptism. I knew he didn't know and that she wasn't ready to tell him, but I forgot and accidentally brought it up. Luckily, it kind of blew over without him noticing and then later, Elder Markward, who didn't know that J. had no clue about the baptism, brought it up again and he found out. I was a little nervous about what his reaction would be. He sat there silently and just thought and C. immediately started talking about how even though she had already been baptized as a baby in the Catholic church, she didn't know back then what it meant to her. But know as she's older, she knows that it's a big deal and an important step in her life. She also talked about how excited she is to be able to be baptized vicariously for her Mom and other relatives that passed away. And then she surprised us. She said, "The baptism is scheduled for the 19th right?" I said yes. She sat and thought for a second and said, "Why don't we do it Saturday?" So for some reason she changed her mind and decided she wanted her baptism to be in 2 days. I said that would be okay, but inside I was suffering a mini panic attack because I didn't want to have to prepare a whole baptismal service and have to teach her everything else we need to teach her in 2 days. Luckily the next day we were visiting her and she told us that her daughter got really sad when she found out the baptism was on the 12th and she wouldn't be able to make it. So she changed her mind once again and we're back on for the 19th. Haha it was a bit of a stressful couple of days, but we're good now.
Yesterday we were tracting a bit after church and we came upon a house that was listed as being a Spanish household on our records, but I distinctly remembered that the last time I knocked that house we were turned away by a white guy. I told Elder Shepherd that I remembered the house and I was about to walk away and go to the next one. But I had a feeling that we should knock the door anyway so we did. Just as I thought, the man was white, but he was willing to talk. We asked him if he believed in Jesus and he said, "kind of". After inquiring a bit more, he told us he believed the bible is flawed due to years of translations and rewriting. It was perfect to lead into the Restoration of the Gospel and The Book of Mormon. We told him we absolutely agreed with him and that we too believe that many "plain and precious truths" had been taken out or lost from the Bible. He was really interested and loved Joseph Smith's story and he said he really relates to it. (side note: I find it funny that we can recite the first vision perfectly in Spanish, but we seem to struggle a lot with the English version haha) Sadly, he didn't accept a return appointment because he said he's always busy, but he said he'd read the Book of Mormon and call us if he had any questions. I was so glad I knocked on that door so we could experience that miracle.
Well that's all I have for today! I pray for all of you every day! Talk to you next week!
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