Monday, October15, 2012

Well, this week has been awesome!! We had TWO baptisms, had two more investigators fully commit, and have had some health issues. Don´t worry, I am fine. Some interesting things have happened this week.

Well, Tuesday we went to the house where are three investigators that were going to get baptized live. Juan, Luis, and Miriam. We went to review with them the baptismal questions, and when we got there, Juan and Luis were ready to go, but Miriam, who had been the most positive one of them all, all of a sudden didn´t want to get baptized. We seriously spent ten minutes trying to figure out why, but she wouldn´t say anything. It didn´t help that her family is yelling, ¨Why not, just do it, seriously, stop being dumb, ...¨ You get the picture. Not helping. I said, ¨If you would like, you and I and Elder Nava can step outside and discuss this where there aren´t all these distractions (motioning to her family) and where you can speak openly without being judged.¨ That shut them up pretty quick. She didn´t want to. So, Nava and I decided to leave it and go over the review, see how she did, and go from there. She answered literally everything perfectly. When we got to the end, we brought it up again. She told us that she was just indecisive. We thought that maybe she had talked with her mom, (she lives with her grandma, Ruth, who is a member; and her mom, Miriam, who isn´t, and her aunt Luz and Luz´s daughter Nicole (7), and her three other cousins, Juan(15) and Luis(13) and Farí(7), and a dude named Lalo, who is old.) So I took a few minutes to talk to her. I told her to use her logic and her reasoning. It was a good thing, she would receive blessings, and had she received an answer to her prayers? She said yes, so my question in response was Then why not? She said then that she needed to be baptized, and would do it. We had talked with the Mom, and she sounded like she would give consent. So we were stoked. More on this in a sec.

Thursday we went to the house of a becoming active member, Karla, and her pair, Carlos, who is catholic, has had like 5 pairs of missionaries teach him, and never been baptized. We had a chance to talk to her this morning when she took us to the hospital (I will explain that in a minute, calm down Mom), and this is what she told us.

We found her house on accident, (or was it an accident?), about four weeks ago. She was a non-active member, divorced, with two kids, and living with a non-member and had two kids. She was super nice, fed us, and we talked about her pair, to which she was super, like, negative about us talking with him. Like he wasn´t going to change and get baptized. She told us to come over when he was home, which is only on the weekends, because he teaches in Amapala, which is an island about 2 hours from here. So, that weekend, we went over. He was nice, but sort of gave us the vibe that he was only going to listen, but not do anything. Well, we taught him like every weekend, and he came to church and general conference with his pair, kids, and step son, alejandro, who is 11. His two kids are Carlos 4 and Cristofer, 6. Well, last weekend, the weekend of general conference, we were able to go over, and really talk to him about the Book of Mormon, the Church, everything. He opened up, and was super honest with us. He has doubts about a lot of things, a drinking problem, and needs to get married. Well, we left him with some reading to do, and he told us he would. I also told him to pray with his family, to live the gospel, and he would receive a testimony of it, (John 7:17). Well, they had us over for dinner last Thursday, and he was all excited. We didn´t know what for. He opened up to us, and told us that he had felt the spirit testify that all of this is true, and that he wants to get married so he can get baptized. We originally had him down for the 20th, but we were going to move it to the 27th, and he was like,¨ I thought it was the 20th?¨ So he and Karla are getting their papers together to get married next Saturday in the morning, and baptized next Saturday in the afternoon. You would not believe the change that I have seen in this man, and in his household. Karla this morning told us something more as well. She told us that when we knocked on her door, that her and Carlos were at the point of separating. He had been drunk one night, and tried to hit her, so she called the police. They weren't getting along, were practically living together just for the kids, and just talked to make sure bills got paid and stuff got taken care of. She also told us that she had lost her love for him, even after 11 years together, and it was the same for him. Well, she told us that since we had come to the house, and started teaching, that everything had changed. They are going to get married, be in the church, and live the gospel, and that everything about their house has changed a ton. There is a different spirit to their house, and they are happier. I can´t wait to send you photos of them.

Well, then came Friday. We did our interviews with our two candidates,   ... small edit because i think Zach is losing his English.  The idea is that Miriam again decided not to get baptized. ...   It was really sad. But the next day, Saturday, was their baptism, and so we went to get the font ready at like ten in the morning. Well, it was nasty, because somebody left water in there for like 2 weeks. So it was gross. We had to clean it, and spent like two hours doing so. So gross, BUT- we went over to Ruth´s house, and she fed us FISH FILET. IT was SO GOOD. That was the most full I have been in 2 months. Then we went and taught a lesson, came back, walked back to the church, and baptized. It was so cool. Then we went to their house early Sunday to get them to church, and Luis didn´t want to go to church, which is bad, because then we can´t confirm him, and then the baptism was for nothing. He was literally crying, he didn´t want to go so bad. It took us 15 minutes of talking to him, and finally his brother dragging him to the car to get him there. But he went, and got him confirmed. I also think that the bishop interviewed them for the priesthood, too.

Well, since last Wednesday, nava´s knee has been getting progressively worse. He could barely walk yesterday, so we didn´t go anywhere, and stayed in the house. It was alright. He doesn´t know whats wrong, and is worried that this could send him home. We went to the hospital here so he could get an x ray, and they told him nothing was wrong, but he bought a brace and some topical stuff and some pills. We will see if this improves.

Well, now for the fun stuff. If you get a chance, if you could send an English copy of the conference ensign when you get it, that would be great. Also, if you could find some of the máte stuff in the tea bags, (dad knows what I am talking about), that would be great too.

Also, I have been asked to play the piano in the primary presentation next week. See how that goes. I have never played primary songs. They also want to do a special musical number, which I don´t get because nobody can sing at all. They want to combine two hymns. Whatever.

Well, love you guys, and hope that everything goes well this week. I pray for you all the time, and really try not to think about you.

Also, tell Austin I will write him back next week, I didn´t have time this week.

Love you all!!

Elder Zach Glassett

 

Elder Nava, Luis, Juan, lots of family, bit tall skinny Zach!

Elder Nava, Luis, Juan, big tall Zach!