Dia de los Reyes

Another week that went by fast. We've (well at least I) have really been enjoying visiting some less active members lately. We were walking around one day handing out cards and this woman stopped me and told me she was a member and had just moved here from Tijuana. We've visited her couple of times and met her husband the other night. It was so perfect that we ran into her, or that she ran into us, because she didn't know where the church was. And they apparently were a little inactive before they came here. So now we're hoping to help them work towards going to the temple. She thought she would have to go to Utah, so when we told her there's one 15 minutes away, she was very excited. And her daughter isn't a member and she wants to start working on her. Yeah! And another man we met walking around actually it was the same day I think. He told me “I was baptized in your church.” You can never be so sure about that type of comment. So I repeated the church name and he said yes. And now we're visiting him. He's the only member of his family and his son has even been to our church a couple of times with some buddies when he was in the marines. Inactive part member families are great to work with!

We had lost track of Yesenia and Abel for a bit. Well, for only like 7 days-but that seems like forever on our schedule. Then we showed up at their house late one night and found them and even met and are going to begin teaching her aunt. Apparently somewhere they have a member in their family-and he went on a mission, so they have been exposed to the church a little. Abel seems to still be kind of ready to move forward, but Yesenia seems to really understand the commitment that comes with baptism, and wants to make sure she has her answer. But she gets it, so we'll just keep teaching and committing them to different things, and hopefully her faith will increase. We got Yesenia and Abel to come eat dinner at a member's home down the street on Saturday night. It ended up being a long appointment because of the members and their slowness, so we watched “The Restoration” and then talked and then finally ate. Guarachas. Basically tortillas with beans and cheese. Interesting how many different names they have for the same exact thing. Funny thing was that the member, he basically began teaching Yesenia and Abel the entire Plan of Salvation (luckily we had already taught the basics) complete with the council in heaven, the veil, temples, baptisms for the dead, and the millenium. Well. Less really is more. I think he had been reading ahead in the lesson manual for gospel principles for the next day. Good thing they are patient investigators and won't be scared off. They even came to church the next day! Hooray! Yesenia bought a skirt and even though they drove around in circles for awhile, they were there!

Our other great investigator is still Jung. Our Korean. On Wednesday we went over the first half of 3 Nephi 11. Since the original idea was to practice English with her, but we began to teach the gospel, we have her read aloud the scriptures and ask questions. It's a really good method. We can help her with her pronunciation and she always understands really well and asks good questions. She's said a couple of time that she always asks God when she prays “why am I here? Why did you bring me here to learn English?” Because Jung is here for 2 years just to learn English really well and then go back to Korea. Well, we know why she's here. We met with her on Saturday too and read the second half of the chapter. Our plan was to commit her to baptism with a date this week, and we'd just really start talking about baptism with the chapter, in preparation. But then she had all of these amazing questions and when we talked about how other churches baptize but it doesn't count, she said that she thinks this the true church. Afterward we all talked and said how we really just wanted to commit her right there, but none of us did it. Lame! And we really regretted it. So, we called her back after we left her. And we asked her over the phone. Well, it probably would've been better in person. But it was funny. She said that she wants to be baptized, but it seemed so soon. We'll see her this week and I know that she will accept the invitation. We just didn't want to let the opportunity go. We didn't want to regret not asking. Lesson learned. Listen to the spirit when it tells you to do something. When we told our DL, he said “I heard a story about some missionaries once, who were heading one direction and the spirit, told them to turn around, and they did, and a minute later they heard machine guns firing behind them the way they would've gone. It's important to listen to the spirit.” Thanks Elder.

We had exchanges this Saturday. S. Ochoa and S. Brown traded places. It was a blast to be with S. Brown again for a day. And I think she was a little overwhelmed by the Spanish. President basically told her that she will probably be in the Samoan program for a long time and probably never speak Spanish here. Being with her reminded me of how much fun we had in the MTC, and how much we probably were all talking all of the time. Funny. Since they only teach Samoan, they don't really go tracting, they rely on referrals from family members and church members. And when Samoans make appointments, they actually are there for them. My mission experience and her mission experience are very different! I would like to volunteer to learn Samoan and go work with S. Brown. Or maybe Korean. We do have a Korean sister coming out next transfer, who knows!
The work is still moving along and we're still working on increasing our number of progressing investigators. We still are working with Araceli and Cibelly, but they're just not progressing like they should. Since the marriage thing is still not happening, they at least need to be coming to church, but always have some excuse. It's so discouraging because just 3 months ago they got it. They wanted to be baptized and seemed like they were willing to do what they needed to do. And we still see Stephanie and Danny. We're just trying to get them to read the scriptures. It's funny how hard such a little thing can be to just do it. But probably because that little thing can make such a difference. Our recent converts are doing really well. Lupe and Lulu and Big boy are still coming to church, and Ernesto, the husband has even been coming. We're hoping we can soon begin to teach him.
Last week was dia de los Reyes (did you celebrate that in Spain Ryan?) and everyone buys this big wreath shaped pastries with little plastic baby Jesus dolls inside. You find it and you have to make tamales in February. Pagan Catholic holidays. So fun! Okay, I don't want to bore you all with anymore details. California is heating up again and I hear that the Eagles are doing well. And the world keeps moving forward, huh? I'm happy and speaking Spanish and doing fantastically! Love you all, thanks for the e-mails!