Hello familia!
Lots of random things this week. The Lopez family is still progressing, but slowly. We set a baptism date with the mom and two kids. They are reading the Book of Mormon together and praying, so at least they're doing the right things. But then they didn't come to church. Patience, right?
Also, we had an interesting talk with Yesenia, Abel and Eva the other day. They finally told us how they really felt the one time they came to church. Apparently they didn't like how people didn't really use the scriptures a lot. They expected to be reading from at least the Book of Mormon a lot, but didn't feel like that happened. And they thought mostly people just talked about their own lives and experiences. It's an interesting point of view because it's true that sometimes we don't use the scriptures tons at church. Obviously it's not like we have some long discourse that the bishop gives as he reads the Bible or Book of Mormon. And maybe it's true that sometimes we could use the scriptures for more than just a back-up. But then we got to talking in the companionship and really, we think part of the reason is because of the huge emphasis the church puts on scripture study being a personal responsibility we all have. And also, that every lesson we learn from church is something that comes from the scriptures-well, mostly.
Yesenia and group had lots of questions that weren't really expected, and for a bit we all felt a little defensive, but it worked out okay, because really they are still interested, or else they wouldn't keep wanting us to come back. They're not “typical” Hispanic investigators because of the specific things they bring up. And sometimes you just can't leave it at bearing your testimony. So that's them.
On Friday this guy called and started talking to Sister Dutson in Spanish, so she threw me the phone, and it turns out that his aunt gave him one of the “Finding Faith in Christ” cards that we hand out, and he wanted the DVD. We were walking up to his house later that day and he came right out and had us sit down and we started talking. He was taught about 4 years ago by missionaries and his brother too. His brother now lives in Las Vegas, and he doesn't know if he's baptized. He pulled out this BOM that was his brother's and in the back are drawn the Plan, the Gospel, and the names of the missionaries that taught before (one that Sister Fatkin knew back at school). And inside there were some more "pass along cards," one with the name of a man in the ward that we're actually working on reactivating him and his family. Juan Carlos Lopez is the man's name that we were talking to. We taught him the restoration really quick, asked him if he believed it, he said yes, we asked him if would be prepared to be baptized this month, and he said yes. It was funny because it was so fast, but it was so obvious he was ready. We were all just ready to commit him. He wasn't able to come to church this Sunday, but next week he'll come. And hopefully we can teach his mom and sister too. And we're getting this ward member to come with us to the appointments, so it's a great opportunity for him to get back into the church and serve a little.
And, some zone leaders in another zone passed us an investigator that's really in our area (long story) and her son was baptized 2-3 months ago, and she's pretty much ready too. We went over to teach with the elders on Saturday and she fed us some carne asada and we “fed” them all the gospel and she now has a baptismal date too! And her husband probably won't be far behind. Her name is Leticia Lopez.
And Jung. We teach Jung, but some elders also teach her. In the beginning she requested sisters to teach/talk to her in English. But we decided to teach English by having her read gospel pamphlets. And the elders who are actually in her area were teaching a little too, but just as a back-up, and because one of the elders speaks Korean, so he can clarify. Well they officially set a baptismal date with her last Monday. Hooray! She hasn't told us the news herself, but as far as we know, she will be baptized this month.
Jung is funny. We were teaching about Adam and Eve and how Heavenly Father “let” the serpent tempt Eve. She didn't understand what “let” meant so Sister Dutson decided to give an example. She said, “okay, let's say I'm God, and Sister Fatkin is Satan, and Sister Sanders is Adam.” Jung is very expressive and she turned and looked at me and said “You have to be naked!” Just laugh, it was really funny to us. She's always learning random American language stuff like “same old week” and recently she learned how to use “blah”. So everything she says is “he said hello blah blah blah.”
The other week when we did lots of knocking we met some weird and interesting people. One man may have been pretty satanic. Outside the house was this funky painting that said on it “alchemy” and then he came to the door in all his black and when he saw us he yelled inside “Hey, do you want to join me on this one?” and he told us that he never passes up an opportunity to have a “discussion.” He had long yucky dark hair and was just sort of looming over us and started talking nice, then pretty fast he got crazy. Swearing and asking us why we weren't on bikes and quoting random things and I don't know what. We walked away pretty soon and he stood on his porch being dumb still. Yeah, he was evil. But you still kind of laugh walking away from those things because you just wonder how people can be so crazy.
Then the same day we were invited to talk to one woman's mother, who is a Quaker. She had a really big hair piece and lots of cats and talked about how woman needed to use the power they have over men. And wear makeup and that men aren't equal to woman. Then she proceeded to tell us all about ourselves. That I have a boyfriend and nice teeth, that Sister Fatkin looks content, so she must be married, and that Sister Dutson worried her because she didn't look happy. She was crazy.
We had zone conference, which was great and we learned more about obedience, how to use hand sanitizer and get more baptisms. Thanks for the letters and e-mails everyone!
I love you all! Happy Valentine's Day week!
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