Is A Short Week less than 7 Days?

Emily in Italy, Summer 2007


Okay, well this is going to be short this week. Here's what's happening with our people in our area. So the Lopez family is not getting baptized this Sunday. We were a little worried about them and if they really understand. It's just hard because every time the dad is there for the lessons he is just a big distraction. He's probably never completely sober, and he just asks questions that confuse everybody. And then he's never there for the lessons that we prepare that are super simple and just for him, so he can understand the restoration. His family is still progressing, but they aren't ready for baptism. She said her husband doesn't even want them to be baptized right now. So we will keep teaching and hoping! Meanwhile our ward mission leader is trying to help us with this family still. Leticia Lopez, not related, is still getting baptized. She's on track and likes it all and reads everything and asks good questions and comes to church. So she will be baptized March 8. Last day of the transfer. Juan Carlos Lopez (also not related) is crazy. We have not been able to find him for the last week. So we've lost our miracle. We hope we can find him and keep teaching him so he can be baptized. Because he does get it, and is ready, but needs to be taught!
Um, well everything is going well otherwise. I'm happy and time is flying. I guess that's it because we've got to run! Love you all, Bye!

**Dear Viewers and readers: I'm just waiting for some updated photos from the Happiest Place on Earth.

Rain & All That Crazy Stuff

 

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!

Life as a Threesome

For those of you who don't know what it's like to be on a mission as a threesome, hear is some info from someone who has served just about 6 ½ months out of their almost 8 month mission in a threesome. It is very easy to get distracted. Three girls together means more talking. It also means shorter shower time. But you also end up knowing how to teach some really good lessons and getting lots of new ideas because you have three heads instead of one. And more testifying. I'm afraid I'm not going to know how to be in a twosome again. This last week was really good. Sister Dutson is really fun. We all get along really well and are really enjoying what we're doing. We knocked A LOT of doors last week. Which is good because so far all of the best people we've found have been through our knocking. We also had the opportunity last week to go to a zone leader's training thing all day last Thursday with President Watrous. He's decided it's good to get a sister's opinion in these meetings, so every transfer a different sister companionship will get to go. Though it was long, it was soooo nice to be able to get direct counsel from our president. He's so down to earth and it's nice to hear information directly from him instead of from ZLs or DLs and hear it the way president really said it. I think this mission is really changing a lot from the way it used to be. I guess at first it seems like it's less “fun” but really, I think everyone's working harder and more obedient. Last year this mission had maybe, maybe 300 baptisms. But we're supposed to get 600 this year, so that's a big goal to reach and we all have to work really hard to get there. It's kind of a cool thing that I get to be here for pretty much the entire year, to really see the success happen.
A week and a half ago we knocked into the family. The Lopez. The said we could come in and said they'd come to church, but then they didn't come. This week we visited them and brought a member and then visited them again Saturday and they said they would come to church. They don't have a car (which is sometimes annoying, but also sometimes good because then we are in control of the situation more) so our ward mission leader went to pick them up. The mom and three kids all came but the dad didn't. Hermano Montiel, our ward mission leader, and our new bishop are really on top of things and are really amazing. Our bishop met with the mom, Nicandra, in his office with us, and we found out that the father is an alcoholic and that's why he didn't come this week or the week before. Both Obispo Santos and H. Montiel want to be very involved in our teaching this family and have volunteered to basically “adopt” this family so we can get them all baptized. We're really excited because after our lesson Saturday the three of us walked out and we all just said that we know that this is our family that will be baptized. Of course all missionaries think those things. But hey, you have to have faith, right? We're just excited that the ward is getting involved. That will make this so much more likely to happen. So we have high hopes there.
Araceli and Cibelly are still doing well. They're still coming to church and Araceli seems to feel very at home and just a part of the ward. She needs that ward support, because until her husband marries her, she'll be in the same situation, and probably as missionaries, we won't be able to continue to visit her forever. But they are progressing in the little ways they can. S. Dutson was actually one of the sisters who first found Araceli, and now being back she's been able to really notice the big changes. Araceli really had come a long, long way. She will be a strong member when she is baptized.
Yesenia and Abel and Eva, well, we don't know. He doesn't have much work, so they might have to move back to Mexico. So that sort of halts baptism progress. But we taught the WOW and committed him to cutting back on his smoking and he's doing that. There's still hope. They're not really showing up for all of their appointments or coming to church though, so we might not be teaching them very much longer. The Mendoza kids are good, still kids. We were going to see them tonight and try to talk to them about their baptism concerns, but apparently Stephanie is camping or something. But we're going to try to set a baptism date with her soon. Cleotilde. I don't know if you remember him from before when I was in this area, but he is a funny little man. And he's getting married to this woman who doesn't want him to join the church. So he told us that he has to stop the visits. It's interesting. Sometimes you hold onto some investigaros that really become sort of a burden. I think they pull down your productiveness and faith. And letting them go is such a release. I think some other investigators might have the same fate soon. We've got to find those people who are ready to be baptized and be blessed! This next week is also going to be filled with lots of knocking and handing out cards and finding new people to teach. Yeah! I can't believe its February already! Love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week!