I forgot to tell you guys my area is Nativitas! Delegation: Benito Juarez. Its dirty, and everything is packed together like crazy but I already love it.
Tuesday went great! I killed it with 12 lessons in one day! We taught like crazy, and I contacted my first investigator all by myself. Her name is Elizabeth and she owns a Soap Shop. We have bright hopes for her and hopefully she is a baptism! Tuesday was long and hard, but was really satisfying to know that we tried our hardest, and we felt like real missionaries.
Unfortunately, the rest of the week was a bit depressing. In fact, all of Missionary Work at times is depressing. Its because once we have seen someone start to feel Jesus Christ in their life and accept him, once they feel that love and the peace, and then dont follow through? We see everyone we teach as people with the ability to live in the Celestial Kingdom with God and with their families and it is so unbelievably sad to see people turn that down, or willingly not follow it. We worked a ton this week, with zero results. Its not about the results, because we know that Jesus Christ can choose to bless us with success or not, but its really sad to see someone not live up to the potential that the Gospel has given them. My ward attendance was 50 this week, and our Ward Directory has over 100 people. We taught some less actives this week who didnt even know who Joseph Smith was. Its just been a week of sorrow for the salvation of my brothers and sisters of God. However, among the sadness, there is always happiness.
We started teaching Carlos Jugos, a juice Puesto owner (a puesto is a sidewalk shop) who is super addicted to Alcohol. He really wants to change and he said to us that when we are with him, he feels a burning in his chest and it tells him that this church is true. Its an amazing experience to see how much the truth of the Gospel is helping him! We just have to help him with straighening up his life and he will be an amazingly strong convert to the church.
Our current investigators are as follows:
Adrian and Kate: Adrian is having difficulty with successfully helping his girlfriend-wife divorce her previous husband. He really wants to be baptized but he needs to marry his wife first. We think that we are going to baptize Kate ASAP and hopefully, with divine help, he can marry his wife and enjoy the blessings of the Gospel more fully in his life.
Delia: Delia has confirmed that she is going to be a member of this church, even if she has to wait years. Her prayers are powerful and she has acheived her goal to become closer to Jesus Christ. We are just waiting for her school to end so she can attend church and be baptized!
Hugo Isac: Hugo has expressed to us that his desire is to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and this Gospel. His girlfriend-wife is less active but we have seen that she absolutely knows this church is true, she just doesnt keep her covenants because Hugo isnt part of the church. Our goal is to marry them quickly and we will continue teaching him to help him gain a testimony and baptize him.
We have more, but they arent really progressing, or due to circumstances, they wont be baptized in our area, or have problems that are unfortunately out of our control.
Our recently baptized convert, Liz, is doing amazing and she loves going to church, she has lots of friends and she is always smiling. Im so happy for her!
The work is moving along quickly, with the other Districts in my area having baptisms and also working very hard.
This week we got to visit Del Valle, and help the Elders there with motivating the members of their ward. We performed skits, cheers and did activities. In their ward is a middle aged man visiting from Utah who knows absolutely zero English. So with my 4 week knowledge of a foreign language, I was assigned to translate for him. I didnt do very well. I was lost, he was lost. Its all good. He was very nice to me and it was a good time to be able to talk to someone in English for a minute!
We visited the Dentist again this week, so I restarted the Book of Mormon and Im already done with Jacob... I spend a lot of time in offices. But its okay because Im able to read a ton more!
We got to eat breakfast at McDonalds this week!!!! We had to go get an X-ray on Rosales teeth, and there was a McD across the street so we popped in and I had the most nostalgic McMuffin on earth. I miss the cleanliness, the fatty greasy unhealthy taste of fake food, and America. It was a good time. That will probably be the last time I eat there for 22 more months.
Other cool things this week:
1. We taped the area map to the ceiling
2. We taped every pizza menu we could find to the ceiling
3. We taped every other advertisement we could find to the ceiling
4. I made a super cool picture wall from cool pictures my mom sent me
5. I received an awesome package from my mom (I love her)
6. We had a Zone Conference this week and even though I didnt understand half of it, I enjoyed it.
7. It was fast Sunday this week. and also this week there was free cake, tacos, and chocolate wafers after church. Dang Satan and his temptations.
8. We attended the Baptism of Mariana, an investigator from Jardines, and Elder Rosales was asked to baptize her! I sat by the Mission President and his wife during the program. What a rush!
9. I bought almost half the store at Dulce Maria, the heaven of candy. I bought Doritos, Takis, orange chocolate, mentos, air heads, air heads extremes, gummy worms, peanuts, skittles, and more. US monetary value, under 20 dollars.
The sidewalks here have become a problem for me. They are tiny, and the have many poles, telephone cables, and other random things sticking out of them so in reality I only have about shoulder width of space to walk. Im wall to telephone pole, and the sidewalks here are terrible! They are jagged, cracked, and more missionaries go home from sidewalk accidents than all other injuries or incidents combined (You think Im joking). And to make things worse, the stray dogs here (and disgustingly, some humans) do their business on the sidewalk. Today marked the fourth time Ive slipped on dog poo. Not cool. Not. Cool.
My spiritual thought today is in 2 Nephi 4 the last 10-ish verses of the chapter. I love these verses! Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin! Oh, that I may shake at the very sight of sin! Lehis words are a powerful reminder of what we should always strive for, and are always the words of encouragement I need to continue moving forward. May we take the advice of Lehi to his sons and shake off the chains that surround us and arise from the dust, that we may be worthy of being Disciples of Jesus Christ and live as he would want us to. I promise that doing such will bless our lives in so many ways that we cant possibly understand! May we rejoice in our knowledge of the restored Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Have a good week!!!
Photos:
1. Elder Rosales adjusting our ceiling map
2. Finished ceiling map and ceiling of Pizza (and whatever else we found)
3. Everything I bought from Dulce Maria, and Elder Rosales (from Del Valle, not my comp) in the background.
4. My sick dope study set-up, complete with my cool picture wall (Thanks mom!)
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