Hola Familia y Amigos
I hope that all is going well in good old cold Orem, Utah. First off, I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween. I hope that all goes well for everyone this week.
Thanks to all of you who wrote me a letter or an email this week. It was so great to hear from you. As always it was great to hear from you and hear about how things are going!
I want to thank Bishop Weight for all that he did for me in his service as young men's president. I've thought a lot about how the young men's leaders all around the world carry a lot of responsibility. They have to help these young men grow up and be prepared to serve missions. I want to thank all of my young men's leaders, but especially Bishop Weight, for all that they did to help me get where I am today and to help me stay on the straight and narrow path. I know that Bishop Weight has helped a lot of people in his life but I doubt that there are any who are more thankful for his service and his help then those young men that were with me and before me. Thanks for all you did for us Bishop Weight! You are an amazing man and an even better example to all of us!
As for the fires, I don't think that you have anything to be worried about mom. I have yet to see any smoke from the fires. Bayamon is about 2 hours from San Sebastian and as far as I know all that happened is that some big gas tanks caught on fire so they have to wait until all of the gas burns out. Yeah the air will probably be bad for a while but I imagine it will be a lot like a forest fire is back home. And as always all the missionaries are safe. You have nothing to worry about. We are in the Lord's hands and He will protect us.
It's too bad that BYU lost but esta es la vida. Always perhaps another day or another season for BYU, but as always go cougars! :)
OK . . . well this week was absolutely amazing. The work here in San Sebastian is improving so much and I love it. We now have two more baptismal dates and the family is just awesome. We contacted Alexis and his wife about two weeks ago. Last Sunday they came to church and they absolutely loved it! We had a family home evening on Monday night in the home of the Sanchez family, one of the strongest families of our branch. It was such a great lesson they taught about how we can use family home evenings to improve my family. Alexis and Alexandra loved it and said that they were going to try and implement this in their home next week. It was great to see the kids of both families interacting while the parents of both families were talking about how we can better improve our family relations. God created His plan and His gospel in order to bless our families and help us receive the ordinances needed to be exalted and live together forever as families. It is great to see how truly blessed we are to have a program like family home evening. It really does bring our families closer to him!
Wednesday was the day that we were going to put the baptismal challenge with them and the lesson went so much better then we could have ever dreamed. We were both a little nervous because Alexandra called us the night before and said that she had some doubts but it turned out her doubts were just questions about what is a Lamanite and a Nephite. I can't tell you how nice it was to hear that was all.
The lesson we had with them was so amazing! The spirit was incredibly strong and I could tell that they knew what we were teaching them was special. Alexis had a big problem when we showed him the picture of baptism. The girl in the picture looks pretty young and he started talking about how he doesn't believe kids should be baptized, even at 8 years old. It was a great opportunity for me and Elder Blandon to share our testimonies about the way we felt on our baptism days. That helped to change his attitude a bit, but then his wife told a story of their son who came home from church and when they started to pray that night he told his mom that they were doing it wrong, that isn't what they learned in primary. With tears running down all of our faces she told us that there is nothing more that she wants for her kids then to want to follow the Savior at 8, that was the thing that helped Alexis changed his attitude. It was great to end that lesson and commit them both to baptism. They said that they were both a little nervous and they never thought that it would come this fast but the spirit was so strong in the room that there was only one answer that they could give. And I am so thankful they gave it. They said that they wanted to prepare to be baptized on November 14th and once again, I was the happiest man in the world!
Friday night Alexis came to the priesthood activity with us and had a blast. When we left he was shaking all of the members hand's with us like he's been a member for a long time. It was great to see him interacting with the members like that. It really does feel like he has been attending our branch for a while now. It's crazy to think that at that point he had only been to church once! Talk about a miracle.
Yesterday they came to church and they loved it again. Both of them were participating in their classes and asking questions trying to learn more and understand more. It was so awesome! I can't wait to see how this family ends up. Every time I look at them I can't help but think that families really are forever and that this is what God wants most for them. I really hope that all will go well and that they will continue on the path that they have started on. I know that they will though because they are so awesome and so strong!
Other then that we had some other cool experiences. We have a member in our ward who has been going through a hard time in her life right now. We went to share a message with her and we both felt prompted to share a message from Moses 7:29. It's a message that we have shared before, but in this moment we really felt like we needed to share it. As we started the lesson she couldn't believe that we were sharing this scripture. She said that she had just read that scripture in the morning and wanted to ask questions and talk more about it with someone. That was cool enough as it is but what makes this story even better is that we started sharing this message about 3 weeks ago when I read that scripture in personal study. And 3 weeks later we were the answer to the prayers of one of God's children. I can't tell you how amazing and how humbling that moment was. I read that scripture 3 weeks ago and never did I think that 3 weeks later the Lord would use that scripture to answer someone's prayers. The Lord truly knows us and loves us. If you want proof, look at the fact that I was prompted to read this scripture 3 weeks before I would use it to answer someone's prayers. What a blessing it is to be in the service of the Lord.
I also had my first dog chasing incident this week. We were contacting up in the mountains and there was a nice little dog following us around. Then Mack the big rotwiler??? (I don't know how to spell) spotted us and chased us down the street. It was funny to see all the cars laughing at us and it was great to think about how officially i am missionary :) It was a fun experience. One of those only in the mission experiences that you never forget.
Thanks again to all of you for your prayers and your support. You have no idea how much it means to me! I hope that you all have a fantastic week this week and I hope that Halloween is good for all of you! I love you all!!!
Don't forget to read and pray every day!
Thanks again Bishop Weight!
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