Hey
Family!
We
had a pretty awesome, busy week out here in Sunland Park, which is really
good. That is awesome to hear that Scott got accepted to Ohio
State! That is going to be a fun journey out there! I kind of wish
I was going out there with you! I am excited for you, and that is going
to be an awesome experience! Life has been crazy lately, which is really
good. We had a lot of meetings this week, and we had to get ready for
Joy’s baptism and teach him all the remaining lessons. He was baptized
Saturday night and confirmed on Sunday. That was the cherry on top of the
Sunday, and we were happy that he did it. I will write more about that
below. We have been really lacking on new investigators lately, which is
super hard. I don’t know what is up with me and never finding too many
new people in any of my areas. That has been hard, but we are working
with it. Overall it was an awesome week, and we had some success.
The
highlight of the week was getting Joy baptized this week. We pretty much
taught him every day this week and just finishing up everything for his baptism
on Saturday. We weren’t here Friday and Saturday because we were up in
ABQ. Our meetings got done on Saturday around 2, and then we made the
long haul home and got here about 6. His baptism was at 7 and so we got
back just in time. We set up the room for his baptism. I had the privilege of baptizing him, and
that was awesome. His wife came to his baptism so that was super
cool. She is showing interest little by little, so that is awesome.
We are hoping that she will open up and we can start teaching her now.
Joy got confirmed on Sunday, and that was awesome. Overall that was the
highlight of the week - getting him baptized - and we were stoked that he had
the desire to change and become better. We have an appointment with him
tonight, and we are going to ask him about his baptism. He was super
happy that he got baptized, and we are just hoping that we find more people to
be baptized here.
We
had a miracle with the Marquez family this week. We went to go teach them
this week. We started walking up the
stairs to their apartment and all we heard was just yelling and cussing from
their apartment. The mom and dad were in an all-out argument about their
kids. They aren’t even married. He just goes over and pays the bills and
then takes off. He was also drunk, and when we knocked he came out with a
beer in hand and invited us in. They were mostly fighting over the oldest
daughter, who is baptized, skipping school and going to Juarez to smuggle drugs
across the border. The dad was angry about that, and the mom kept on
picking on him to fight back. It was a mess to say the least. We
just listened to them bicker and fight until the dad ran out of the house and
took off. We shared a thought with the family and then asked to come
back. We went by on Sunday night, and we were planning on talking about
baptism with them. The mom and the oldest daughter, the one who was
smuggling drugs, told us when we sat down that she wanted to get
baptized. That was a 360 turn for her because the whole time she was
telling us that she didn’t want to. But
now she was telling us she wanted to get baptized, and we were stoked. We
set a date with her for April 18th so we are excited for her and
hopefully this will get the kids active again. We are now working with
them a lot, so we are excited.
We
haven’t had any luck with Eduardo. He has had things come up lately so he
has called us and told us he would have to reschedule. We went by
yesterday for our appointment, but he wasn’t there. Hopefully we can catch
up with him this week and teach him. He is super solid, we just need to
find time the right time to teach him.
We
are still working with Noe and Patricia. They haven’t made any really
good signs of wanting to get baptized or wanting to come to church. It’s
weird because they want to but they haven’t put forth the effort to do
so. We are hoping again that this week will be a turnaround week for
them, and they will come to church finally.
We
had meetings in ABQ this week and they were really good. We had Lynn G
Robbins there, and he is a stud. He gave a really good training about
acting for ourselves and agency. It was cool to hear about how we are
responsibly for everything and we can’t pass the buck to someone else. He
told some great stories about his company, Franklin Covey, and how some people
who worked for him just didn’t want to accept reasonability for their
actions. It was really interesting, and he is a great
speaker. He also talked about marriage and having a family, and he gave
some really good advice. It was a great meeting and fun to be with other
missionaries.
We
also had Zone Conference on Monday. Hopefully
our training went well and missionaries enjoyed it. It was also a good
meeting, and I learned a lot. It was about the Spirit and The Book of
Mormon and it was super tight. It was a fun day.
That
is my week for you. Not much has changed with me, just the fact the
mission is getting shorter and shorter. April is going to be a crazy
month out here, and then it’s May. I am loving it out here, and I hope we
have a great week.
It
sounds like everything is going good at home, and I am super excited for Scott
and Dad! I hope you guys have a great week this week and you have some
fun! Just know how much I love you and miss you. This gospel
is so true, and if we just hold true to it and do everything in our power, God
and Jesus Christ will help us along! I miss you, and I hope you have a
good week!
Love,
-Elder
Smith
No comments:
Post a Comment