Happy birthday, Mariah! I can't believe I'm old enough to have an adult sister. It's so weird...
Well this week was pretty great, I think. We worked hard and got some new investigators, finally! Those happened mostly on Tuesday. We had gotten a referral for this guy named Silvino, who lived in an apartment I recognized. Turns out he was a Guatemalan guy that Elder Parker and I tried to teach but we never found him at home. He was home this time, and we had a great lesson. He's very sincere and very willing to accept commitments. He even agreed to pray at the end of the lesson, without even trying to get out of it! And on the way back home for lunch, we got stopped by a woman who asked us if we knew the Spanish missionaries. We replied, "We are the Spanish missionaries! How can we help you?" She said her brother in law had just moved from Provo, where he had been taking the lessons, and he wants to continue taking them up here. So we got his phone number and called him later that day to set up an appointment. He can only meet once a week, unfortunately, but that's better than nothing.
Wednesday was all full of meetings. First was Zone Leader Conference, then a special leadership training with all the leaders in the mission. We spent most of that talking about the general lack of "fire" in the mission and ways to improve it. After that meeting we went with a recent convert named Jesus to do baptisms in the temple. That was amazing, and even more so because he was able to bring his own family names. And he even took us to dinner afterward.
We moved our weekly planning to Thursday because Friday was super busy. Our district meeting went a tiny bit long because we did this super fun activity making cookies. It was the idea of another District Leader in the zone, but I liked it enough to copy it. So the theme of the meeting was revelation through church attendance, and the activity went like this: One group had the recipe for egg-less cookies (one of the sisters is so allergic to eggs that if she touches someone who has touched an egg she'll have to go to the hospital). The other group has no recipe, and both groups have access to the ingredients. Both groups make some cookies, and we see which ones turn out better. Obviously the ones with a recipe make better cookies, and we talk about why. So the investigators we teach can accumulate the "ingredients" of conversion at home, through reading the scriptures, prayer, meeting with us, etc. But that just doesn't work out if they don't go to church and partake of the sacrament, because that's what ties all those ingredients together and helps them find their proper proportions, the way a recipe does. It was a fun object lesson, and it helped us all come together as a district.
Saturday was exchanges with the zone leaders, so once again I spent the day with an old companion. This time it was Elder Coldiron. we walked a lot, street contacted a lot, and finally taught a lesson to this guy who Elder Dixon and I have been trying to contact since we got to the area. His name is Fidel, and he's a really interesting person to teach. He's very pensive and likes to mull things over. He also has a lot of questions. Apparently during the three weeks between when the elders last contacted him and now, he met with some guy who explains the Bible to him, and this guy showed him a verse that says all the churches are ok because they all have truth. We agreed with him that all churches have truth, and turned that right into an explanation of why ours is the only one with power. It's kind of an important distinction, and a commonly misunderstood one. In the end, he was impressed with the testimony of the scriptures and of Jesus (the recent convert), who was also with us. We set an appointment to come back the next night and invited him to church.
Fidel did come to church, and we had a lesson with him right after dinner. Dinner was with a YSA friend of Elder Dixon's, by the way, and he made some awesome pasta. Anyhow, we went to visit Fidel, again with Jesus, and he had more questions for us. This time it was about the Fall, and why God would do that. We read Lehi's awesome explanation of the topic from 2 Nephi 2, which I'm pretty sure answered his question. Then we had to go to a branch fireside, since the young men asked us to join them in their musical number. One of the young men has become Elder Dixon's special assignment, so we're working hard on that. We sat next to him at the fireside and got ourselves invited to mutual this week as well.
So, that was this week! As you can see, the work is picking up around here, and I hope it continues to pick up even more. Tonight we should have a lesson with a potential new investigator who we street contacted on Wednesday; hopefully that pans out. Also, this super creepy guy has been following us around talking about the Adam-God theory, which is extremely disconcerting. I think we shook him off when the zone leaders picked us us to take us to lunch, though.
I hope everyone is doing well, and good luck with sports finals! Get some PR's for me!
I love you!
Spencer
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