So that all starts with Tuesday, which was quite a busy day. We had our regular breakfast with our MLS couple, then a lesson with Silvino, who I've told you about. We wanted to get him to open up and talk more, so we asked him about Guatemala and why he came here, and it worked. He talked more than any other lesson before. And then we were able to base the lesson off of what he had been reading in the Book of Mormon. He said he had read from 3rd Nephi and showed us chapter 20, so we read over it with him and used it to teach about church and the sacrament. We invited him to change his day off to Sunday so he can come to church. Then after dinner we finally got to have a lesson with Luis, the guy who was sent to us by the West sisters. He's from--you guessed it--Guatemala, and he's BEYOND ready to be baptized. We set his baptism date for Saturday May 21st, and set up all the details with the stake during our stake correlation meeting immediately after that lesson. And we finished off the night with another lesson with Fidel G.. He said he wants to get baptized but he isn't sure yet if this is the right church to do it with. We're just going to have to be patient until he figures it out for himself.
Wednesday was a lot of walking and street contacting, including a potential new investigator that we met in a neighborhood I wasn't very familiar with at all. It's waaaaay up in the northwest corner of our area, pretty much as far away as you can get. He said to come visit on Sunday. We also taught Guillermo (the guy from Rio Hondo) again, and spent most of it talking about what he had read from the BoM. He just finished the story of Nephi getting the brass plates, and he was confused on some details. We were able to clarify those for him.
On Thursday we went with the T. boys and the rest of the young men to the stake play, which was an awesome experience. The whole thing was written, composed, and directed by Hermano P, who happens to be the T family's primary fellowshipper, as well as our branch's second counselor. The play was a dramatic expansion of Luke 15, or the parable of the prodigal son. It not only dealt with the original themes of the parable, like repentance and forgiveness, but expanded it to include things like pride, humility, dealing with tragedy, faith, hope, and even choosing friends wisely. It was an awesome performance and the T. family loved it. My favorite part was when a comic relief character (the pig farmer, who has a nagging wife and a fake New England accent) took everyone from laughing to crying in the space of two minutes with his heart-rending violin solo. And then cracked us all up again by playing a few bars of "Once Upon a Dream" as he headed back home to appease his now furious wife.
Friday was district meeting with my now-larger district, and it went great! I wrote up a breakdown of my district members for President Spendlove, so I think I'll copy/paste it here so you can get a feel for what it's like. I'll edit out any sensitive stuff and add explanations in parentheses.
Ahem.
"Good morning! Sorry I missed emailing last week. With transfers and all it was quite a busy day. I didn't have much to report anyhow but this week I have plenty to say. We had our first district meeting as a large district, and it was great! I love having more people to comment and contribute, and the new members of my district are amazing.
Elder V is just stoked to have Elder S (One of my favorite zone leaders from back in Rose Park) as a companion, and I expect that those two will get a lot done in Cannon 6th. They already have a baptism planned for this month. . They've already made a few small changes for the better, like getting rid of the multiple times for district meeting.
Sisters C. and P are also doing well, although I worry about Sister P. She's been having trouble with constant stomach aches and headaches, including during district meeting this week. She insisted that she was fine, but it sounds like she is in a lot of pain. I plan to make sure they are in contact with Sister Green (The mission nurse) to see what help they can get.
Sisters M. and S. appear to be off to a good start. Sister S is nervous about training, like most new trainers are, and she is still struggling with her health. I'm working with the STL's to help her, and I expect that they will be doing most of the ground work there since that's their calling (and they have a car, so they can visit the sisters more easily). Sister M (New missionary from Brazil) was very timid during district meeting, but she'll open up over time. Her English and Spanish are both very good, even better than I expected. She probably won't have much difficulty adjusting to this mission.
As for the Arbor elders, I have very high hopes for them. Elder L. is a fantastic missionary, of course. And I am equally impressed with Elder M. (Elder L's new greenie, from Bolivia). Even though he's only been out for two months or so, he was making comments and giving answers in district meeting that I would have expected from an elder who's been out a year or more! And when we got to the role play, which was about dropping investigators who are not progressing, he did a masterful job of "dropping" Elder L. without being unclear, rude, or offensive. I have a suspicion that the Lord is rewarding Elder L. for being easy to train by giving him a greenie who is just as prepared as he was. His English is also excellent, by the way.
Elder Dixon and I are super excited for this baptism on Saturday. We called the West mission sisters and worked out the details, and Jose came to church the second time in our branch yesterday. We got the word out about his baptism, so hopefully we get a high turnout from the branch. It's brought more energy to the area and to our companionship.
Also this week, we were able to take three investigators to the stake production, The Prodigal Son, and we gave tickets to another investigator so he could go without us while we were busy. It was amazing! All the people who went were touched by the Spirit during the play, and I learned something from it too. I hope you and Sister Spendlove got a chance to see it."
So as you can see, my district is amazing, yet surprisingly unhealthy. I never understood how the sisters have so much higher chances of developing health issues on their missions. Maybe it's the stress. Anyway, we finished off Friday by having another lesson with Fidel, and by sending Jose and his family to see the play without us. We probably would have gone, but we didn't want to miss the lesson with Fidel.
Saturday was SO BUSY! The sisters in Arbor were able to get the M. family (minus Luis Sr. who hasn't completed a year in the Church yet) a day to receive their own endowments in the Bountiful temple, and I was invited! It was a wonderful experience, and I really enjoyed the chance to see them and some missionaries in other zones again. We took lots of pictures in front of the temple but I haven't gotten them from Sister S. yet, so I'll have to email them later. We finished off Saturday by taking Fidel and his fellowshipper Jesus to see the Prodigal Son. It was the final performance and, in my opinion, even better than the one on Thursday. We were sitting closer and could see better, and they had improved the microphones so we could hear better as well.
Branch council yesterday morning was very fun because we had good news to report--the baptism! They helped us finalize a few details and get the word out to the branch so we will have good attendance. And Jose came to all three hours this time, so we got to introduce him to the Gospel Principles class and the Elders' Quorum. He's very friendly and was already laughing and joking with some of the elders by the time third hour started. I don't think we'll have any problems making sure that he feels like part of the branch. After church we had dinner with a sister in the branch and I had a fascinating conversation about the Bible with her friend she had invited so that we could come inside the house. Let me just say that this is the first time anyone has asked me if I've read the Bible all the way through, and it felt really good to say yes. And I was also grateful to have had (effectively) eight years of seminary. Not only was I able to carry on an intelligent conversation with this brother, but I was also able to answer a few higher-level questions that Daniel T. asked me during church. He wanted to know what had happened to all the plates of brass and silver, since Joseph Smith had only translated gold ones. He's a really bright and inquisitive guy to have picked that up, and he understood perfectly when I explained how Mormon had summarized all the other records while writing on gold plates. Daniel actually reminds me a lot of myself, in a lot of ways. Maybe that's why I came back to this area. I dunno... We also had a nice lesson with Brandon M., the little boy who we couldn't communicate effectively with last time. This time we tried teaching in Spanglish, and it worked a lot better. He just prefers English.
Wow... that was a long email. I'll try and get the accompanying pictures to you as soon as possible. Thanks for all the pictures you sent me, and have a great last few weeks of school! Summer is just around the corner.
Love,
Spencer
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