Bishepa mi familia,
We have one investigator (the oldest son in the Reyes family) scheduled for bautismo this week and 2 more for next week. One is a 9 year old sobrino of one of our members, the other, Ever Gonzalez came the last 2 sundays after having an experience with the police. He is a friend of a recent convert who can see the change his friend made in his life after dropping drugs, smoking and drinking. So now he wants to be baptized but is heavily addicted to wine. Once he finds the strength to drop them he will be in the font in no time, we are very excited for him.
Taught a testigo de jehova last week, that was interesting. Started off really chill but when we asked if we could say a prayer he said "yes, but i need to say it, only people in my church can pray. When others pray they are praying to the devil". It went downhill really fast from there. I dont know how you baptize anyone when you tell them they can't pray to their father in heaven. He and his wife are missionaries for that church so he has a really good knoweledge of the bible. It's just amazing how someone can know so much but be so lost. He went to teach one of our members, hmno Talevera, who is ex military and will tell you how it is, straight up kind of guy. When Talevera asked what they believe happens after this life they answered our bodies die and just become part of the earth, and that's the end. He laughed and answered "maybe your bodies will become dirt, I'm going to take mine and live with my heavenly father". He cracks me up. Hermano Talevera is a perfect example of someone who can change completely just by people showing their love towards him. He was inactive for about 5 years because people in the branch and even the missionaries didn't get along with him. After stopping by his house every week to talk to him he has become muy tranquillo.
If there was one person I could baptize in Guarambare right now it would be the husband of our mission mom, hmna Tania. Theres been a lot of problems in the ward caused by missionaries in this area, so hmno Valdez does not like the missionaries at all. When I first got here he told me, I know what your here for, I've heard it all before, I have my own Catholic beliefs, you can continue to talk with my family but dont try to convert me. Over the last 3 months we have very slowly built a relationship with him. We actually got him to join in with us for a family home evening after a few failed attempts. One time we played uno with them but he left when we wanted to share a message. But this time we just carried a conversation about things he was interested in (like cars and military stuff), and perfectly transitioned it into sharing a scripture from the bible without him leaving. He really like it and thanked us for sharing it with him. Then we took a leap of faith and asked him to offer the closing prayer. Miraculously he accepted and said a beautiful prayer. Hmna Tania started crying and later thanked us for all the work we have done with her family. She really wants to be sealed with her 2 kids and husband so we will keep trying. Tomorrow elder Schone is going to give him one of those life strength watches that his dad makes and bear his testimony to try and spark something. So keep familia Valdez in your prayers por favor.
Well, training is just about over, crazy. It went by so fast, Ive learned so much from elder Schone and the other elders in my district. I had intercambios with elder Vasquez this week, it was fun having a latino for a companion. We worked hard and really focused on finding new investigators, especially familias. Before that day we would usually get investigators from contacts and referencias so I had never really clapped on random doors, but it was very successful so im going to do that more often.
Our new Presidente de mission will be Pedro Agazanni from Cordoba Argentina. El tiene 43 años y tiene 5 hijos. El va a empezar 1 de julio 2012.
Back to good health after last week but elder Schone caught whatever i had so now his throat and nose are a mess, nonetheless he's always ready to work. Could you also send some shoe insoles(cant find the question mark button on this keyboard).
Alright so this week I would really like for you all to start reading the book of mormon. If you are reading right now, keep going, but if not, grab a cheap blue copy and read it with a purpose and mark it like crazy. Since I've been here I started reading and focused my reading all on JesuCristo. Every time it made a reference to him I would color it blue. (like lord, son of god, jesus, lamb of god, he, him, his). Then all the attributes of christ in purple. Then all the words of Christ in red. and anything else that is a cool scripture of a true gospel principle in orange. Try this or any other cool ideas you have. Out of time but I will talk more on this next week. Try your best to read one chapter or 30 minutes a day and your testimony with be strenghtened like crazy.
Love ya, Gracias por todo,
Elder LaFaye
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