Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Week 75

Hey Mom! This week was really good, like always. This was a week full of miracles.
    First off, I thought it would be funny to show you some of the decor that people have on their front porches. Lots have a "this is a catholic home" and there is to be no soliciting or propaganda. A few times when we knock the door the person will ask, "Didn't you read the sign?" And I look at it and I'm like, "OH WOW! So you believe in Jesus Christ too! That's awesome! Have you seen that bless your life a lot?" And they will go off on some crazy miracle about how they almost died 100 times, but "gracias a Dios" they didnt. Gracias a Dios means thanks to God. It's a super common saying here, also, si Dios quiere, and primeramente Dios. Which mean If God wants and God first. Basically whenever we ask someone if they'll come to church or read something they'll just say si Dios quiere. It drives me nuts because it basically means no, like they never do. But I just act like they actually will and get all excited when they say that.
   Another cool thing that happened this week is there was an investigator, his name is Fortunato Peralta, he's 79 and only speaks spanish. Where I am in the mission right now there aren't very many people that speak spanish. So it's kinda cool. So he lives really far away, and we thought he lived in another area, so those elders were kind of trying to teach him, but it's really out of the way for both of us, like a 40 minute drive. So we actually found out the boarders of our wards and turned out, he's in our area. And he had gone to church 3 times before, had some doubts about the BOM and Joseph Smith. So Saturday, we decided we needed to go out there because he wasn't answering his phone or anything, huge gamble with our miles in the car. So we drove out there, only directions we had were, down that road, left at the gas station and its a blue house on the left. So we turned at the only gas station in this.. town? And there was a blue house right there, so we knocked it, turned out not to be him. So we kept driving, knocked another few blue houses, nothing. So we kept driving, then the other elders told us that it was in the 9500's and we were in like 5500 or something. Also, they couldn't describe the house anymore than that, blue. So we drove another probably 10-15miles to get to those numbered houses, and we found it!!! We knocked on the door with the old and very loud spanish music playing and he was just sitting in a chair doing nothing. We talked to him for a little, got to know him, then talked about baptism. He was pretty reluctant at first but we shared about 10 scriptures with him about not procrastinating, how Alma baptized by the authority and we discussed authority, and we told him this was the only way to live with his deceased wife again. He finally agreed and we offered to come pick him up before church. He said he'd drive. He has no license and is 79 and can barely see. So we figured it out that we'd go get him the next day, shook his hand and left.
   Sunday morning came and we got a member, our Ward Mission Leader, to drive us out to his house, we got there and he didn't answer the door. So we let ourselves in, he's just an old guy right? And we ran around his little house yelling for him, knocked on a door which seemed to be the bedroom, and a young woman asked, about 25yrs old. She hid herself behind the door because she wasn't decent. Supeerrrr awkward. We apologized and asked where he was, she said that he left about 20mins prior to go to some church in Kingsville, (our church is in Kingsville). So we rolled our eyes and drove back to Kingsville. Texted the bishop and he was already there, and had been about 30mins early. We ran it just as it started and sat with him, with the biggest smiles on our faces. He had a change of clothes in a trash bag next to him and everything. We had our zone leaders come down from a neighboring town to interview him, the LAST hour of church. He passed! I don't know how, but he passed haha, I've never talked with him before Saturday so I had no idea if he'd drank alcohol or tea or coffee or done anything else. He actually has a strong testimony of not doing anything bad, not from us, but from time and experience and the Bible. We got some members to come who could speak spanish, and he was baptized after church. I was privileged to be the one to help him be baptized. It was an awesome experience. Probably one of the more rushed baptisms, but also one of the most satisfying. 
      What a crazy week! That's probably the most exciting of it all, hope that is interesting. I love you a ton, thanks for writing me and keeping me updated on everything. I love you and hope that your health continues to improve!





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