Before I say anything I need to thank everyone for the Christmas gifts. So thanks Granny for all the treats and the cards and the super awesome tree! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa also for the treats and other stuff that was in there! The toffe was a favorite! Erick and Liz, how you packed all that goodness into that little box will always be a wonder to me, but thank you very much! I made the mashed potato packet last night and it was incredible. Cleveland family, the candy and cereal and drink packets were much appreciated and have been put to good use. Thank you! And Mom, Dad, and the little savages, thanks for the package as well. I especially love the little head lamp, the awesome tie, and the skittles.
I need to introduce you to my companion a little better. Elder R doesn't like a lot of Mexican food (he's from Peru), especially anything remotely spicy (which is basically everything) and vegetables, but he did try Caesar salad dressing in the MTC in Mexico City and is absolutely fascinated by it. So, naturally, when we were buying groceries two weeks ago and he saw that they sold it, he bought three bottles and took one with him everywhere and used it in every meal. He bought two more bottles this week because he is about to run out. Most of the members don't even know what it is when he whips it out. They've never even heard of Caesar salad dressing, yet it's his favorite thing about their country. There's just too much funny about this situation.
We went to the pharmacy today so that Elder R could print out more pictures of his dog to tape to the wall. He spent about 20 minutes trying to crop one of them just perfectly, and then it still didn't work out right. Silly kid. He is doing a lot better though and coming along pretty good. He's talking more in the lessons and getting himself a little more involved.
This week was a little rough. We had a lot of appointments fall through and nobody came to church. I almost feel like I'm in Auditorio again. Which is actually kind of a good feeling. We still have a couple people that could still progress, so we'll see what happens this week.
We did start working with a less active member named L this week. He's the Elders Quorum President's son and got baptized about three weeks before I got here, unfortunately he works every Sunday and doesn't want to change jobs. But we had a really great lesson with him on Friday. He told us that he wants to feel the way he did when he got baptized again, but that he is expecting something to happen to strengthen his testimony so that he can go to church and motivate himself to read the Book of Mormon and pray. We shared the story about Nephi going to get the brass plates and the famous scripture that says that God will not give us commandments that we can't keep. Then we read in Ether 12 where it says that testimony will only come after the trial of our faith. The Spirit was really strong and he seemed to understand. We told him to read and pray and ask God what he should do to be able to go to church again. I really hope he does it!
We had a lot of cool spiritual experiences last week that I'll tell you about. The referral we got last week from the less active member is named S. During the whole first lesson, I was a little worried about how we were going to challenge her to be baptized, because she had already told us that she is perfectly happy with her life and doesn't feel scared to die and go back with God. When we had finished teaching her the restoration, I felt like we should share the scripture in Mosiah 18:10 that says "If this is the desire of your hearts, what have ye against being baptized..." so we did and then did the baptismal challenge and she accepted it super easy. It was really cool to feel the Spirit tell me exactly what she needed to hear to accept the challenge and to make that commitment.
Well, that's about it for this week. I know this church is true! Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes!
Elder Pew
