Loving your companion

Our recent convert, Maria Luìsa, had been waiting for a long time to be able to be baptized, and was finally able to do so because her boyfriend moved out. So, she got baptized, but then her boyfriend came back! That seemed kind of unfortunate, but it's turned out to be a blessing. Maria Luìsa has 8 kids! Marino, her boyfriend, never seemed to want to help out much with the kids, and never really wanted much to do with the missionaries, but something has changed. They're planning on getting married in the beginning of August, he's been super good with the kids, and he's completely opened up to us and has been coming to church with us in the past few weeks. We set a baptismal date with him for the beginning of August, after their wedding. At first, I was under the impression that Marino was making those changes for some benefit that he could recieve, but the more time I've spent teaching him, the more surprised I've been by how genuine he is about everything. I'm doing well. This transfer has been more difficult than most, but things are improving. Elder Cervera and I are both learning a lot about how to love your companion. I want to always do my best to be diligent and obedient, having no regret. I'm striving to be more faithful; doing my best requires a lot of reliance on the Lord. "The only thing you can know is that you don't know anything."

In a devotional in the MTC, I was told of the necessity of 3 things: love for the people, love for your companion, and love for your mission president. I'm trying to improve my ability to have charity towards others, and I'm beginning to recognize why it's so necessary.

Two of the people we're currently teaching are named Cuco and Tere. We knocked on the door a week and half ago; they had heard from other missionaries before and were very accepting. We left them with a Book of Mormon and the invitation to read it and pray to know of it's veracity. Afterwards, it had been difficult to teach them again because they seem to always be occupied, but Saturday morning, we went to their house early and found them! Cuco told us that he had been reading and praying, and he bore simple and fervent testimony to us that he knew it was a true book. I asked him if he thought he would be able to join us in church on Sunday, and he said, "No, I'm going to go. Even if Teri doesn't want to, I am going." Teri came too! Both of them are preparing to be baptized, but they're both currently involved in divorces that will need to be completed before they can be married and baptized! So... we meet again, Mexican bureaucracy.

Ulises, a recent convert, has a djembe! So I was jamming on that for a bit, when he pulled out a pair of drumsticks as well. And then we proceeded to grab all of the hittable items in his house, and after a while had a collection of buckets and bowls and bottles for a rocking percussion jam session. Ward talent show, here we come!

Member support.

We had a baptismal service! Estrella, Marìa Luisa and Carlos were baptized. It was really fun, and a lot of ward members came to support them. We've really started to see some success with finding new people to teach in the area this week. I've started referring to a certain apartment building as the Magic House. We were teaching a family (Miguel and Isabel) outside of their apartment, and during the lesson, the neighbor walked out and said: "Hey! I'm Mormon! Come teach my girlfriend." When we were teaching that family (Carlos and Monsey), they told us that we should meet the family above (Fabiola and Victor) as well. So we went to meet them, and now were teaching them too! And there are still a few doors that we haven't knocked on yet. We had a cool experience with Fabiola and Victor. We went to knock on their door, and Fabiola answered and said: "Sorry, we're eating right now. Also, we go to another church." We told them that we would come by some other time, but later that day, we were waiting for another appointment (Miguel and Isabel) to show up, and Fabiola and Victor invited us up for some Horchata! Victor said that while he was living in Mexico City, there was a chapel nearby where the missionaries would have meetings often, and he had always been curious about what we do. They had a lot of questions for us, and we just answered the questions and bore simple tesimony of our purpose, and the effect was very strong. That helped me to recognize the importance of maintaining an appropriate missionary being at all times. If Victor had seen a group of rowdy 20-something year olds in Mexico City instead of the missionaries, representing Jesus Christ, he would have been understandably less curious. We cannot rest from what we do because of what we represent.

Tamales

Elder Johnson and I

This week, Elder Cervera and I have knocked on a lot of doors, and we haven't seen hardly any success. So, we're trying to think of some better, more creative ways to work. I'd really like advice from anyone who can give it! Maybe return missionaries who had success with some activities in their missions. We're working on planning some ward missionary activities right now, but I'm not a big fan of just blindly contacting like we resort to doing when we don't have any plans. Trio days! Elder Johnson joined our companionship for a few days while his companion was in Culiacàn. And we made some delicious tamales! Good times. Our main investigator right now is Estrella. She is really awesome. Her good friend is Hermana Juana, who has really done more missionary work with Estrella than we have. Estrella's baptismal service is planned for next Saturday, and was announced in Sacrament Meeting and everything. She's an engineer and is really intelligent; honestly, it's quite refreshing to teach her. Usually, when we ask someone if they read a part of the Book of Mormon that we had left for them, they say yes, and glance down at the first paragraph and quote the first few words to prove that they did. Estrella is reading from the beginning and is already in 2 Nephi, and always has involved questions and really thoughtful commentary. We're really excited for her!