We had a bit of a let down this week. A lot of our time we spent preparing a baptismal service for Jesabel on Saturday. We were visiting the family each day throughout the week, and brought a few members with us to their house. On Friday, we spent a good portion of the evening inviting members to the service, and on Saturday we had everything prepared. Jesabel never showed up! And now the family has had to move back to Mexico City, so we weren’t able to find out really well what inhibited her from coming. We’ve just prayed a lot that everything goes well for her.

Every second week of the month, we have missionary Sunday! So all four of us in the San Josè 2 district spoke. I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost: His role and mission, the way we can receive guidance from Him, and the importance of following the impressions or guidance we receive. It’s strange how personal experiences from years past just work their way out of the folds of my brain when I need them, even if I had never really considered them before.

This week, Elder Crabb and I just want to work ourselves to the bone. Diligence and efficiency are our goals, and I really just want to focus on finding new people. I take comfort in knowing that if we are doing all the right things, we will have the greatest Guide available, so we’ll trust in that guidance.

Elder Crabb, Talent Show, Victor, Jesabel

Working with Elder Crabb this week has been really fun. He's just been super pumped and ready to dive into everything. Also, he's a total choir boy, so we've been blowing people away with two-part harmony and have already been roped into a few musical numbers. I think he's acted in all of the musicals that have been written. We've found a few really cool new people this week. One is Daniel, who is the son of a less active member. He's one of the smartest people I've taught, and is nine.

We also visited an investigator who I hadn't seen for a while, and we had a really cool experience. He's having a really hard time right now. A drug and alcohol addiction has recently caused him to lose his family and his job, so things have been rough. When we met with him, he was a bit drunk, but we did our best to counsel him. At one point he asked me if I had ever used drugs, and said, "How can you help me if you don't understand what I'm going through?"

I found an answer and a conclusion. We taught about Jesus Christ's Atonement, how he chose to experience such suffering so that he would be the Great Healer, and know exactly how to succor each of us in our trial. We taught that we represent Him, and can therefore bring him that healing comfort. Elder Crabb mentioned later, "You really know that you're teaching by the Spirit when you learn too."

We also had a ward talent show this week! A bunch of investigators showed up and Daniel was chosen to participate in this cool painting activity. I did a percussion number with Hermano Ulises, who is a recent convert of Elder Cervera's and one of my best friends here. He has djembe and brought some drumsticks and various bottles, so we just did a rocking improvised jam for a few minutes. I also played guitar and sang for a solo act. There were a few awesome dances from the Relief Society, Young Women's and the Primary, stand-up, a dialogue, and this ten-year-old kid did a awesome solo number and sang this wierd, really romantic song. It was a great activity.

For next week, we'll be helping Jesabel prepare for her baptismal service planned for next Saturday! Elder Crabb really likes talking to and playing with her three kids, Alejandro, Atzel and Alexa. We brought them a bunch of mangos last night because all they had to eat was a box of Zucaritas (Frosted Flakes) and then their temporary apartment flooded... But they sure like reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church!

Cuco, Cambios, Cebische, Crepas, Elder Crab

We arrived just in time to Hermana Maria Luìsa's house to pretend we had helped bake the bread!

Here's Carlos and Monsey's crepe stand! They're some really good friends who just don't seem to be able to find the chapel on Sunday afternoons when they've promised that they'll come. But the do make some really good crepes!

The music that I appreciated most is dynamic. The focus is often more on the gaps between the music than the notes themselves. Sometimes, the sound of silence is the most impressive. My mission is a little like that on a grand scale, and of a smaller measure, a really good lesson can be that way as well. A really busy weekend feels unfortunately like Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." There's no break! It's a great weekend, but it's like being blasted with stress for 48 hours straight. I often feel like that's what the mission is all about: being as busy as possible and filling every moment with work. However, some of the better weekends are more like Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor." They are still really intense, but the breaks in that intensity have just as much importance as the busy times. I hope I can eventually find a "Moonlight" sonata type of balance in the missionary work I do, and it's because those times when silence sounds, the Spirit speaks. Within a lesson, a bit of silence is almost necessary if the Holy Ghost is going to have an active teaching role. I'm trying to improve the balance in my work so that the Spirit really is the third member of our companionship. Cuco - the investigator who needed to be divorced and then married to be baptized - is awesome, and such an example of faith for me. We told him that steps he needed to take, and he started immediately. We went by his house on Thursday, and they were preparing to leave to Veracruz to start the divorce process. He has a strong testimony of the Gospel, and he acts on it. This transfer was a bit rough because Elder Cervera and I had some difficulties in our companionship unity. However, on Friday, we had a conversation and were really honest and open about what had been upsetting us, and basically solved all of our problems. The end of the transfer was really great. And so, we made up just in time for Elder Cervera to be transferred to San Lucas! That means we're still in the same zone. Which brings me to the new transfer. I will be training. I think my trainee's name is Elder Crab. I am really, really excited, and bit nervous. The attitudes and habits that I exhibit as a trainer will be... extremely influential on my companion for a long time, so I'm going to do my best.

Elder Cervera and I helped out at a Young Men's activity when they learned to make Ceviche, which ended up being Elder Tingey (with his powerful contact lenses) cuts all of the onions while the Young Men all leave the room trying to fight onion-provoked tears.

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!