It’s cold here too. It feels nice but my feet get cold at night.
[Elder] Cruz is in his last week here in the mission. He has turned into a pig! I’m always cleaning up after him. [Elder] Roylance too. He has been such a great help to me in these last few weeks and a great companion. It’s gonna be hard to see him go.
It was a good work week and a bad one. There was a mission tour this week. Elder Tenorio of the Seventy was with President Fuentes and Roylance had to play piano for all three days. So we had to go drop him off on Tuesday. We went to the tour on Thursday. Friday we took Luci and her husband Liborio to get married so they could get baptized. and all the chores that accompany that. So we had a lot of time in other things; only teaching 9 lessons the whole week. But we still had 7 baptisms. On Saturday the visitor’s center came out to our chapel. They have a little portable cv they drag around and set up. They were there from 10 till 3 having 157 people go through the tour and a massive stack of refrences. It was fun. All we had to do was direct the people inside the chapel and the sisters did the rest. I’m a bit overwhelmed by the work load we now have because we have so many references in our area to check. While we were there at 11 we had the baptism of Estela, Mighuel angel, Brenda, Rosa Rangel and Vania. Estela is the sister of Irma and Miguel and Brenda are her kids. Pedro, the dad is still working there, but wants to get on the right path. Alcoholism is hard to get over. Rosa is one of the most special people I’ve ever taught. She was a hard core Christian but was offended pretty bad and so she left there. My first week in this area she and her kids Vania and Bayron went to our English classes. They left their reference and we started visiting them. She always had a lot of questions and never seemed to believe us. But she read. She read every pamphlet and booklet we have and started the Book of Mormon. About 2 weeks ago she was in Alma 7. After a long thorough investigation she finally decided and knew what she should do. It was my pleasure to baptize her. Things went great on Saturday.
Not quite as well on Sunday. There is a custom here that family members just randomly show up at houses and that means all else is put on hold. So while Estela and them were leaving, some in laws showed up and they didn’t make it for their confirmation. Rosa and Vania showed up though. And we had the baptism of Luci and Liborio after the services, but I was running around in such an impatient rage. Sacrament meeting here is a joke. There is no reverence in the ward and one guy got mad at me for hushing his wild kid while [Elder] Roylance was struggling with another. I talked with the brother afterwards but parenting is under attack. The new excuse is “that’s just how he his, I can’t do anything about it.” Dang right! Smiling at him while he drives the Daytona 500 from one end of the tile wall to another isn’t going to do a thing… ohhhh… it’s ok… patience Elder! Luci and Liborio are awesome. Luci has kids in Yucatan that have entered the temple. It is just that she got caught up on the whole plural marriage deal. We fixed that good and she got married and ready. She basically told us. “here are my papers to get married, baptize me on Sundday and put an appointment in one year for my sealing” Liborio looks like a scary guy with the big ol mustache and is all muscly but he is a really simple, honest man. I gave them one of the new Bibles I had bought a while back and signed it. A lot of success, but the big worry is the low retention rate here. [Elder] Cruz calls this ward a bucket with holes in it… it’s a tough situation.
The tour was sweet. Elder Tenorio talked about a lot of things. Its all in my journal. I’ll try and send some thoughts later, I just cant get my thoughts organized right now. It’s Monday. The part I really remember right now is the part of Prayer. He showed a way to get more blessings and more specific blessings; plan it out, and tell the Lord just what is going to happen, what his part is and plea for him to do specific things. Like the servant of Abraham when he went looking for a wife for Isaac. Read that chapter and I’ll explain more later.
Love you all.
Love you all take care, you are in my prayers.
Elder Roylance has a little sister that is turning 11 on Friday, just like mine.
-ELDER SOLOMON
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