December 16, 2013

So this week was a good work week. We worked really hard! But.... NOBODY CAME TO CHURCH!!!! haha. We passed by for everyone on Saturday and they all said yes, and then Sunday morning and the majority said yes, and then.... nada.... haha. After church we did what I like to call the shame march and visit everyone. They all had reasons, but we need to work on their faith. Alberto still can get baptized on the 28th so we´re working hard with him. He still needs to give up a fe more cigarrettes, but he´s almost there.
We also are teaching a whole family! I´m really excited. It´s been my dream all mission long to teach a whole family and see their baptism. They´re good, but need some work. The have to get married and need to get over their fear of coming to church. (Corra Family)
So Alberto (super awesome investigator), is doing good, but we had a funny experience. We went to our appointment and there were a lot of people outside and we said, "oh no... a party." But we got there and he said, "oh, we can go inside." so we entered his house and asked if he had a party goin´ on and he said, "no, they`re all hear to listen to you."...... WHAT?!?!
He had invited like 6 people to come and listen to us! He´s better than the members! haha. It was awesome, but one of the references that was there killed the lesson and said negative things about the church.... BUT Alberto testified! He put his Joseph Smith voice on and said, "I testify with Elder Morgan and Elder Velez that this book is true, and that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ." It was the coolest lesson I´ve ever seen!
We are working hard here in this mission in something called the work of salvation, which means visiting all the members and making sure that the new converts and the less actives are really converted, and working with members for our investigators as well. It´s good, but my companion and I are having interesting experiences. We found that a less active recent convert is assisting the Evangelical church and that she thinks that there´s more prayer in prayer circles there than in sincere prayer... so that was an interesting lesson, but a lot of the members here are still caught in hold worshiping habits, such as: Saying their own prayer as someone else prays (whilst whipering), raising the sacrament cup to the air before drinking the water, and taking pills in the name of jesus...... hahaha. It´s a beautiful town.
AND On friday for our ward activity I taught the group the american tradition of..... CAROLING!!! Everyone hated me at first for making them leave and sing, but loved it in the end. We sang at a house and then we went to the plaza and sang where all the lights and the gigantic Catholic church is. Everyone looked at us really weird and one guy told me "ssshhh" but we just kept singing.
Have a great week and rember... "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear" -Elf