6 Julio 2015

Happy Independence Day!

For those of you who asked, nothing was done to celebrate. We even mentioned it to a couple people and nobody said anything, just a couple sympathetic smiles. Oh well. I'll have to wait till September for a REAL Independence celebration then. At least I think that's when the Mexican Independence is....

That's weird thinking about Elder Lewis being home. Tell him HI for me and that I'm sorry for stopping writing him. I was writing him for a few weeks....and then that died out.

This week has been the BEST of the mission so far! My companion and I are doing SUPER well. We had SEVEN investigators in church. We asked God to surprise us again and BOY did he surprise us!

First, Javier, Blanca's husband. He still doesn't want to get baptized, but at least he's coming. We'll see what happens later on down the road.

Second, Maribel came for the second time! And afterward she said she wants to get baptized on Saturday. She just kind of nonchalantly came up and said, "Yeah, I really liked Relief Society. And I just wanted to tell you that I'm getting baptized on Saturday." Awkward silence. "Oh really?" So we're going to need special permission to baptize her, but according to a talk that the President gave us to read a few months ago by President Dyer, the time to baptize an investigator is as soon as the investigator is ready and wants to. The lessons can be taught in 10 minutes after that and you can go right to the water. So I'm guessing the President Rodriguez will give us permission. AHHAH! she's so awesome!

Third, Maricela came for the second time as well, and she LOVED it for a second time! She's the one that just showed up to church last week out of the blue. We had a lesson with her this week where she just poured out everything that's ever been hard for her ever, and she has been SO prepared to receive this gospel.

Fourth, Mayela and her kids came to church for the first time. At first we were kind of nervous because the service started off kind of rough when the Bishopric asked if there were any babys to be blessed in the congregation (these things apparently don't necessarily get informed about beforehand, they just get asked for impromptu like that and SOMETIMES it's the baby's own family members that bless). But then the testimonies started and it was all fine. Afterward she decided to go home early because her two little kids were getting antsy and so she left and told us that next week she'd plan better to be able to stay all three hours. We thought she didn't looked to enthused, but then afterward we went to her house to give her back her son's shoe that he dropped and she threw open the door and got us past it and sat us down with cool water before we could explain we were just there to give her her son's shoe. Then she started telling us about what happened in the church. SHE SAW LIGHTS AND ANGELS! She said she saw silhouettes of tall, shiny white people standing behind and beside some of the people giving testimonies and that she wouldn't have told us if we hadn't passed by to drop off the shoe, something about how she would have thought she had just imagined it if she couldn't tell us about it that same day. AAAAAAHHHHHHH! She's so AWESOME!

Fifth, we had a new investigator in church. She went to Bellavista ward last week, also without an invitation. We went and visited her and her husband (a less-active member) last week. They have some serious problems. I know exactly how the gospel will bless their life, but they've got a rough road of change ahead of them.

We haven't seen Luis all week and he didn't come to church this week, so we don't know what's going on with that. Same with Martha. And unfortunately we lost our phone in a taxi this week and so we don't have anybody's numbers.

God has just been "laying it on thick" as my companion said. I don't know what the heck I might have done to deserve these blessings, but He's sure been doing His part. I just REALLY REALLY hope he's not building us up just to bring us down again. So we're praying really hard for these people.

Also, we made an AWESOME contact yesterday that turns out it's a middle-aged couple. We helped them bring in their groceries and the hermana turns and looks at us and says, "Wow, how very handsome. Are you two married?" "Uh....no." "Good. Come in and sit down, let me get you a coke." So then she sits us down with her husband on the porch with a couple glasses of coke, goes back in and comes back out with a slice of cake for each of us. We say: "Oh, thanks hermana, we really weren't expecting this." "Don't mention it honey. Coke alone just doesn't do." Then begins to throw every question about what it takes and means to be a Mormon as far as rules go. We had to get back to the house to ask for the dats (I'm sorry, I have no idea how to say that in normal-person english) from the district leaders, so we set an appointment for later on in the week, gave her a folletto and left. She and her husband seem really interested. She also presented us with her daughters, two of them. But she said that we're too old for them (and we explained why it wouldn't be possible), but that she'd like her daughters to marry two, young, handsome, pale-skinned boys like us. I really liked her. We'll see what happens this friday when we go.

So that's about it for this last week. We've just got a baptism for Maribel to look forward to this week! She's told us she's determined to be a missionary. It's pretty cool looking at her story and how she just HAPPENED to be living in that house with the less-active family under circumstances that normally wouldn't have happened. She'll be the first member of her town, La Madrid, Coahuila. In forty years, people will call her a pioneer of the church in that area.

I love being a missionary.

That's all for this week! I hope all is well over there por aquel lado!

Los quiero bastante!

Elder Taylor