We had Leadership Council! And it was really different from the point of view of the assistant. I got a little nervous while passing the monthly report of the mission because it was something I'd never done before. I didn't really know what to say. But then once that was done and we started the capacitation, I felt like I was in familiar territory again, so it was fine.
It was fun to see some old companions, namely Elder Hernandez and Elder Flores. Both are a little skinnier, which is good because Elder Hernandez had been gaining weight and a rather alarming rate. We were together for Christmas and New Year and that's why, I think. Anyway, he's looking better. He gave me good news and bad news: Karen keeps going to church and is working on her Personal Progress. Yarik passes the sacrament every week and the missionaries still eat dinner with that family at least once a week. Leopoldo is still active. Who wudda thunk? María Esther has a calling: Coordinadora de las comidas para los misioneros. Fitting. She was always looking for opportunities to give us food. The only bad news: Yocelin's husband doesn't let her go to church or see anybody from the church. Elder Hernandez says she looked really sad the last time they saw her.
Also, a TON of people we were teaching are getting baptized in these next couple months: Martha Mijangos, the Familia Rocha, the Familia Morales Bueno, and the Familia Perez Cruz. CRAZY! That whole zone is going to baptize an estimated amount of about 20 people, them ALONE. That's just about unheard of from Piedras Negras.
But people here: The family we're teaching keep disappearing on us for the same reason, because of the health problems of the mom's dad. We almost haven't seen them and looks like we probably won't see them for a while. But they're still excited and going strong.
The guy that had been my old investigator in Frontera: SUPER AWESOME! For questions of security, I'll call him Mario. We finally found him again by accident and started teaching him. He shared us some of the stuff he used to do. He says he's never killed or raped anyone, but he's done just about everything else. We taught him repentance and told him that to completely repent he had to get baptized. He then asked us when. "If you guys want, you can take me to the church and just dump some warm water on me and call it good." Obviously, it takes a little more preparation than that. We taught him in the church last night and showed him the baptismal font. Towards the end of the lesson he was looking a little distracted and we asked him what was up and he said he was really hungry. He didn't have money and had been looking for a job all day so he wasn't in the house where they could have given him food. He said he's been trying not to steal ever since we first saw him so that's why he didn't steal to eat. I LOVE this guy!
We keep finding some great people, but nobody besides these people has really progressed.
Funny story from a couple weeks ago: we eat with a less active lady in the ward (who actually looks remarkably like Sister Marcum). We go to share a message and I start it. After a couple minutes I notice that my companion is dead out asleep. I roll my eyes and the lady and I keep talking. So then I ask her "Who do you know that worries you for us to go and help them?" Which is just a sneaky way of asking for a reference. But in that second Elder Ninataype snaps awake and starts, "I know Jesus is the Christ, I know that God loves us, I know that Joseph Smith was His prophet..." And just keeps going in really fast Spanish for a few minutes. The lady just stared. I almost lost it laughing. We wrapped up with a prayer, grabbed our stuff and ran. As soon as we were around the corner, we just bust out laughing our heads off.
So yep. That's what's going on here.
Everyone have a great week!
Elder Taylor
