got back from a zone activity. We played basketball and soccer and had a little barbecue with hamburgers, hot dogs, cake, and jello. It was fun.
First, the good news. I found my memory card that I thought I had lost. Wooohooo! It was literaly a miracle because after having been lost for several weeks I looked in the same pocket of my backpack that I had already checked like 5 times, but for some reason this time I found it. I still bought another 4 GB memory card anyway because I needed another one. Today I plan on backing up my memory card to a CD.
Apart from that this week has been very difficult. I felt pretty depressed yesterday. On saturday we had six appointments fall through and we are still struggling a lot to find new investigators that are really interested. None of our investigators or the less actives we are teaching are showing up to church. The worst part though is that I`m seeing many of the people I baptized/taught go inactive right before my eyes and I don`t know what to do about it. Yesterday, I called Consuelo, the old lady I baptized who lives with her two grandchildren and her mentally disabled child, to ask her if she wanted us to take her to church and she told me that they are no longer going to go to our church. I didn`t ask her more details over the phone, but I just don`t understand what we did wrong. Just about everytime we went over there after she was baptized we helped her clean her house or her dishes or some other type of service. I have tried to give her all the love I`m capable of, and before she was so convinced that this was the true church. But, I should have known better. She doesn`t ever read the Book of Mormon and wasn`t really ready to be baptized. Patricia also hasn`t been going to church and now she won`t even let us in her house to teach her. She always says she`s busy or sometimes she just sends her kid out to tell us that she`s not there or that she`s busy and can`t come to the door, even when we come only the offer service. It seems like she has some family problems, but still, come on! Leandro, Margarita`s husband still hasn`t recieved the aaronic priesthood yet and hasn`t gone to church for 2 sundays even though he`s been here in Tlaxcala for both of those. It just kills me sometimes. My eyes were watering in sacrament meeting just thinking about. And the ward hasn`t exactly been too helpful in helping keep them active.
The only thing that cheered me up a little on sunday was the lesson we taught to that unmarried couple, Enrique and Carmen. They are going to church, reading, praying, and everything. They love learning about the gospel and accepted a baptismal date yesterday. They want to get married. The only problem is that Carmen, being an emigrant from Colombia, has to get permission from the Colombian government to be able to marry in Mexico. There are two problems with this. It could cost $4000 pesos, which of course they don`t have, but they are saving up, and, two, even if they were to send the money and the request today it would probably take at least a month to get a response. Carmen is going to talk with her lawyer today to see if there´s anyway to speed up and/or cheapen the process, but it doesn`t look like they`re going to be baptized while I`m here.
My district also seems to be having more success. One companionship is planning on baptizing four this by the end of this week and more in the following weeks. I just wish I could provide Elder Rainford with some more spiritual, encouraging, and uplifting experiences, it being his first area and all. Sometimes he wonders exactly why he`s here and, to be honest, even after more than a year and I still sometimes wonder the same thing. I told Pres. Rex before the last transfers that I felt like there was still something for me here in this area, but now I`m really questioning if that was the Spirit telling me that or if it was just me.
Speaking of Pres. Rex. We had our last interviews with him on Friday. He and his wife are being replaced the first of July. Too bad.
I gotta go, I`ll tell you about some other service activities and funny experiences we`ve had next week.
Love,
Brett
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