August 1, 2011

Well, pretty much all the new investigators we found last week are no longer showing any real interest, but we found four more new investigators this week that seem promising. We are teaching Berenice, the wife of an inactive returned missionary, Marco Antonio y Leticia, a couple who initially let us in because it was raining but seemed to looking for guidance regarding their daughters who are having some problems in their respective marriages, and Patricia, a single mom with a three year old boy who has had some major problems (her husband is or was in jail) and seems to be searching for peace and understanding by drawing closer to God. We found them all contacting in the street or knocking doors except for Berenice. Her husband stoped us in the street one day and told us to visit him. So, we went and found out that his wife isn´t a member and that after years of inactivity he wants to get involved again in the church. Lucky, Huh. We haven´t been able to get a single investigator to church yet in this entire transfer, which is kind of worrying.

Even though we haven´t had too much success yet. Elder Hurtado had me do the baptismal interview for a couple they taught and they´re so awesome. We went to the baptism on Saturday and I confirmed the husband yesterday. So, I´ve still been able to share some of the joy of success.

We´ve had a lot of support from the new bishop. He´s been demanding with all the organizations, trying to get them to keep track of all the new members and those that have recently reactivated, and has already called a fair number of ward missionaries. He wants to call about 12 or 14 of them. He also wants to have a ward missionary activity every month. This is his third time as bishop. So, he seems to know what he´s doing. The ward mission leader, however, hasn´t been very much help. He´s willing but a lot of times he defers a lot of assignments to me because he doesn´t really know how to do them or he waits to make a decision until I just tell him "do this." So, I´ve pretty much had to plan and develop everything the bishop wants to be done because the other elders are hardly able to attend the coordination meetings and everything. It´s been a little tiring.

I´ve been having a little bit of a hard time knowing how to motivate and help my district, even though it´s only one other companionship, and I´ve been worried about my companion. He´s just so quiet and struggles so much still. It´s seems hard for him to concentrate a lot of times. I always have to take the intiative in every situation. I wish I knew how to help him.

The forecast is correct. It´s been raining almost every day here. I still haven´t gotten your other package, Mom. So, I would say that it´s still not a very sure thing that I will get your packages faster. And, I still haven´t gotten a cell phone. But, I never complain to anyone because it never makes anything happen any faster.

7 and a half or 8 months still seems like a long time to me and besides, I hardly every think about it during the day. I think sometimes I actually focus too much on what I´m doing, because I end up feeling overwhelmed with responsibility or unable to figure exactly what the Lord wants me to do. I still learn to be more patient with myself and with the Lord.