Letter 24: "A mission of constant changes" (Part DOS)

Sonsonate, El Salvador
July 14, 2011

This is the second part of Letter 24: "A mission of constant changes"
If you haven yet, [and you want to] please read first Letter 24: "A mission of constant changes" (Part DOS)

Previously in Letter 24...
"Hello family and friends! There is so much that happens everyday and so many different sensations that one can feel... and it changes constantly-- No two minutes are the same."

"I have a new companion, Hna Fuentes. She is awesome!"

"Boundaries of the mission Changed. we are now even smaller!... Our mission is called now El Salvador Santa Ana/Belice Mission."

"All the missionaries got moved around and now our zone went from having 16 missionaries to have about 23... We used to be really close, but now it feels like companionships are on their own...It feels like we are less unified in purpose."

"Biggest change of all: Presidente Lopez is finishing his mission this week! Next week we get a new President! Presidente Cordon."

"I think that's it as far as all of the changes. Except our investigators. Which are constantly changing..."

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The old man (who didn’t understand)
We have a few new positives [Investigators]. Jose Garcia is an awesome old man. He has 79 years (OK This is proof of how bad my English is getting...pretty bad!)

He is lonely. We started visiting him and found out that he never had parents and his kids never talk to him.

“Only God is with me”
He always says, “Solo Dios conmigo” (Only God is with me). He wants so much to follow God. Before (and sometimes still) we thought that he didn’t really understand what we were talking about… because he just said “Yes” [to anything].

We asked him if he wanted to get baptized, he said yes, and then, we asked when he wanted to be baptized, and he just said, “it’s up to you. You’re the ones taking the time to help me. Whatever time you decide is good with me....”

...So [to make sure if he understood] we asked him what baptism meat and he told us exactly what it means and why we needed to be baptized... we were shocked... in a good way!

He is HOPEFULLY getting baptized this Sunday. I guess we'll see...

The family (who didn’t understand)
We also have a family that we are visiting; The Chuniko Family (awesome last name!). It consists of Irvin (kid- age15), Zuleyma (kid- age13), Judith(Mom) and Carlos (Cousin).

Mostly we are teaching Irvin and Zuleyma, Carlos is always there and wants to listen and participate, but he always says that Irvin and Zuleyma need to hear this and he thinks that he doesn’t.

They are awesome. They don’t go to church, but have a sincere desire to learn.

"Teaching people"
Yesterday in the Missionary Zone Conference (Multi-zona) we talked about teaching people, not just lessons. A lot of times we teach and it’s like we are just going through a list, checking off things that we need to teach.

Lesson 1… check, Book of Mormon… check, Lesson 2… check... etc. A lot of times we forget that we are trying to help people.

Well, yesterday we had a lesson with the Chunikos and the plan was just to teach lesson 2. But then we started talking to them about what they read in the Book of Mormon.

And they had all read it (YAY!) but they didn’t understand [what they read].

So we started talking about the point of reading scriptures and how it’s not just about reading, but it’s about applying it to our lives. And learning about what we need to do from the scriptures... So we took 20 minutes or so and analyzed Moroni 10:3-5. It was awesome!

So we left them two more verses and homework to analyze. Irvin told us when we came yesterday that he was going to go to church this next week... I really hope he does because chances are if he does, Zuleyma will too!!

“Sequel?”
We have more investigators I want to talk about but due to lack of time and how long this post is, I will save the rest for next week :)

"A mission of constant changes" (Part TRES?)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!