I hope things are going well! This last week was probably one of my favorite weeks of my mission; it was great!
I can't remember many the things that happened off of the top of my head but here are some of them:
We have been doing some
tracting lately which I haven't done in a long time but I felt like just
hitting the streets this week so we went out a few times. We usually look for Spanish houses but if there are any people outside we
always talk to them and then send a referral to the English elders.
This week we met a lady named Cecilia and when we walked by I started
speaking Spanish to her but
she interrupted me and said "I have no idea what you're saying; I'm one
of the only people in this area that speaks English". We got to know
her a little bit and even though it was really late I felt prompted to
get all her information, teach her a little bit about the gospel, and
ask if we could come back. We passed the information along to our
roommates that night and didn't think anything more of it. The next
evening we came home and our roommates told us that they had been to see
Cecilia and that she was great! They said she's going through some tough times and a lot of family members that have passed away
recently. She is willing to do anything that the missionaries
say and that she is willing to read anything they give her. She said that she wants to come to church and be baptized! We just
happened to be in the right place at the right time and the Spirit
guided us to someone that needed the gospel even if it wasn't someone we
were going to teach!
Martin's baptism went great
yesterday. We finished teaching him and he was all ready for
the baptism. We ended up re-scheduling the electrical work for this coming Wednesday
so that there wouldn't be any potential problems for him getting
baptized on Sunday. When Sacrament meeting started he wasn't there so
we were worried but we called him and he said he was on his way and just
coming late. During the last hour of church we were running around
making copies of the program, filling the font, getting everyone fitted
with baptismal suits, etc but everything was ready on time. We had to
do everything ourselves since Hermano Ku (the ward mission leader) went to Provo for the weekend
but he ended up getting back an hour before the baptism started and was
able to be there. Martin even had some family come and
the branch supported him really well.
We have seen another few
miracles with a family we are teaching called the Barajas family. We
have only been teaching the mom and her two oldest kids (16 y/o and 14
y/o) but not the 9 y/o because she has soccer practice a lot and her dad
is the coach so he's never there either. He doesn't have a problem
with us being there but hasn't been able to listen yet. On Friday
he was with his son and he heard that they were going to church with us
this weekend and got really mad. That night he confronted his wife
about it but she stood firm that they were going to church with us. He
told us all we wanted to do is convert/change them and she said "How are
they going to change me if I'm not even Catholic?" Then he threatened
to run us off their property the next time we came over but she stood up
for us and said "It's my house. I'll let in who I want. They aren't
doing anything bad like inviting us to dances. They're teaching us
about God". She called us Saturday morning crying and asked for a
member's phone number who we had taken to visit them last. She ended up
talking to the wife and she helped calm her down after this little
argument, then called us back to let us know what was happening so we
wouldn't be worried. On Sunday the 3 of them showed up to church early
and stayed for all 3 hours. We had lots of members ready to make
friends with them and it really worked and they loved it! Afterwards we
asked them if they wanted to stay for the baptism to see what it's like
and they said "We're already here, we might as well stay". They stayed
for the baptism and loved it! The mom even started crying during the baptism because she felt the spirit so strongly. When
her kids saw her crying they came to me and said "My mom's crying, what
do I do?!" I used it as a moment to teach them about the Spirit bearing
witness to them powerfully that this was true. They had a great time
and are progressing well. I feel very blessed to be teaching this
family that is doing everything they can to follow God in their lives
and come to know His true church. We still have a lot to do to overcome
the concerns of the father of the family though.
Things are going well here and
I'm loving every second of every day! I think I'm even getting used to
the heat here! This work is the best.
Les Quiero Mucho,
Elder Gaskill
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