Week 53 - The week where working with members is more productive

Well this week fortunately went much better than last week.

 

On Tuesday, really nothing happened. All of our charlas fell through, so we basically were on our feet all day but that`s fine; it`s actually pretty common.

 

On Wednesday we visited H again. We had to advance his baptismal date to July 6th because he didn't come to church last week. After that we started teaching him the commandments. He really impressed with his level of understanding and commitment to follow them even though he`s had a couple of little habits and ideas to change. If for him the blessings were at stake, he knew the correct decision to make. Very impressive for a 16 year old.

We also had a Family Night with President Nunez and his family, including the family of P, his sister-in-law. We had control of the thought that night because we wanted to utilize it to teach P's son L. His Mom and brother are members but he's not. We explained the importance of putting God first in our lives and we would be blessed in all other aspects, using the Basketball video of Tyler Hawes.

 

On Thursday we had a Branch Activity that was super fun! We had a game of two teams that was a trivia about the "Come, Follow Me" reading of the week. It was super fun and L went also, as well as another joven (youth) we're trying to reactivate named E. Luckily, he's super good friends with L, so as they both start coming we could get some mutual support going there!

 

On Friday we had a lot of charlas fall through like H, but we had a quick charla with M and Y where we really just did follow-up with them and set up a charla for Saturday.

 

On Saturday we had a charla with M and Y where we basically called them out because they didn't come to church again, and we basically told them that if they didn't come to church this Sunday that we wouldn't be able to pass by anymore. We tried to do it with all the love in the world but it`s always super hard to have to drop the "threat."

We also finished our last required lesson with H on Saturday and we planned for his baptismal interview to be done on Sunday.

 

On Sunday H and L came to church! They both really liked it and L even made the comment when he found out that H was going to be baptized (because they are also friends) said that he also would like to be baptized if one of his friends would do it. Obviously we're going to talk to him about that a little more in depth later this week... H also passed his baptismal interview which was super awesome! He`s good to go for this Saturday!!

En fin (in the end), we had to drop M and Y because they didn't come to church.

N and J are still kind of there, they were just out of town again this weekend, and it`s kind of hard to have a charla with them because we can`t enter their house because the Dad is basically never there...

 

What we learned this week was really the importance of working with the members. All 4 of our best people for right now are references of some sort.

H - We met while visiting less actives.

L - Incomplete (part-member) Family

N and J - Reference from our Branch President.

They've all come to church and are progressing well; meanwhile it seems like we are dropping the vast majority of those we find with our own contacting in about a week because we can never find them, they randomly tell us not to come back, or they just simply don`t want to progress.

I know the Lord prepares a way for each person, member or missionary to share the gospel. It is especially effective coming from a good friend, rather than 2 strange dudes that show up knocking on the door. We all have the duty share, and we all have the Holy Ghost to guide us in our efforts. May we always have the desires to open our mouths, be bold, and share to gospel with all those that are around us.

I love you all! Nos vemos!

 

-Elder Martin

Elder Vega and Elder Martin

Um....I have no idea what this is about

Bryant burning a white shirt (and a couple of ruined ties) 

for his one-year mark on June 27th.