Week 87 - The week of my first baptism interview!!

This week was super fun honestly! Things are great here in Rivera!

First things first though, I need to mention something that happened last week that I forgot but it is super cool!  I was able to go on divisions with the Elders in Tranqueras, Elder Behunin and his oro ("greenie" or new trainee) Elder McKenna. For those of you that don't remember, that was my area here in Rivera the last time I was here about 7 months ago. I got to visit a lot of the members that I became good friends with, and especially L. that got baptized soon after I left. It was actually his family that gave us lunch that day! It was super great to see everyone. I love all of them so much. That's one hard thing with the mission really, growing to love people and then having to leave. 

On Tuesday we had divisions with the Elders in Central 2, Elder Ross and Elder Galvis. I was with Elder Galvis in our area in Central 1. I still haven't been in this area for a very long time but it was good! I only got lost twice. Haha! We had a good day and found some new people to teach during the day and visited some more members getting to know them a little bit. At the end of the day we had a basketball activity with our ward that was great. Basketball is not that big of a sport down here, so most of the Latinos I've played with have not been that good (not that I'm any good either honestly - I'll just stick to my tennis.) but this ward actually loves basketball and it was actually a super good game. In the last game we were only playing to 5 points with 1 and 2 point shots, but you had to win by 2. The last game ended at 10-8 and my team won and I, by some miracle, managed to get 7 of those points! All the youth in the ward love me now! Haha!

We also found a guy named F. this week! He is super cool! He and his wife had their first baby about a month ago. We haven't talked to his wife yet, but F. was talking with us about how a belief in God is very important in a family, but how he didn't go to any church. We talked a little bit about the importance the church plays in strengthening the home and family and we're going back this week to have a more complete conversation with him and hopefully his wife too!

We also had a cool experience with an inactive member this week name J. R. He is inactive now, but he served a mission in South Carolina! Initially he just told us that he didn't want to receive us and just closed his door, so we went away a little upset after that, but then as we were walking away he opened the door and called out to us and told us to come back. We went to his house and then he told us, "I served a mission too, I know how it is. I can't close the door on you guys." He told us stories and experiences from his mission, his inactivation story, and it was all in all a really good conversation. He had some sad experiences with church leaders here, but even though that happened, that doesn't justify leaving the church. He's gotten himself into some problems since he left the church, and only because he couldn't get past the judgement of his leaders. I've seen that as a problem here in Uruguay a lot unfortunately. Can we all just remember that leaders are not perfect either and that they ́re all just trying their best? The last thing they need is people criticizing them for their mistakes. They need our support just as much as we need theirs.

Finally, yesterday I finally got to do my first baptism interview! It was for a man named S. from Cuba that recently moved to Uruguay. He's a total capo! He understood everything super well, and one note from that interview that assured that he really was ready for baptism, was that he answered every single one of my questions of "How do you know this is true?" by saying that he read the scriptures and he had a testimony and had gained knowledge from them. That is the key! Scripture study is a simple principle, but when applied daily and diligently, it can have a huge impact in the course of our life!

Alright before this email becomes a novel, I ́m going to be out of here!

I love you all! Nos vemos!

 

-Elder Martin

Bryant's first baptism interview

(His new companion is Elder Cox in the front of this pic)

Playing spike ball

My son is tired!  Ha ha

He says he is going to sleep for days when he gets home.