08/08/11 - Letter to the World

Good Afternoon, World: Let´s get right to it!

2-ago
Today the sister missionaries gave us a really cool reference for a family living right near our house. We didn´t get to know them really well, but they seem really positive. We had a ton of appointments set up for today, but they all fell through, which gave us plenty of time to contact and find some new families.

3-ago
Yesterday they told us that we would have mini-cambios and today I worked in my area with Elder García, a chapín (Guatemalan) that has 5 months in the mission. We taught a really powerful lesson about the restoration to Teresa y Henry, a newer family; contactamos una referencia TUANIS from a member; and we ended the day with a family home evening with a super cool member that invited the missionaries, but more importantly a new investigator and a menos activa. She shared her testimony and a message about the importance of families.

4-ago
I´m back with my comp! All morning long we had weekly planning, in which we made brownies, taught an English class, and planned out the week. This afternoon we invited a TON of people to the noche de hermanamiento. We played a fun game, watched the John Tanner movie and the best part - TERESA Y HENRY SHOWED UP! Something I love about this area is that when there are investigators at church, everybody treats them as if they were their best friends. After the activity, we went to visit some recent converts of Elder Moore and had an awesome spiritual experience. When we got there, one of the daughters was sick so we gave her a blessing. After the blessing, the other sister said that she wanted one too, so we taught the Dad, who had recently received the Higher Priesthood, how to give a blessing. After her, the two grandsons received blessings and we ended with the most sincere and simple prayers that I´ve heard in a long time, offered by the youngest. My comp and I both left with water-filled eyes and stronger testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Priesthood blessings are incredible and miraculous. A child´s prayer, I believe, is more powerful than we often recognize.

5-ago
Today we had an English Test for the brown missionaries that live here in El Viejo. Every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday we have English classes for them during language study and today they ALL passed! After lunch we went to talk to Maritsa (the reference from the sister missionaries). When we were leaving, the husband, Jairo, got home, so tomorrow we´re going back to talk to the both of them. They seem really nice, but there are some problems that need to be resolved as well before they can move forward too far. After a long day of looking for recent converts and running into a TON of inactives we´d never met before, we finished up with an appointment with Karla, an investigator that couldn´t get rid of her boyfriend. Before today, neither my comp nor I had broken up with a guy...we now both have experience in the matter. She couldn´t do it and she asked us if we would, so we did. He said he´d stay away now and that will really help Karla progress, ´cause like I told them yesterday: A drunk isn´t going to stop drinking if he lives in a bar.

6-ago
References Rock! I feel like all this week we´ve been receiving bomb references for families - it´s fantastic! Today it was a family shown to us by our most pilas investigators, Teresa y Henry. The new family was super excited to see us and we were able to give a blessing to the twenty-something year-old daughter, Guadelupe, who has a disease where her body randomly attacks itself. It´s called lupous or lopos...something like that. Powerful week!

This week we have a really cool activity planned for Thursday! I know everything will go great! The missionaries here are awesome - if I do say so myself haha

Love you all! Elder Denton