Buenos Dias!
Well, this week's been great as we've been enjoying absolutely perfect weather! It's in the 70's and there's been a nice breeze so I definitely can't complain there. We actually went running this morning and it was pretty dark and almost just a tiny bit chilly! I loved it, even though I kind of destroyed myself. My companion has had issues with his leg so he can't really run too much - we ran with a couple missionaries here and I probably ran way too hard. My lungs were toast, but it's SO nice to get a good workout and it was nice to know that I'm at least in way good shape for a missionary :) haha.
But this week's been great, it's looking a lot better than last week, which was kind of slow. Members are coming out with us to more lessons and helping us get people baptismal dates who are ready. David, who had to wait for over a year to be officially divorced, is going to get married and baptized next Saturday and it looks like Hermana Amparo is finally going to get baptized either next week or the week after! We have this sister in our branch here, Hermana Leos, who is seriously the best missionary EVER! She brings up baptism all the time, has no fear doing it, and really helps the investigator know how much she cares about them and wants them to enjoy these blessings. It also helps so much when it comes from somebody besides us. I hope some day that I can be as good of a missionary as her, honestly. She's a branch missionary here and every single investigator she has been working with so far has gotten baptized. It's pretty sweet to be a part of, really.
Well, we haven't had a chance to visit the Barraza family too much lately. Cesar Jr.and Nathalie did get to go to the San Diego temple on Saturday though and loved it! They couldn't believe how white and gorgeous everything was inside. They said they literally felt like they were in heaven and said they've never felt anything like it before. They were asking how long it would be before they could get to sealed together as a family, and we said it could just be a year if your parents would get baptized now! Cesar Sr. also wanted to go to the temple real bad, and we told him he could if he hurried up and got baptized. They were going to do it this weekend, but it's pretty crazy with Halloween and everything so we're going to shoot for next week sometime. Maria Barraza, the mom, says she still wants to know more, but does know that she's not going to any other church and I think she wants to be more committed or something when she gets baptized. But she's sharing it with her very Catholic family, reading the Book of Mormon every day, and the kids are stronger in the Gospel than anyone else I've taught so far. It's so cool.
This week, it was pretty cool - for our missionary work fireside we had a movie night and everyone brought friends while we had some amazing agua de pina (basically the most amazing pineapple drink you can imagine) and horchata (which is super delicious as well). We got quite a few potential investigators out of the deal and we had a lot of less-active members and a few investigators there as well. So I would call it a success! It seems like a lot of our work lately has been re-activating members and working with less-active families which is way cool too. A lot of people lately have had the desire to come back to Church. Last P-day this lady came into the Church as we were playing games and talked to us in Spanish about how much she wants to come back and be involved again. So she did come on Sunday and we had a lesson with her yesterday! It's interesting that it's always the mothers that see the need for the Gospel in their lives, and I guess that's the main reason that we're teaching almost all females! They're usually a lot more open and I guess more receptive and sensitive to the Spirit in general.
Another thing that's cool is that this week we're really focusing on opening our mouths (OYM's) and we set a massive goal as a zone. It's way more than we've ever gotten before but so far it's going really well and the missionaries here are all doing their best to talk to everyone. This means talking to people about the Gospel outside of tracting and lessons and everything. But yeah, we're getting probably 3 or 4 times as many now than we were before as we seriously talk to every single person we see. So far not too much has come from it, but we definitely feel better and we know that everything is going a whole lot better with our investigators and that we are getting blessed for it.
One thing that was pretty sad is that we had one investigator, Ester, who is one of Cesar's friends, who we can't really visit any more. She's super interested and things were going awesome when we talked to her, but her mom is super against the Church and doesn't want us over any more - doesn't want her to go to Church either. Ester really wants to keep coming and learning more, but we'll just have to see how it turns out and be careful. It's sad to see parents keep their kids from such a wonderful thing. But she's awesome and I know she'll get baptized sometime.
So life is great and it looks like we're going to go to the Trunk-or-treat at the Church this weekend. We're not really supposed to be out in the streets Saturday or Sunday night so we're going to be seeing if we can have quick lessons or just go to activities and such. Most missionaries get to go to the temple Saturday, but we're too far away so we don't really have the option. Transfers are this next week, so we'll see how they go! I don't know if they're going to have me and Elder Cuthbertson together for another one... I know I want to stay though!
Well eso es todo por ahora. Gracias por todo! Que les vayan bien
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