Well, I thought I knew the meaning of crazy and busy before but little did I know - We are far busier than we've ever been before, and teaching more people than ever. Instead of teaching 10-15 lessons a week, we're teaching at least 25! The members are starting to come out more and it's cool to see them get so excited about the investigators they're visiting. They get incredibly excited to see the people they visited come to church, and they're doing a great job of befriending them and making sure they feel welcome. The highlight of the week was our investigator that we taught for the first time last wednesday. Her name is Francisca, and she was a referral from a member in our branch that works with her. He told us she said she was interested and we should go visit her. So we did pass by with him, and then she wanted us to keep coming back. On Friday (we went on splits so I wasn't there) Elder Lindquist invited her to get baptized the 26th and she asked if she could do it any earlier!! So she's going to get baptized next Thursday, the 17th with her daughter. I honestly have never seen anyone progress so fast or taught anyone so incredibly prepared for everything. She already felt like it was right and what she needed, even though she didn't know much about it. Probably one of the coolest people I've met...
So that was exciting and we also had another random lesson where we found a bunch of new investigators! We were walking down the street and Elder Lindquist recognized some girl he had talked to before. She was with her boyfriend outside, so we didn't think she would let us in or give us any time. But she totally did and we taught her whole family, including her neighbor and her boyfriend. It was a sweet lesson and they were all excited about the prospect of going to church. It's always nice to teach people that really do have true interest and want to know if what we're teaching is true.
What we've been trying to deal with lately is being efficient with time, since there are so many people to see and there's not near enough time to visit them all. This week we're going to try to work for and arrange a whole lot of splits so we can get work done. We actually just had this big zone conference yesterday, where the mission president and everyone came down to train us and check everything (houses and cars being way clean). We talked a lot about raising our vision of what we can accomplish, and about improving the quality of our lessons. Before, during, and after we teach, we're supposed to be asking ourselves these questions - What evidence is there that.. 1) Their faith is increasing 2) they are repenting 3) they are preparing themselves to be baptized and 4) that the Holy Ghost is present. I think it would be a lot better to evaluate more, and to really think about it so we can improve, and that people really can come closer to Christ instead of just being taught principles without application.
Oh, and we also had a sweet lesson last night! The Juarez family that we're teaching is going to be baptized Feb 23rd! I'm not sure if the mom will yet, but the 2 kids for sure will. What was really sweet was the 16-year old's response to our question. We asked if he felt like us coming over had increased his faith. He really sincerely thought about it and said,"Yes". He said he has developed a relationship with his savior and his Father in Heaven that he had never had before, and that he wants to get baptized so that he will be able to baptize the rest of his family and his girlfriend! It's so cool to see the gospel really change lives and see the excitement for sharing the Gospel that these people develop as they understand it all. He wants to be the example for his family, and wants to keep them reading and praying and doing those things that they should. I felt really bad also, because he said he did come to church on Sunday but he came early and we weren't there yet - we were visiting other people and reminding them about church. He actually went with his brother, but they didn't see us so they left!! We felt really bad, but we're excited to see them all come this next week.
So random fact - as missionaries some of the things we probably dislike the most are... annoying tiny little chihuahuas, ice cream trucks that are incredibly loud and play the same songs over and over again, and people saying they will go to church or do things "Si dios quiere". We have to tell them yes, God does want it! He does want you in church! You just have to do it, because He's not going to force you to.
Anyway, life is great, and I love Yuma! Work is wild and we're doing everything we can for sure. I love my mission.
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