¡Hola mis chicos!
I
can hardly believe all of your folktales with the snow at home. When I read the
first e-mail from Dad saying that it had snowed so much, I could almost feel
that cold feeling of snow. Almost... Nah, not really but it was fun imagining!
I was actually wondering earlier in the week what the weather was like back in
the good ol’ John Denver Rocky Mountains because a couple members were asking
me if I would be sad not having any snow for a couple years. Some days I miss
the cool weather but I really prefer hot weather even if it is humid as the
days!!
This week we had a capacitacion
(interview) with the leaders de zona. (zone leaders)
Elder P. then went on splits with Elder V. and I after because
Elder V. is the Lider de Distrito. (district
leader) I definitely learned a lot from Elder P. that I really want
to try and implement into how I teach. He is always full of energy and the
investigators don't really have time to get bored during the lesson because he
is always saying some sort of compliment, question, or joke. I don't know how else to explain it but simply
put, I've been trying to be more upbeat this week. Not that I haven't been upbeat, I just think
I've been really timid these first few months because I feel like my Spanish
isn't very good. I've decided I'll take
the risk of people laughing at me or if I can't understand, because people have
been a lot more open to my "corker" personality (As mom would say). I mostly have just been more open and easy
going with the members because I figure they will correct me with the language
more willingly than investigators. Then, when I get even more comfortable with
the idioma (language) I can be more
like Elder P. with our investigators. All in all, being happy and
fun-loving is definitely the best way to go in life!!
Also,
in the capacitacion the lideres de zona (the
interview, the zone leaders) introduced some very drastic news. I don't know if this is the same for the whole
world but as of now, we are no longer allowed to go tracting as missionaries in
Mexico. We can still contact in taxis, streets, things like that but the
message was clear: no more door to door tracting!! The leaders of the church were looking over
the numbers of recent converts and over the last three years, only 12,000 of
the 120,000 convert baptisms have remained active. As you can probably guess, we're starting to focus
more on reactivation as well as retention of recent converts. For starters, we had a consejo de Barrio (ward council) with the Bishop and other
leaders in the ward to make a list of 40-50 menos activos (less actives) whom we feel have a good chance of returning with a
little help. Along with that, we are going to visit EVERY active family in the
ward and teach them the message of the Restauracion (restoration) again so they can just get back to the basics of
everything, ¿me explico? (understand? Do
I explain myself?) I have found that although those visits have absolutely
nothing to do with the numbers we report, I really enjoy visiting the members.
It seems like the ones who felt neutral towards us or even really didn't like
the missionaries have begun to like us and they even want to help us teach/find
investigators!! These next few weeks will definitely be slow as far as
investigators go but I'm fine with working with members for now. I know that
working with them will help us in the long run.
Along
with that news, in the consejo de Barrio (ward
council meeting) the ward is planning to have a ward Christmas party this
next month. Every group (young women,
young men, priesthood, Relief Society) is doing some sort of
talent/song/what-have-you. Elder
Villanueva and I are thinking of doing a cute little song but we're not quite
sure yet. Apparently he is quite the
guitar hero so he wants to try and find a guitar and he says I can sing. Miss B
would be so proud of me!!! I am actually appreciating the fact that I did
Madrigals more and more, believe it or not.Let's just say tonight I will sleep well because I bought a new hamaca (hammock) too! I tried it out when we got back from centro and it is definitely an upgrade! I was getting accustomed to sleeping on my hamaca but it still hurt my back so Elder Villanueva convinced me that it really was my hamaca that was mala (bad). I'll just leave it at this: he was right. The new one is divine "fo sho."
This
Friday we're hoping to have a baptism of a lady whose name is A. About 2
months ago her baby passed away and after that happened she started to search
for some answers, and she started looking into coming back to church. Her mom is a member (inactive) and she told us
she remembered going when she was about 4 or 5 so it has definitely been
awhile. She told us all this in the first lesson we had with her and her
husband and needless to say, we definitely pulled out Moroni 8 and D&C 137
to address her worries about her child. Both she and her husband accepted the
invitation to be baptized on our first visit which is always awesome!! The
problem is that her husband is a taxista
(taxi driver) and he can't
really come to church every week. She has been enough times that she is ready
for her baptism but he still hasn't come. We've been trying to help him find a
new job/switch shifts/anything but we haven't had much success lately. We're going to talk to them tomorrow to see if
he is going to make an effort to be baptized with his wife or if we should go
ahead and baptize her first. Preach my
Gospel says to try to wait and baptize couples together if you can, but we
might just have to change that depending on what R. says.
Thank you so much for all your support and
love but mostly the wonderful letters. I
sure am blessed with great family and friends. Have a great week and I will talk to you next
week!!! Hopefully I receive some snail
mail tonight at District meeting!!! De todas formas, les amo muchisimo! Mas que
uds. pueden imaginar! (In any case, I love you all very much—more
than you can imagine!)
Con amor, Tay
Sea feliz, sea Mormon (Be happy.
Be a Mormon)
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