Another week in the mission field, and another week filled with
experiences. We had a baptism for an 11 year old this week. His name is
V (I´m not sure of his other two names that he has) but
it was really cool. His sister is getting baptized in June when she
turns 8...it still counts as "our" baptism since they are reactivated
and she wasn't presented to the church. We also had an invesetigator and
her two kids come because she is best friends with V´s mom. We
knew from that time that she was ready for baptism. Her son kept saying
that he wanted to get baptized. The funniest part was when we were
taking pictures in the baptismal clothing, this investigator wanted to
get a picture with me and my companion too. More about her later.
We are continuing to find menos activas families and trying to
reactivate them and baptize the kids who weren't baptized. We had two
great citas with Familia A this week. She - C - was
baptized around 9 years ago with her mom in SPS but for some reason she
went inactive. The family now includes her grandma (Católica) her mom
(member) and her two kids ages 9 and 6 (both not members). It's kind of
sad because she literally doesn't remember anything. Prophets, word of
wisdom ("wait, you guys don't drink tea?") and a lot more. We learned
this on Wednesday
and re-taught leccion 1 yesterday. It went really well. Even though
they don't remember it, they really understood it...we believe it's
still in their memory and the spirit is helping them "remember" what
they don't know is there. We set a fecha bautismal for the Grandma (82
years old) and she said in the future after she investigates more.
C responded "you don't have much time left...you should do it
quick" and we all started laughing. We found another menos activa family
yesterday with 6 kids...she is bien evangelica and we're not sure how
it's going to turn out. We'll try to visit them and reactivate them.
There are a lot of others that fit this category as well.
Ok, back to that investigator I was talking about. Her name is
A and she has two kids ages 11 and 8. Honestly, I don't remember
exactly how we contacted her, but she came to an activity last Sunday
night and her best friend's son's baptism. She is probably a good 300
pounds. Talking to her more, it sounds like it came from stress and
problems with drinking and smoking. We are helping her out right now
because she doesn't have the money to dig a latrine hole for her. We are
about a meter and a half down and we still lack another 2 or so. We
taught her leccion 1 on Friday
and it went really well. We were going to bring a youth in the ward who
is going to serve his mission in June but it fell through. We felt we
should bring someone so we brought the bishop's son, Josue. We had a
good lesson. When we asked her to pray to know if it was true, she said
she already knows its true. She told us of two dreams she had had. One
was about 6 months ago about people who got killed. She had the same
dream 3 nights in a row and a couple days after some neighbors got shot
in SPS. She told us another dream she had recently where two men dressed
in white (she considered them angels) came to her house with another
person who accompanied them. They started teaching her the gospel in the
dream. She said that my companion and I in our white shirts and the
Bishop's son remined her of that recent dream and knew it meant
something. I had the opportunity to invite her to be baptized directly
after that. The spirit filled the room, she started crying, and she
accepted. Her son also accepted. No surprise there, he kept saying he
wanted to get baptized since V's baptism. The daughter, however,
flat out said no. We're not sure why, but we'll work with her. People
are truly prepared.
We had another finding experience on Saturday/Sunday.
We went to N's house to teach. He is less active and we found out
he has severe drinking problems, but more about that later. Anyways, he
wasn't there, but the mom or aunt who isn't a member was there. She said
she had severe pain beneath her breast and she couldn't breath very
well. The two other ladies who were there told us to give a blessing
with oil (we didn't know them or if they were less active members or
not) so we went inside and gave her a blessing. My comp annointed and I
sealed the anointing. During the two prayers, the other ladies kept
saying stuff like "Mmmm, Amen" and "Mmmm, sí gloria a Dios" and other
stuff. After the prayer the woman - Felipa - kept saying things like
"I'm ready, Lord...I give my life and will to you...my life is in your
hands...my life is yours...etc etc etc" It was kind of funny and I
looked at my comp smiling because we didn't feel like anything major was
wrong with her. A nurse came who lives up the hill. She took her blood
pressure and said everything was fine. Felipa said she had pain under
breast and the nurse just responded saying she had pain in her back and
in her legs but she keeps working. Felipa then said she had a tingling
sensation in her mouth and the nurse, being completely sarcastic for
some reason, said she needs to go to the hospital immediately. She then
smiled, said everything should be fine, told her to drink a smoothie
with mango and some other fruit and rest. Long story short, we contacted
the nurse the next day. She said she is evangelica and wasn't really
interested with us even though we hadn't brought up anything church
related. We talked chit chat for a little bit longer and found out that
most of her family are members in La Ceiba. We also found out that she
and my comp may be related from some family in El Salvador. After
talking about this and family history work that the church does, she
told us she will "study the bible" a bit more and talk with us. Cool.
Funny story with N. We went to his house Sunday
afternoon. We were chit-chatting while he was sitting on the floor and
we just knew he wasn't ready for a lesson. We asked him if he could
leave with a prayer. He stood up and then fell on his knees, raised his
arms, and said a really strange prayer. Strange, but sincere. We're going to try to
help him get back to church and talk with the bishop. His "compañera"
isn't a member and she started tearing up when she started seeing how
bad of a shape N was in. We're hoping to help N and teach the
girlfriend.
Oh, I also had to talk in church and give the sunday school lesson today without preparing. Life of a missionary.
We ate at McDonalds today. I bought a John Deere camo hat and a Polo hat today in Centro. Good P-day.
Well, that's all I have. I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week. Cheque...
-Elder Lund
Ocotillo, El Carmen, SPS 5/19/14 - 5/26/14
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