Good Progress

We saw some good progress with la familia E. They all read in the Book of Mormon and are praying. We taught Día de Reposo but they weren´t able to come to church. The mom is literally 400 pounds and can´t leave the couch...it might be a little difficult getting her to church and baptizing her, but the dad is actually the most interested of the family and really understands everything we teach.

We had an interesting contact while I was with Elder Paredes. It was his last day in Cofradía and as we were walking past a house a man who was sitting outside tried to shake hands with us and at first we almost ignored it but shortly (as in a step and a half) after we came back and talked with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We taught him Thursday with Elder Paraso and again on Saturday night. His name is José Leonel and he´s roughly 60 years old. As we taught him the Restoration he said, "So Jesus was Joseph Smith´s boss?" We confirmed that it was something like that. I have never heard someone understand it that way. When we returned Saturday he was reading outside. He didn´t really understand anything. Actually, after the prayer he started reading out loud to us in a really funny way, but whatever. He may not understand what he was reading, but he told us he feels the power of the book and wanted to go to church (the missionaries had actually visited him 5 years ago or so so he knew where the church is). He told us "I´m going to get up a 5:00 AM get ready, leave at 9, and be there before 10. It was really strange. He didn´t end up coming to church. Chikungunya hit him. We are going to visit him with some members to hermanar him.

We also saw some great progress with E. He is reading the Book of Mormon and wants to get baptized. He is struggling with "deseos de la carne". He has a molino (he grinds corn) and he checks out all the women as they walk by. He also said that a women called him saying she was in a hotel waiting for him. He was going to go and than he saw the Book of Mormon, put his hand on it, and then prayed for strength. He´s 80 years old but I guess the temptations are always there. His wife got really sick Saturday so he cared for her and didn´t go to church. He felt really bad and asked us to pray for her. He expressed a lot of faith and we gave her a blessing. She wasn´t listening to us before but maybe this is a way that the Lord has given us to soften her heart.

I´ve got a lot of other stories, but not enough room or time. We had a good leadership council with the ZLs, APs, and President and Sister Dester. I hope you guys have a good week!

CHEQUE!!! 

-Elder Lund

Cofradía 1, Zona Cofradía 8/3/15 - 8/10/15