Progress

¡Buenas!

Well, another week in the mission field.

I´ll start with the best news. We had a really really good Sunday. 9 investigators at church. With Yojoa and Río Lindo 2, we had 18 investigators in our branch yesterday. We also had a menos activo Melch. Priesthood holder come and other menos activo. Last week, as I had said, a new branch president was called and things are really starting to improve. I don´t believe I will see construction of the capilla built while I´m here, but if things keep improving, hopefully they will start construction by the end of my mission.

We had interviews with President Dester on Thursday in Potrerillos. I am always more encouraged after interviews or when he speaks at Zone Conferences. Thankfully we will have some Zone Conferences coming up in February which I am looking forward to.

As with investigators, nothing really that stands out. Many are progressing, many are still having challenges, but overall pretty good. We contact an antigua investigadora and she is pretty pilas. We usually have to teach her outside the house because no one is present so we can go in, but we´ve also had lessons with her mom, sister, and cousins. She has a baptismal date for the 21st of February, but still lacks church attendance. We haven´t taught Día de Reposo yet, but hopefully she can understand its importance and go to church these next three weeks.

Lately, well, throughout my entire mission, people have had problems with the way that they pray. Investigators, and even members, pray the way they hear their pastors pray and follow the pattern. They start by addressing Jesus Christ, instead of our Heavenly Father, say their own personal prayers while someone else is praying (whispering or out loud). Even when I feel like we teach the manner of prayer clearly, they still seem to always do the same things. I talked with my companion about it and we came to two conclusions - we aren´t teaching with the spirit or they just feel more comfortable in their habits. I think I got the answer this week. We finished the Restoration with an investigator and taught her how to pray correctly. She had difficulties, but finally started by addresing Heavenly Father, gave thanks, asked for blessings, and then during a long pause, I reminded her to ask if these things are true. After another long pause, she said rapidly "Señor Jesus, ayúdame a saber si José Smith fue un profeta" and asked for other things always addressing Señor Jesus... people feel more comfotable praying the way they´ve heard it their entire lives. 

Our golden investigators from San Francsico - A and R - are doing well. R doesn´t know how to read and started learning a few weeks before we contacted them. We promised her that reading the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and other church material will help her. She was asked to read in Principios del Evangelio yesterday and she did very well. Still a little slow, but she has improved a lot and she recognizes that what she is doing is helping. She tells us she reads a lot from the Ezra Taft Benson manual. We are planning on having a baptism on the 14th of February.

Well, tonight we are going to have a fast with our investigator N. Her mom still won´t give permission to get baptized. She is super pilas and is ready to get baptized, but without her permission she will just have to wait.

Well, that´s all I have this week. Take care!

--Elder Lund

Río Lindo, Zona Yojoa 1/19/14 - 1/26/15