Tender Mercies

¡Buenas!

Another pretty good week here in Río Lindo, except for the lack of baptisms, but those will come.

We started out the week with divisions with the APs. Elder Amezcua from DF Mexico came with us and Elder Merlos, my old comp from Texas, went with Río Lindo 2. We had some good lessons and I learned a lot. It was good talking with Merlos again about our converts we have from Ocotillo. I found out that E and D are pregnant. He is prepping to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, and their son turns 8 in March or April and will be baptized. They are both preparing to hopefully be sealed this year in the temple.

We had a lot of progress from a golden contact from December...Aníbal and his wife (already legally married) R. We visited them in San Francisco de Yojoa twice this past week...once with Hermano R (Elder´s Quorum President) and once with Hermana S (Soc Soc President). We were working with them to be baptized the 14th, but he works every other sunday so he wouldn´t be able to be confirmed on the 15th. We moved it to the 21st for this reason and also to give a little more time for R to stop drinking café. A is so pilas he already had stopped when he heard about it his first Sunday in church and he also asked us to visit his friend this upcoming week. Future QE President or Branch President.

We had a little more success with N and her mom this week. We were able to get on good terms again with her, but still no permission. Basically what happened is at the end of the lesson, I invited her to be baptized and she accepted "when I´m ready". I then told her that her daughter was ready to go and invited her to give permission. She said no. I felt prompted to ask her again and then she finally told us why. Her brothers are against the church and have been against it from the beginning, but have never talked to us (miedo?) One lives in the states and sends money to her, specifically for an upcoming operation that she needs. N gets baptized = no money. She accepted to have a lesson in the church this Wednesday with a member.

A lot of other tender mercies and milagritos, but not enough time to write.

We worked in San Antonio de Cortés this Thursday. It is super far away from Río Lindo (30-45 minutes in moto taxi and about 90 Lempiras per person) but we have some references and investigators that already have 2 asistencia at church. M and her 2 daughters. We taught her on her patio and challenged her to baptism. Afterwards, we were about to leave but felt impressed to contact a house that seemed to "stand out"...the woman let us in...again on the front patio... and had a Como Comenzar Enseñar with her. Turns out, 9 people live in her house - her 2 parents, her "husband", and her 5 siblings ages 21, 20, 18, 16, and 13. They don´t attend a church. She is very interested in the message. She accepted an invitation to be baptized. She gave us a phone number to call the next time we are in San Antonio. Super awesome experience, but a lot of challenges since they live super far away and it will be very difficult to go to church...planting seeds for the future branch/ward in San Antonio 5-15 years from now. Neat experience and super beautiful the ride back to Río Lindo.

Well, I´ve got a little cold right now, but we played fútbol (just us 4 missionaries from Río Lindo) and prepped for the week today. This could be my last week in Río Lindo as I have 3 changes, but as always, a dónde me mandes iré (o si no me mandes, me quedaré).

--Elder Lund

Río Lindo, Zona Yojoa 2/2/14 - 2/9/15