Monday, May 20, 2013

Week 24--A Great Week!


Hello family and friends.  Thanks to everybody for the emails.  Since we started to be allowed to email more than just family, the inbox has always been full.  Even though I'm not calling you all out by name, thank you all for the emails!
 
First off, Raul and Rosy are getting married this Saturday at 2:30!  Rosy has her ID and everything is set for a baptism on June 2.  My old area is about a 15 minute drive from my current area, and usually President allows missionaries to go back for baptisms.  Just need to find a ride with a member.  Worst case scenario, it's an hour-and-a-half bike ride.  I think it'd be worth it :)
 
Elvia is progressing really well to her baptismal date June 2. (We'll clearly have to do some juggling in order to be to both this baptism and Raul's and Rosy's.)  We are super stoked for her.  We finally got to talk to Christina again and we got her a baptismal date for the 9th, but she may or may not be going out of town that weekend.  She didn't come to church this week, which was a bummer, but we'll get her.
 
With all the back and forth we had with Jaime, we finally got a definitive answer: he is an excommunicated member.  We were 50% bummed that this was reality, 50% excited that we FINALLY knew what direction to take with him.  He still has really good desires to come back and we finished teaching him everything, so we are now going to start helping out his family (all are less-active).
 
Quick note, I believe this will be the week that we can start working with Antonia.  I think grades are due in the middle of the week.  I don't know if I mention this before, but if I didn't here is what she said about the Book of Mormon: "I can tell this is just one of those books that I will read and read, have tabs everywhere, and things highlighted left and right."  She's golden.
 
We picked up a new family this week that we found in the list of former investigators.  They seem super super awesome.  They're really busy, so that will be tough.  All you need is one blow-their-minds lesson to give them a reason to make time for you.  That's how Raul and Rosy started :)  My favorite drop note to see on a teaching record is:  "hard to get a hold of them, but they have tons of potential."  We'll get another lesson with them this week.
 
We found TWO part member families with less actives that aren't on our ward list.  One of them consists of an active grandma that came to the US this summer with the goal to reactivate her son and get her grandchildren baptized.  She was going to bring them to church, then Saturday night she fell.  It'll be an awesome day when Satan is bound.  Looking forward to it.
 
Things are looking up.  We had a great week in the area.  Elder Smith and I didn't laugh quite as much this week.  We're a little frustrated with some ward stuff that's going on.  We're kind of battling with the classic: "we see this is definitely a problem, but what can we, as missionaries, do to fix it?"  Also, we both slept awfully this week, and we're starting to need to juggle a lot more people while the ward is struggling.  Lots on our minds nowadays (sp?)
 
Anyway, thank you all for your prayers and support.  If you're feeling down about anything, best way to handle it is to think about somebody else.  Sounds easy, but that's why missionaries are happy all the time.  True story.
 
Love and kindness,
Elder Christensen

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