Subject: Tonto Pero No Tanto
So I realized on Thursday that this title would have been PERFECT for the email last week. Considering that I kinda hurt myself getting out of the bus. By the way I am TOTALLY fine. Just a flesh wound. Oooh hahahah that also would have made a great title last week. Ahh that would have been hilarious! But my arm is totally fine and getting a lot better. I can move it just fine and am very grateful that I only got a scrape on my arm and I promise I will not be getting off of any more buses until they are completely stopped.
Alright but so "Tonto pero no tanto"basically means dumb but not that dumb. It was something that this old guy we found last week told us about himself. He was actually baptized I don't know how many years ago and has an old triple combination of the church. He lives alone and his wife lives somewhere else but they're still married and see each other once in a while. He lives alone and it was kind of sad. He said he is happy though and he also said he was "tonto, pero no tanto" haha it was funny. He can't really get out much and basically told us he wasn't going to come to church but he was a nice old man. He's a little hard to talk with and wasn't very receptive but we will try to visit him again. Anyways so I really wished I'd used that title last week because of when we talked to that guy and also considering that I was a little tonto, pero no tanto.
This week was really good! I've really been learning how to be positive and not become desanimado (demotivated/discouraged) even when things don't work out like we wanted. Such as the 12 investigators we were expecting in church who didn't come. Actually more than that said they'd come but we were actually expecting 12 to be there. Well so yeah none of them could make it. It was way disappointing. The family Martinez is progressing a lot though and we left a Book of Mormon with the mom on Monday and she's gonna read it! They didn't make it to church because the kids had been with their dad and grandparents in another area since Friday and were supposed to come back on Saturday but came back on Sunday. But they said they'd come to church this next week so hopefully they do! We did have one in church though, who we didn't think would come but she did so that was really appreciated. She's Lorena's cousin! Lorena started working for a member family in the ward this week, cleaning and taking care of kids which will be really good for her and help her in the transition into being a member. But so Lorena brought her cousin who lives in another area to church with her and we are going to get the reference passed to the missionaries over there!
I went on divisions with Elder Gates this week, Elder Erikson's kid. He's super awesome but he doesn't understand a whole lot of Spanish haha. I remember feeling a lot like that in Chile. He has 3 weeks in the field and is from St.. George and is a great missionary. And once he can speak Spanish he'll be even better!
The highlight of the week by far was last night when we FINALLY went to the temple with Mario.
We have been teaching him for almost 3 months and he's come to church only 3 times... but one was general conference and the other two were in the ward closer to his work. So we've really been trying to get him to come to church with us and also get a date set for his baptism. So we had the tour around the outside of the temple with the Hermanas that work there and he learned a lot during that and we ended the tour (just like with Ronal) in the lobby of the temple where he could ask if December 2nd is when he should be baptized. He knows he needs to be baptized and knows that it's what God wants him to do. He has never felt prepared to set a date though because he doesn't feel like he's ready to be baptized and honestly he's not. He said that he got the answer not yet but that he does need to be baptized. He meets all the requirements, has all the lessons, has come to church the right amount of times, but he hasn't been coming to church recently because of his 2 jobs and he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon on his own recently either. So we're going to set a goal with him, make sure he comes to church and reads everyday and hopefully he feels ready by the end of December. Hopefully I'm still here for that. But it was so awesome in the temple and he said there was only one other time where he felt the spirit that strong in his life. He also told the Hermana who gave our tour, Hermana Sowers, that he was going to be back here soon, but the next time inside. Mario is really awesome and is totally going to get baptized, it is just a question of when, which will be determined by if he reads on his own and comes to church. So we are really going to do our part and follow up and remind him to read every day. And remind him earlier than 8:45 to come to church because this week he was planning on coming but forgot about it and if we had called earlier he would have had enough time to make it to church. But I think the temple with him was really a turning point and he'll start to progress a lot faster.
Here are some other pictures from the temple.
I thought it was kind of funny he wore a jacket that said every thing for your pleasure to the temple.
It was also awesome because a member of the ward who got back from his mission 2 years ago took us to the temple. And the temple was packed! There were so many people there!
We also ran in to Elder Benson and Elder Saxton there! Elder Saxton is from my group an Elder Benson was my district leader first change and right now he's a zone leader with Elder Aquino! They happened to be on divisions that day otherwise I would have seen Elder Aquino there which would have been amazing. They were there with a family of investigators who also had the temple tour. Being there really gave me a better vision of what we're doing as missionaries. We are building the kingdom of God here on the earth! If we are baptizing just to meet a goal we're not working for the right reasons. It's important to reach our goals but we need to teach in such a way, and make sure they have spiritual experiences on their own, so that they are really converted and will really make the temple one of their goals after baptism. Baptism is really just the door to all the rest of the blessings our Heavenly Father has for us on this earth. I love the temple so much and challenge you to make the sacrifice of time to go to the temple this week and really as often as you can. After my mission I'm fijo going every week.
They also had this cool little nativity scene there for navidad.
The three wise men
Well that's it for this week. Adios amigos! Con cuidado!
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