12 months - Encontramos Oro

Joseph called this morning and we told him a little about out trip to Yellowstone this past weekend. The kids were passing around the phone but then he had to get off but said he'd get on later...

and when he called later, Corey and I were both away from our phones and we missed it! Sorry Joseph! But I didn't get his email, so then I logged on and sent his draft. But he got on again and said he was waiting to upload his pics cause the other computer had a virus, so he did send some. Yay, not of his face though, so I'm glad I got the screenshots. He really does seem like he's doing so good and is so happy. We really love seeing him each week.
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    Subject: Fuimos buscando cobre y encontramos oro    

Hola a todos!!

Well we have had a super great week here in Santa Marta, and in Florida.

Yesterday some stuff fell through so we went to go look for some members on the ward register list in Florida to get to know them better. And when we knocked on this one house a girl named Katherin answered and was like "hey mom the Elders are here". The member we were looking for wasn't there BUT apparently the other family that lives in that house are members but they are a little less active and moved to the ward a while ago but they don't know any members. The girl who answered the door told us that her whole family is baptized but she was rebellious and never wanted to. But now she wants to get baptized! We ended up teaching them and reading from the Book of Mormon about repentance and it was a great lesson. We also got to give a blessing to the grandma who is sick. It was exactly where we needed to be! So she is going to come to church this week and is gonna start reading the Book of Mormon and is actually super pilas. When we left Elder Tercero said "fuimos buscando cobre y encontramos oro" meaning we were looking for copper and we found gold! So true though.

Also good news about Rigoberto is that he came to church again this week and this time with his son Junior and they are reading from the Book of Mormon as well. We don't see any big challenges with them so far and are super excited about that. What happens a lot is that the pilas people we find have other defaios such as they need to get married or they need to get divorced from someone else and then get married. Or they don't want to leave their evangelical roots or read the Book of Mormon but so far we haven't found any problem like that and we are hoping it stays that way!

Juan is about 20-30 days from getting his papers completely done and figured out so he can get married and then they will be able to get baptized. Last night we had a great lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and watched "How rare a possession: The Book of Mormon" which is a quality church movie. I would recommend watching it to each of you. Basically it has the stories of how Parley P. Pratt and Francesco Di Vincenzo (or something like that) found the Book of Mormon and gained a testimony of it. It's an oldie but a goodie. And we set a goal with them to finish reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days. We are hoping that they get baptized at about the same time as Rigoberto and this new Katherin girl we found yesterday. 

Elder Tercero hits a month on the 19th so we got pizza.

Also we have been practicing some English but we have stuff about the people we are teaching on the whiteboard so we have been using the fridge as a whiteboard to help him learn English.

We are going to be changing houses this week as well because our house right now is really humid and doesn't smell the greatest. I have actually gotten used to it by now but last week a member told us that they are renting the house next to them so the zone leaders checked it out and approved it and we are going to be moving in this week.

I have been studying more in Preach my Gospel this week, comparing the differences in the old version and the new version, and it is SO insightful you have no idea! There are some very cool and very interesting differences that I really love. If you haven't gotten the chance to study the new preach my gospel yet I would highly recommend it. 

That is about it for the work here in Guate but I am super happy right now and we are working hard here. Love you all!!!

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I read emails that Joseph and Ethan sent each other today - A funny part was this that Ethan wrote to Joseph and Joseph's reply -

Ethan: Owen and Daniel are in the phase where they like pointing at people and saying "You're fat!" or "You're stupid!". It's funny though because when they say "you're stupid" they say it more like "your're dupid". We're trynna get them to say compliments but we need to find words that sound like insults to them. Owen now will go "You're awesome! You're cool! You're fat!" all at once. It's pretty funny

Joseph: i approve of teaching Owen and Daniel good words. You should teach them "I know the Book of Mormon is true!"

Ethan read that and then said to me "He's such a missionary..." Haha