It has been another wonderful week here in the mission. Sit back, relax, and listen as I tell you about it.
On Tuesday we had a mission conference. A couple weeks ago I was playing the piano while waiting for my interview with President. Sister Gillespie heard and loved my song "Rock of my Soul" and asked me to put an arrangement of it together to sing at the conference. However, she called back a few days later and said that President only wanted hymns. They asked me to find a hymn and put an arrangement together for the conference.
There wasn't much time to practice so I thought and prayed hard to know what to do. Then it came to my mind to look at the "meters" page in the back of the English hymnal (that page doesn't exist in the Spanish version. Since the hymn "If You Could Hie to Kolob" doesn't exit in Spanish either, and because it is such a beautiful hymn, I decided to make a version of that song. We sang (I played the piano) "All Ye Who Are Called to Labor" (I believe that is how it´s called) to the tune of "If you coul Hie…" It turned out really well in the end. My zone did a fantastic job.
The conference was wonderful and as usual, I left the meeting feeling energized and excited. President always seems to know exactly what I need to hear and how to help me be a better disciple and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, in the conference, we learned about some changes that have been placed in the missionary program around the world. Now, every companionship of missionaries has a portable DVD player and a set of the Preach My Gospel DVD´s in their apartment. Of course, they came with strict rules and guidelines for their usage. However, these tools are to be used during companion study. I have already seen the difference in my teaching style by having watched and used these DVDs in my studies.
Sadly, Cecilia and Tamara are not progressing. They are still smoking and don´t seem to be putting in the necessary effort to progress. They promised that they would come to church, but did not come. In fact, I called them yesterday to wake them up and they blocked my call. Then when I called back, they had turned their phone off. Elder Rowett and I then went over to their house to get them, but when we knocked, nobody came out. When then headed to church, praying and hoping for a miracle.
To get to the church, we had to walk through the feria that they have every Sunday, right outside of the church. While walking through the feria, we ran into a young man named Marcelo. About a week ago, Elder Rowett and I were walking down the street and Marcelo came up, shook our hand and told us that he was going to come to church that (last) Sunday. He then walked away before we could talk to him. Blessedly, we ran into him yesterday in the feria. After talking with him for a minute he asked us "well, are you going to invite me to church with you?" We quickly invited him with us. He asked us if it was okay to go, even though he was dressed in old, dirty, worn-out clothes. We reassured him that is was okay and he came to church with us. Not only did he come with us, but he loved it. He practically asked us if he could get baptized yesterday. We told him that he would need a little time to prepare and we agreed on a baptismal date in mid-September. What a blessing the Lord gave us!
Not only did Marcelo come to church, but also three---yes THREE--- other investigators. One of them is the ten-year-old daughter of a member that we have been teaching. The others are slightly more interesting---Mario and Lucia. Mario is a very interesting man—or rather is very interesting men. You see, he is schizophrenic. Okay, it isn't that bad—he does not have to personalities, he just has some problems. We have been teaching him for a couple weeks. Yesterday he came to church to "look for a wife" as he told us. Towards the end of sacrament meeting, he slipped out and came back a half an hour later with hair gel and cologne, trying to look all nice to find a wife. We kept our eyes on him and this week we will be talking to him a little more about that.
Lucia. Lucia is incredible. Pure gold. I want to tell you about her, but my time is up and I have to be obedient. I will tell you about her next week.
I love my mission so much! Every day I realized something more. Every day my faith and love grow.
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