Familia,
Looks like its that time to write another weekly email. Man,
I never know what to write in these things.
Well, I've successfully survived two weeks in Cicero, I'm
finally starting to figure out the area well enough to not always use the GPS.
:) This past week has been good. We've been working hard, trying to build up
our teaching pool, but playing pretty hard too. We had to celebrate Hermana
Veliz's one year mark, and Elder O'Dell's two year mark. :)
We've had some really awesome lessons with new
investigators. I am really excited about whats going to happen in this area
over the next couple of months, I think it has a lot of potential. First of
all, we found two awesome new families. One family from Puerto Rico (man, are
they hard to understand) and their across the street neighbors. Both have been
taught before, but not for a very long time, so I decided to go over and see if
they have any interest. And yes. Yes they do. The Puerto Rican family consists
of an Abuelita, her daughter, and a son in law of the daughter. They are
Carmen, Nereida, and Pedro. Carmen is super old and sick, but wants to be
baptized- just can't come to church because she's so sick. And Nereida and
Pedro are both really open to the gospel. And then their neighbors, are the familia
Guzman. They consist of Rita, Tony, and their ex gangbanger son Chris. Rita WANTS to be baptized. She really really
does. And she wants to come to church, but she hasn't felt any support from her
family and she's afraid if she gets baptized they will reject her. I straight up asked her husband why he
doesn't come to church with her and he said its because its boring. Haha, but
he's cool, he wants to learn, he's just intimidated because he feels like we
know so much, like we've been studying all our lives. But I straight up told
him- if you want to learn, you will. "Si quiere aprender, va a
aprender." I was pretty bold with him, and Chris loved it. He thought it
was funny. I don't know much about Chris, but from the looks of him he lived
the thug life. But now he's trying to change, and he's going to a Christian
church. We gave them a quick run down of the Book of Mormon and they all said
they'd read, and pray. I'm really excited to teach this family, they are
awesomeeee.
Also, we got a super legit referral from church headquarters
the other day. We got a referral for a man named Agustin, and the text message
just told us that he had been to church before and had a Book of Mormon. So we
stopped by his house, but he told us he was just heading out the door, so I
gave him our number and the address to the chapel, and set up a return
appointment with him. Within 15 minutes he called us asking for more detailed
directions to the capilla, and came to church the next day! We had some other
investigators there and the elders took care of him for us during church,
because they got to know him during priesthood, which is first in our ward. But
I finally snagged him after the meetings and set up an appointment earlier
during the week than the one we had before, and he seemed really excited. Elder
Findlay who had been sitting with him told me he is awesome, so I'm really
excited to see what happens with him.
This week to come should be good. We have zone meeting
tomorrow, and I think on Friday we have exchanges, and I get to go to Aurora
with Hermana Maughan!! Yayyyy! :)
I'm glad to hear everyone there is doing well. Keep it up.
Les quiero muchisimo,
Shaelyn
PS! I forgot the
most important part of this week! We are teaching a man named Erasmo, and he is
a super super deep thinker. His religious views are kind of all over the board,
from Christian to Eastern Religions. But he is searching for what is right. His
wife and all of his kids are actually Jehovah's Witnesses, but he says he knows
that that religion isn't true. So we are teaching him. And it has been a little
frustrating, I'll tell you the truth, because he asks SO many big questions and
has some really interesting ideas. But in our last lesson he had read from the
Book of Mormon, and we basically really just taught to his needs and ended up
covering a lot of different principles, from the fact that God is our loving
Heavenly Father, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the Priesthood. He said that
he really likes what we teach, but it doesn't exactly line up with his
thoughts. We kept telling him that the only way he is ever going to know the
truth is by asking God. And finally I just said, Hermano, can we pray right
now? Will you ask God what the truth is right now? And we knelt down and he
said the most sincere, heartfelt prayer to know the truth that I have ever
heard. He just asked to be given wisdom and to be guided, and the spirit was
soooo strong. When he was done praying he had tears in his eyes, and I asked
him, "Hermano, how do you feel?" And he told me he felt a heat in his
chest, and a peace. I testified those feelings are God's way of telling him
that our message is true. He accepted a date to be baptized on the 31 of March!
We still have a long way to go with him, but if he's willing to keep praying
that way and keep reading, he will definitely be baptized on that day.
