Weekly Letter: February 1-7, 2011

para todos ustedes:

So I will try to write a little more newsy this week. I realize I may have made you guys bored in hearing about areas changing, and opening, and new companions. I know you really want to hear about investigators. This week went a whole lot better, so I guess I can write more about people specifically.

This week we found 11 new investigators, and we had more than one lesson with several of them. Friday was by far the best day Elder Quiroga and I have had here in Molinito 1A. We were running from appointment to appointment. It seemed that we just had the ability to find people and sit down and talk with them. We found a family that I was pretty sure from the moment we contacted the father last week that this was going to be special. It turns out that we were right. We arrived about 10 minutes early at the bottom of the hill where his house is. We saw a light on in their house and figure of a man standing there. Immediately, he called for us to come on up, that he was waiting for us....waiting for us? Ten minutes before the appointment? I hadn´t ever seen that before.

The father´s name is Carmelo, and he has two daughters, one that is fifteen years old that is named Ana, and another one that younger but goes to junior high in the afternoon and doesn´t get home until 9:00, so we haven´t been able to meet her. We taught the lesson on the Restoration, and it went very well. They committed to read and pray. Then one of us asked (I can´t remember if it was me or my companion), "What are you willing to do if you receive an answer that it´s true?" Both of them said without hesitation "To change." Imagine, the first night with two strangers with a badge that says a name of a church nearly a sentence long talking about a 14 year old boy who was called as a prophet and book that was taken from golden plates...and saying that all of it is true, and asking what they are willing to do if they know the truth of this message...and they responded "change." That wasn´t the convincing power of 20 and 19 year old boy...one of which that doesn´t even have a full grasp of the Spanish language. We all know who was really testifying to them. That´s what I love about the gospel, it´s so marvelous, so incredible, that it is completely necessary to have a spiritual witness that it is true. Is it any wonder why the restoration happened in the way it did?

Okay, I´m getting a little distracted. Anyway, we had another appointment this Friday with them. They both had read the pamphlet, both received answers. We then taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them to baptism. The daughter accepted right away, and the father, on seeing the enthusiasm of his daughter also accepted. They were not able to go to church this Sunday due to work commitments, but they say that for sure they will go this week. We have another appointment tomorrow to follow up on that.

Also, on Friday, we finally found a young family that we had tried to locate several times before. The situation is that the father has to leave town to work, sometimes weeks at a time. So we hadn´t been able to find them, because...they weren´t there. However, they were extremely interested in our message, and when we knocked on their door, they were just about to leave to run errands real quick(because the father had to leave that night for another week due to work. But, upon seeing that it was us, they stopped everything and let us teach them. The wife apparently has an uncle that is a returned missionary, and the husband also has several relatives that are members. They are very young, He´s twenty, and she´s nineteen, they have 2 years married(yep, they´re married! (that doesn´t happen often), and they have a baby that is about a Year and 5 months old. So yeah, we´re pretty excited about them too. We invited them to baptism too, and they accepted. The only thing is that he is in Guadalajara this week and gets back Sunday, and she goes with relatives while he´s away. So we don´t have an appointment until Tuesday next week. It was funny, the husband, Jorge, told us at the beginning that he was going to leave that night to Guadalajara. After the lesson we asked if we could make another appointment, and he said immediately "Yes! This Tuesday!....." then he waited a second "Wait! No! I won´t be home! The next Tuesday!" He literally forgot that he was about to leave for Guadalajara during our lesson.

We also seemed to find new people like every day. Especially Friday, we were busy the whole day! It was way cool. Also, we found some inactive members on Thursday that have a son and daughter that aren´t members. They wanted us to visit them that Sunday. We told them we would organize the appointment that Sunday in the Church....and they went! So we had a great lesson with the four of them. The daughter just got back from the U. S. with her husband and two sons, and really seems to be interested in what we have to say. We had a great lesson and have another appointment with that family and have another appointment this week on Friday.

So yeah, we are finally seeing the fruits of our efforts, we are starting to get several references from the members. People many times contact us in the street, and ask us "What is it that you guys do exactly? I´ve always seen you guys, but I haven´t ever had the courage to ask you until now." That happened several times this week. I feel like this area will come to blossom in a way that we haven´t seen before. The last two weeks we have been sometimes so busy tracting, and contacting that we arrived at house with dusty shoes, and sore feet and legs. Now, finally we are starting to see some fruits, we still have sore legs and feet, but from running from appointment to appointment. But, man, what a great feeling!

I wish I could write more, but I feel like I have no time left. Thank you all for all the prayers and support. Please continue praying for us here, we´re starting to see the blessing in this area of Molinito 1A.

Cariños,

Elder Blackham