Weekly Letter: May 3-9, 2011

para todos uds:

So another week has gone by. I cannot believe how time has gone so fast. Already I have 15 months in the mission. It´s pretty crazy.

But to not waste time in thinking about time, I guess I better start writing updates on our investigators. First of all, Miguel Torres. Miguel really has been golden. He went to church again yesterday, and i think the only thing that is keeping him being baptized is his family. He´s already well into 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, in a matter of three weeks! He actually talked about how he loves visiting the site Mormon.org, and how he feels like he´s part of a world-wide family.

He also has realized that missionary work is really important and he isn´t even baptized yet! Actually, during the week, we challenged him to be baptized again, and he said he wanted to be baptized, but he´s got a situation with his family. He said that his family has told him that if he gets baptized they will stop talking to him. However he said "I realize that I can do what Jesus asked of his apostles: to leave behind all his family and follow him." however, the problem is that he fears this will affect his wife. His wife actually likes what she´s read in the Book of Mormon, and what we´ve shared with Miguel (because he shares everything with her after we share it with him.), however, she fears about what her family will do if Miguel gets baptized or if she simply goes to church with us...let alone if she gets baptized too....sigh....however, we are working hard and we´re hoping to get him baptized this week, and invite her to his baptism....and maybe we can break through that wall.

Also, we´ve been witnessing miracles with some of the people we have in teaching. One of them is Guadalupe. Her daughter got married about a month ago, right before Perez went home. We thought she wouldn´t ever accept baptism because she´s so Catholic...however, the last few times we´ve talked to her she´s changed a ton. We actually invited her last week, and she said she´d think about it....when we passed by Saturday, she said she still needed some time, but that in the moment least expected she would tell us "Now." Actually, we tried to get her to get baptized yesterday, but her only reason why she didn´t was because she had to leave Sunday to see some papers for her grandson.

So that´s good. Aracely is working hard so that she can live the law of chastity so she can be baptized too. She actually asked us if there was any other way easier to get baptized (because she´s had some complications with the divorce so she can marry Israfil), and we told there were only two options (get married or separate)...and she then asked if there wasn´t any other way for someone who really really really wanted to be baptized, and would get married when she could (I believe she was talking about herself).

Also, we´re finally looking to have the opportunity to talk to Enrique Guerra´s family this Thursday, which would be the first time since we´ve talked to him. We´re actually planning to invite all of them to church Sunday, and then the special conference with Elder Oaks the next Sunday, and then be baptized after the conference.....but that would require several miracles.

Wow, I never thought time could go by so fast writing about people, I still haven´t been able to mention other experiences we´ve had. For the last three weeks, we´ve found at least 10 new investigators, and several of them are really good ones....we just have to work on them to get to Church...and then they too will be in the scopes for baptism.

Anyway, thanks for everything. Keep praying for us! Love you all!

Cariños,

Elder Blackham