Six Baptismal Dates

We had an activity for the 19th of September. It is the day after Fiestas Patrias. The Church had an activity in the courtyard with soccer, basketball, kites, gunnysack races and other activities and we invited investigators and others to come to the activity to learn more about the church and meet the members. So we had permission to play games and have fun with the Branch and have a fun day, but we gave tours of the church and had people to fellowship and help get to know more about the church. It was a great activity and now we have one family who loves the members and loves the church who is progressing really well. They are a family of 5 but we can baptize 4 of them. They aren´t married but we have a goal for them to get married 2 days before their baptism and we are working really hard with them. They are really receptive and want to get baptized, have baptizmal dates that we placed this week and they want to get married and we typically have around 4 visits with them a week. They are awesome! They live close to the dump and they are really poor, but they are really humble and are great people.  

I am really excited we have 6 baptizmal dates right now and Martina wasn´t baptized because her Mom wants to find a day when all of the family can be there so we told her to plan the date and we would organize the interview and baptismal service. Our baptismal dates right now are Carolina, Isabil, the family Guerra Zapata with Victor, Elizabeth, Francisco, and Alfonzo with baptismal dates. Benjamin is their youngest and I think he is 3. They are really excited and are accepting all of the lessons really well and are working to change and follow the commandments. I am really having a great time serving right now. This is a little about my week! 

Ya pretty much how it was. Martina´s Dad respects churches but isn´t interested so they just want him to be a part of her life. I haven´t met her Dad. We teach English classes on Saturdays in the Church and Leontina, Martina´s Mom comes to learn and then we teach afterwards with the family. Martina has a younger sister Sophia who is 7 and we are doing a lot to help them be active. They are a little lazy to come to church every week, but they come fairly often. Things will work out though. Martina´s Dad works in other parts of the area so he isn´t always around so it is hard to plan when he will be able to come is the problem. 

The missionaries only teach one class on Sunday and that is Principles of the Gospel and right now Elder Vasquez likes to teach that. The first 3 weeks were a little hard with Elder Vasquez, but things are a lot better now. I am doing well and we had a great week. We had 81 people at Church. That is the most that we have had in the time I have been here. We are doing well and we had a conference with Elder Gonzalez from the South American General Presidency in my 5th week in the field. We are going to have another conference in the future with Elder Nelson of the 12 Apostles about the Plan Pilota which is the Pilot Plan that is in 4 missions in the world, 2 in Chile and 2 in Argentina. This conference is about this in November.  

We are doing well overall, a little frustrated that we didn´t have Martina´s baptism this week, but working hard to coordinate it with her Mom so that we can help them progress and doing all that we can to prepare our other investigators to come and be baptized. We had 10 less active members at the church and 4 of them for the 1st time this past Sunday and we had 6 of our 10 recent converts at church with 2 investigators, but they weren´t any of our baptismal dates. We are working hard though and are having success. We have changes on the 20th of October and I honestly hope that I don´t have changes this time because our 4 baptismal dates for the family are for the 26th.... We also have 2 other dates that I mentioned their names in my other email for the 19th of October. We are going to plan Martina´s baptism with her mom so that it can work out for a baptism and confirmation in the same weekend.  

Thanks for everything and I am doing really well. We have to go to Davila in our zone this weekend for the Conference broadcasts and this week is hard on missionaries with money because there were 5 Mondays and usually there are only 4, so most missionaries are running short, but I have my habit of not spending, so I am doing just fine. Thanks for the support and love and everything. I can´t believe that I am starting my 16th week in the mission. It doesn´t feel like it and I have 20 months left and it has been about 3 and a half months here already. It doesn´t feel like 2 months in Lo Espejo, but I got to this sector 2 months ago.... I´m doing really well and I love you a lot! 

I buy my own food and cook separately. We eat lunch with members and have breakfast and dinner on our own. 

It isn´t horribly cold and it just rains. It doesn´t snow on us. We have cold nights and hot days... It is a little bit difficult because it is too cold without a coat in the morning and too hot with during the day... Oh well.... It´s a part of the mission. We have a few wet days and a few hot days. We deal with it and I´m not trying to stress, but I mentally just stress and I am doing just fine.  

I am just working on learning to focus on the people and being their friends even though I don´t understand everything that they say, but when they enjoy having us there they are more receptive and more likely to come unto Christ and be baptized. That is one of my focuses is being a friend and not just teaching, but helping them and making them matter before teaching. Thanks for everything.  

This week I´m out of time. Love you!  

I did some work on descendants of John David Goode. You may be able to find them and double check them if you have a little bit of time. Thanks! Love you! 

I also worked on all of the descendants of Elijah Daniel Goode on all of the lines with record hints. Double check them if you can. I don´t want to cause problems, but I thought that everything looked right and I was working a little fast so who knows? Thanks for being there to help double check things!