12 October 2010

Hi family! I hope you all had a great week!

This week wasn't quite as eventful for me as others, but it was still good.

Charles ended up relapsing to his cigarettes and coffee right after I finished telling y'all he was done. But, overcoming addiction is a process. He is now scheduled for Oct 23. He was clean yesterday. We are praying hard for him!
Marvin FINALLY got his fiance's birth certificate from Mexico. Turns out he needed it because she tore up her old one in some weird rage. But, their relationship is improving a LOT. We gave him some advice, which coming from missionaries, was odd, but it helped. We told him to be more romantic than he was. He said he hadn't been on a date with her in a year, and didn't really do any favors. That day, he took her and their little girl, Jocelyn, to the park and played games. He practiced saying "please" to her, and spent a lot more time together. She noticed a huge change. They are beginning to be happier. He can't wait to take her to the temple in about a year or so. Marvin will probably be married on Thursday, interviewed Friday, and baptized Saturday. Now that he has his papers, it's a lot more realistic.
Patrick will be baptized Sunday morning. He has a strong testimony already. Though he was nervous and shaking (like Clifford getting into a bath) as he went up on Sunday, he bore his testimony in front of the singles branch. It was simple, but very powerful. He was so grateful for being able to finally come to know the truth (he grew up in Ogden.. haha). He is very excited to be baptized.
Zeny is also progressing well. She finally understands the Restoration and why Priesthood is so very important. She grew up Catholic, and was confused by a lot of things. But, she wants so badly to be a Latter-Day Saint, and is willing to do anything to get there. She is so nice to us! She makes us a lot of Phillipino food that is very yummy. The other day, she had some questions about whether some things she was doing were unacceptable for Latter-Day Saints. The thing she was most worried about was her attendance at several nursing seminars, in trying to become a nurse. We assured her that was completely fine to go to those, much to her relief. But it was really neat to see how faithful she was, and willing to give up something that meant a lot to her, so she could be a good follower of Christ.
Recently we've had a drought of referrals received, and had a really hard time contacting the ones we had. On Sunday, we received 7 referrals. Yesterday we received 3. When it rains, it pours! It's a great day when we receive 1. Some of them look very promising.

Saturday, we had the chance of helping someone move their furniture and belongings out of their home that had just burned down. This person lived next door to one of our investigators. It felt really neat to help. Then, we received a phone call from a member, saying that his mom also needed help moving things out of her house, which had also burned down a couple days before. Twice in one day we gave that same service. It was ironic and very neat!

Yesterday I was asked to give a 15-min talk on Charity in district meeting, which began an hour after the phone call. That was fun. I have never prepared a talk so fast in my life! But it ended up being a pretty good one, and it helped me realize how long of a way I have to go in order to have Christlike love. But if you don't have charity as a missionary, you can't really be a good missionary. I will need to develop that really quickly. I am trying really hard to love the people here, and I do, but I could always love them more.

Well, I don't have really any funny stories from this week. Sorry. If I think of any, I'll write them down in my letter that I send.

I love you all very much, and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jon