This week was decent..not as fruitful as we were hoping but we had a few really good lessons so that is good. We taught A & M. We watched a Joseph Smith video which they really liked and I think it helped A understand a lot more of the prophet’s life so that was really good. We also did service with M one morning and read the Book of Mormon with her since she can't read. The next day when we went to teach them they were really excited because...they found BYUTV! haha They were watching it all day apparently so that was cool :) but when it came to Sunday we called in the morning and they said they would come to church but they didn't which was really sad. Sometimes I feel like we're doing something wrong for not seeing the results we should but really we're not being lazy, we are working every day the best we can so I guess it’s just a moment to try our faith. I know we're going to come out of it and this area is going to have a lot of success really soon.

We taught C who is the mom of some less active members (the O family). She could progress SOOOO fast if her family was active. We've tried really hard with them too but they just don't want to stop working on Sundays. She is really nice though but always has an excuse to not go to church.

This week we taught our neighbor and his daughter. He is really receptive but she's not really. He came to church again this Sunday but after sacrament. He really liked it so that is good. Then at 6:30 he went to the clase de bienestar! He really likes everything about the church except that we only have services on Sundays...

On Sunday a girl came to church in jeans so we started talking to her and it turns out her whole family are members...EXCEPT HER! But she technically lives in a different area so we don't know what to do about that..If we have to pass the reference to the elders or if we can teach her.

We taught M..Who still hasn't prayed..UGH!! I just don't want to give up on him because I know he knows it's true but he just is being hard headed! 

Apparently the whole mission is struggling right now...it stinks but what can we do...  we're just going to keep working hard.

That’s about all for the week. 

Yesterday for Pday we cleaned, bought food and slept! The service stuff that we're putting together for the less fortunate is turning out really nicely :) I'll send pictures when we get stuff put together.

Finally some photos!!!

This week we had 26 lessons! and 248 contacts   

We started teaching some old investigators that we had like a month and a half ago. We had to stop visiting them because the wife was having a really hard pregnancy and had the baby like 3 months early. We saw them one day and now we're visiting them again! They are an awesome family and super receptive! We re-taught the restoration and the wife remembered basically everything! we challenged them to baptism and they said yes so we´re going to work hard with them :)

Chillin at the Stake Center

We're also teaching the wife of a reference we got. Her name is E and she is really receptive as well. Her husband is always working so we haven´t taught him yet but she has talked to him about our visits and she also talked to her mom. Her mom is a little bit closed to the idea of her receiving the lessons and that she can´t change her religion but she said it doesn't matter and that she´s going to do whatever God tells her to do. 

This last week M's son K got dengue too! So we went and taught him about priesthood and how he can give his son a blessing after his baptism. He basically said there isn't anything holding him back from getting baptized. He just needs to have a testimony of the gospel and then he won't have negative feelings for his wife for not letting him go to church before...

Alright...now for A & M. We taught them and they weren't feeling prepared to be baptized but we planned an interview just so we could know how to help them better. A went first and it was like an hour and a half...Elder Cruz said that we need to work with him on gaining a testimony so tonight we are going to teach him more in depth about Joseph Smith. Then M had her interview. SHE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED THIS SUNDAY! She is feeling a lot better about it and said that it's what she wants to do...she signed the register and everything. BUT A said that their daughter couldn't have the interview so unless he changes his mind she can´t get baptized this weekend. She was really sad about it and she really wants to get baptized but we can´t overstep his authority. Hopefully the lesson with them tonight will go well though and we´re hoping to baptize M this weekend.

This picture was taken in October!

Last week at changes President Brough changed everything so now I don´t even know when changes will be. This change is only 5 weeks, so the missionaries going home will be home for Christmas.  The one after that is 9 weeks and then from there we have no idea if they´re going to be every 6 weeks like normal or if they are going to stay at 8 or 9 weeks every change.  I don´t know if I´m getting changed until the week of changes.

     I also got two packages last week so THANK YOU!! for the chocolate (I already made thin mints) and for the temple pictures, the cardboard tree the candy...EVERYTHING! 

I´M ALIVE!! haha we haven´t really felt anything here in the city. It hasn´t been that bad for us but there are pictures and stuff of San Marcos that the bishops wife showed us and it’s pretty bad over there..It’s a different mission though but I´m sure all the missionaries there are ok too but everything has been fine in our mission.  (There was a 7.4 earthquake off the coast of Guatemala – all missions have reported that all their missionaries are fine.  Missionaries in the Reuutaleu Mission have been helping with the relief effort.)

The mission conference we had a few weeks ago was just about being..prepared haha. The mission is going to send us big jugs (the kind that you have in the office that are hooked up to a machine and you can push the blue button for cold water or the red button for hot....just without the machine haha) of water and 72 hour kits. It was for all of Central America.  (Good timing, huh? They better hurry and get that stuff to them!)

Once again I’m sorry but I can’t send photos because I left my cord to connect my camera to the computer...SORRY! I promise I will send pictures next week! Yes Hna Garcia and I will be staying another change together :) 3 changes with one companion!! ahhhh but we get along pretty great so that´s good :) What did you do for Richies bday? and how are you doing? :)  

So this week was really good! We had 267 contacts and 24 lessons! I know it's not the 27 that we should have but we're getting better with the lessons so that's good. 

We taught A&M like 3 times last week and have been doing really good and progressing and they came to church again on Sunday and stayed all 3 hours! AND Ca ’s sister came to church with them too and went to Young Womens and LOVED it! They are doing really well and always tell us that they are praying and asking God but don´t feel like they are getting answers. They have completely stopped drinking coffee too! I think it´s that they aren't recognizing the answer...

Now for the sad part...last night we had family night with the Saenz family again but A  brought a paper that was anti-Mormon stuff (Ca couldn't come because she got her molar taken out so she has a little bit of pain.) but anyway he said can you guys explain this to me? I found it on the internet..So we talked about it for a little while and he was really nice about it and not arguing so that was good. He just wanted to know if it was true. So, Hno. Saenz started reading it and then about half way though I said that we were going to stop reading it and that we can find a lot of things on the internet and that's why we don’t ask people for their opinions, only God. And then I bore my testimony and then Hno and Hna Saenz and Hna Garcia bore their testimonies. I think he was just confused about why this was on the internet and everything. We're still going to baptize them. I'm sure of it.

We also taught M. He’s doing a lot better. He had dengue but the deadly kind! But he's way better now. We taught him Mosiah 18:8-10 and then we asked what was keeping him from being baptized and he thought for a minute and said...nada. WHAT! that was so great he said he would pray and ask God if it was all true so getting sick was really good for him haha Now he just needs to go to church!

A Scorpion in her backpack!!!

Sorry I’m late, we had another zone meeting.  We have a zone training at the beginning of every month and then we have zone conference every 3 months, and district meeting every week and interviews every 3 months.

Carolyn and Hna Garcia

So this last week was decent. I almost got stung by a scorpion on Sunday so that was pretty exciting...It was in my backpack.

Anyway some pretty good happened like how A & M went to church on Sunday! That was awesome! They liked it. We had to explain a little since it was the dividing of the stake but they enjoyed it. Last week we taught them eternal marriage and that went really well too. They are an amazing family. Yesterday we had a Family Night with them and some members about prophets so that went really good too! We're planning on baptizing them this month.

We also taught the O  family again with their grandma C  who isn't a member. She flat out said to her son in law...you guys already know that I will go with you to church and get baptized if you start going again. What do we do?! Seriously this family HAS a testimony but they won’t go to church! We taught keep the Sabbath day holy and the dad was like little by little we'll be active again we just need to start. And then we said so start now! And they were like...no. How do we get them to church?

We also taught a lady named L  that is really great. She understands everything that we teach her and when we were putting another appointment she said we could go back the next day. We did but she wasn't there but her daughter and son in law were there so we taught them and they are really awesome too! 

We taught M  again (S’s husband). We taught word of wisdom. He's just being difficult. We really don't know how to get to him. I am 100% positive he knows it's true he just doesn't want to listen. We're going to teach eternal marriage to see if that helps...

We also taught a less active member who has autism. He doesn't go to church because one of the members robbed their house apparently so he doesn't want to see that family. But he came to the conference this week! That was really good. He was really excited to see Elder Amado.

On Halloween like you already know we had to be in at 6 because the people here get crazy..

AHHHHHHH!!! Hopefully someone here will be able to tell me that we have an LDS president in the US!! 

Tell everyone I say hi and tell Mary Jane congratulations! I love you momma!! I hope you have a great week! Thank you for all you do for me! P.S. did you read that there was a scorpion in my backpack?! AHHHHHHHHH

 I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy and stay safe! LOVE YOU!!!