Monday, August 26, 2013

2013-08-26 I continue to be amazed at how we find new investigators.

Hey Everybody-

Only 2 of the Vasquez family were baptized.  Fernando and Paola.  I found out the day before the baptism when I was doing the paperwork that they had been wrong about how old Eloy was.  I found his birth certificate and it turns out he doesn’t turn 8 until May next year.  That was a bummer because he’s wanted to get baptized since June and he’s my best buddy in that family.  Also the oldest, Jairo, told us he couldn’t leave his soccer team that plays on Sunday down a player in the middle of the tournament.  He’s going to quit the team after the tournament so that he can be baptized though.  That should be within the next couple weeks.  He’s been doing really well though with everything.  He left a game early to come to his cousins' baptisms.

My new place will finally have electricity tomorrow and it’s alright.  It’s a lot closer to our area.

Brian and Sebastian and Kimberly just keep getting better.  Sebastian stopped smoking.  Also we met the parents of Sebastian and Kimberly and it turns out their dad had met with the missionaries a lot before and really liked the church.  He would have been baptized but moved and lost contact with the missionaries.  Pretty much the same thing that happened with Brian’s dad.  We have an appointment with them tonight and I think they will all be baptized together in September.
I love the Flores family and never want to leave my area here. 
 
The Flores family is pretty much the best and they help us out a ton--especially when we need people to go on splits. They’ve made me pizza like 10 times since I’ve been here which I love too.
 
They are gonna start saving now so they can come to my wedding they said.  I hope that’s actually true because I think it would be way fun to show them Utah. 
One of my favorite experiences during the week was looking for a family of recent converts who supposedly moved into our area. We knocked the door where we thought it was but a little old Quechua-speaking lady came to the door with her 14 year-old grandson instead. I almost left when we had confirmed that it wasn’t the family we were looking for because I had no idea how to teach someone who only speaks Quechua. I felt like I needed to try though so I asked if we could come in and teach and they said yes. I taught the lesson to the 14 year old kid and the grandma just kind of sat and listened. It turned out that this kid had recently decided that he needed to join a church. He had been reading his Bible that morning when we came and was super excited that we were there. He asked me when he’d be able to be baptized. I’m excited to meet with his parents tomorrow who speak Spanish. I continue to be amazed at how we find new investigators.

After the Vasquez family baptism I bought coke and chocolate and we went to their house to celebrate.  It’s pretty fun that they get so excited over stuff like that that costs nothing.  We chatted and it was fun.  Their grandma is really old but her mind still works and so she’s fun to listen to.

Love,
Elder Howlett

P.S.  D&C 100: 5 and 6  Share the gospel.