The People
We picked up a pretty solid former named Jorge (the man we drove home from Zone Conference to teach last week) We have had two lessons with him and he has kept his commitments to meet and read... He did show us up once last week so we are trying to contact him again. We started teaching his niece too though. She seems pretty interested and has some problems to overcome but if she works hard and has that desire I know it will all work out...
We are continuing to work with our recent converts even though they live outside of the new Hermosa Liahona ward boundary.
-We are still meeting a lot of resistance with Sergio's mom not liking the church. He is still slowly starting to be a little more self sufficient. He has retained a lot more doctrinal information than he used to. He is still firm (as of a couple of days ago) in his answer to his prayers and answer to his specific question about the truthfulness of the restored church.
-Alex is doing really well. We have been watching the District 2 DVD with him because he likes learning from movies and we are preparing to go out on splits with him... He still makes some jokes about being Mormon (mostly pressure from his older brother who doesn't like religion but likes us as missionaries...) but deep down he is pretty converted to the gospel! Which I love!
-Jamson still doesn't want to come to church and says he was only baptized because the missionaries and his dad bugged him. Not going to lie, his situation makes me kind of sad, but we will continue our once a week visits to invite him to church and to read/pray etc....
We are still trying to find new solid progressing investigators- our only one's (oscar age 16) who is now on his 6th or so chapter of the Book of Mormon, parents are not too keen on him going to church with us. They say that they love him learning with us but are wary of him diving into it without "exploring other churches and faiths". We will see how this all turns out, in the mean time we are trying to invite his parents to join us in the lessons...
As for Less Actives, we are very excited that the active daughter (sister Monge) of recently reactivated parents is very enthusiastic and is being very helpful to contact, reach out and reactivate the names of people in our area that we feel would be good for her. She is helping develop longer relationships and contact some people that have 'fallen through the cracks"
As for me...
I am loving the new mission challenge to read the Book of Mormon (in English) to highlight references to the Savior. We are reading it by our mission wide conference on New Years day. It is really strengthening my testimony of the Gospel, the Savior, the purpose and role of the Book of Mormon as a foundation for a testimony and as a testament of the Savior. I am really grateful we have this tangible evidence we can pray about to know the Church, the prophets, the Lord and his dealings with us etc So yeah that (in Spanish for language study) is taking up most of my study time.
I am also very happy and am worrying less despite the difficulty that I definitely did not anticipate before my mission of enduring to the end. Elder Franson and I agree that the newness has definitely worn off and it seems like we never see new problems/ideas/types of people etc. The days are the same etc. Even getting transferred to a new area doesn't seem new and exciting anymore. I am trying to focus on developing and radiating a deep love for the Gospel. I also know that despite all this I love, serve, understand (that especially) and am patient with the people I come in contact with/am teaching. So yeah you could say that my dedication to this cause and the people I serve are the only thing that is getting me through this. That and I still feel like I have more to learn and grow...
I am also excited for Turkey Bowl next week! And a little less so- thanksgiving (holidays are just not the same on the mission.... but we will get a good dinner at a members house... so I am grateful for that!)
I love you all!
Elder Myers
