Livin' la vida.....misional!

Why, hello beloved familia and friends!

I hope everyone had a fantastic week. Me, well...I've had better weeks on my mission, but that doesn't mean that it was a bad week! 

Ok, so up until Saturday, all of our appointmensts fell through, nobody was answering doors( or we got rejected), so it seemed like a very very bad week for us. I, being honestly honest, was getting a little disheartened because we hadn't taught anything all week. I guess this is the Lord's was of teaching us humility, no? Well, Saturday, we went to an appointment that we had in the morning, and our investigator was actually there! But not just that, his cousin from the army was home for the weekend! So, we read Moroni 10 together and explained all of Moroni's invitations in that chapter to them. Our investigator's cousin was really interested in the Book of Mormon, so we taught him about the Book of Mormon and how it could help him in his life to keep his standards high, especially in the military world. So, we gave him a copy, and he said that he would read it. He is a good kid. Military service, up until a few years ago, was mandatory, and he's in the army because of that. 

Well, this past week, our ward had a talent show, and my companion and I got permission to perform a song written by some missionaries in Colombia.The song was called "Querido Juan" or "Dear John". You can probably figure out what it's about by the title. :)  I sang, and my companion sang backup and played guitar. It was awesome. I had lots of fun doing it, and people were still talking about it at church on Sunday, saying things like  "Poor John!" or "Was that song about you?". And we also had an activity with thi ward missionaries, teaching them how to teach lessons and stuff. That went really well. We finished the night by eating a Chilean dish called completos....which is basically a hotdog with tomatoes, guacamole, ketchup and mayo. It's really good, actually( or my tastebuds have changed here, one of the two.).

Then, last night we had a really spiritual moment. A hermana from the ward asked us to come over and give her son a blessing. So, we went over and we talked to the kid, and well, he's been having problems with his head, so he's headed out to La Paz to go get CAT-scans done, then probably surgery. We talked and we found out what was going on and how scared he was to travel and have this all go down. but, he accepted the blessing from us. Afterwards, he told us that when he comes back from La Paz, that he wants to be baptized! I really don't understand why people get so Gospel happy when they have huge things going down in their lives, but maybe this is the time the Lord has prepared for them to accept the Gospel, and they're taking it.

I should be telling you about cambios today, but.....The presdent is giving them tonight, so ya'll have to wait until next week. Sorry!

Dad- I'll talk to my mission pres about that.....Have an amazing week!

Mom-Well, I think it's time for a new office....just my suggestion.

Aly- I love that pic! Freak....makes me a little trunkee, but that's ok.

Emi- Sorry about the bad meet....just esforzarse and keep working hard to get better.

Scriptures of the week:
Ether 12:36

I hope you all have an amazing week!
-- 
AEA


Elder Craig

Chunka(diez, ten) meshes!!!!! (9-5-2011)

Why, hello everyone!

I hope you all had an amazing week! Mine, as usual, was fantastic!  This week was super cool for a few reasons.

This week we were finally able to contact a family that we've been trying to contact for weeks. They were a reference given to us by a member. Well, they are one awesome family. It's a single mom and four of her kids(We're still trying to contact the oldest son....teenagers are always difficult.Yes, parents, I finally sort of understand...probably not XP), and they are loving the Gospel! The mom and three of her kids accepted a baptismal date for the 1st of October.We're super excited for them, and we're going to do all that we can to help them reach that goal. Really, giving references really helps our work out. According to Preach My Gospel, the ideal situation for us as missionaries is that we work off of pure references given to us by members. We also have those two brothers that I told y'all about last week that are still super excited about the gospel, and we started to teach their mom this week, so that family is being awesome as well.

We have one frustrating thing right now. We have an investigator who is like this close(imagine for a moment that I'm squeezing my fingers together really closely) to baptism. Well, we taught her the last commandment that she needed, which is the law of chastity. Well, she's been good with everything.....but she has a belly button ring( which is against the law of chastity if you didn't know, only piercings allowed are only on women, and one pair on the ears.) and she refuses to take it out. Right now it's literally a piece of metal separating her from starting her path to eternal salvation. That is super, super frustration, because she loves the Church, and goes as often as she can. She even went the weekend that we were gone to Cochabamba, which means that she loves the Church for the Spirit that she feels there, and not for us. So, please pray for her. We challenged her to pray to the Father and ask Him whether she should have the piercing or not, and really that will be her response for whether the Church is true or not.

Dad- Don't worry, I don't have the same plans coming home from the mission as most missionaries. I know what really should be a priority. Have an AMAZING week!

Mom- I'm glad you get to see everyone so much- tell them hi for me sometime!

Aly- Thanks for the Times Square pic!  I hope you have tons of fun today. And I don't know that band...you'll have to burn me a CD for when I get home.

Emi- Thanks for the letter(finally ;) ). Have an amazing week!

Scriptures of the week:

D&C 97:8, 88:123-126

That's all for now! I love you all!
-- 
AEA


Elder Craig