VIctor Torres: We've been teaching him for about 2 months. here's his story. Day 1, 2 , or 3 in this area, I don't really remember, We don't have bikes and so we're walking home late at night (sorry mom, ya gotsta work til 9 no matter what) anyway so we live in the ghetto right? so we're walking home and a little nervous so walking pretty fast. We see a girl behind us walking home alone. We talk to her and walk her to her apartment to make sure she gets home safely. We then go back and follow up on her a few days later. We end up teaching the whole family. They all seem pretty interested. Over time the kids aren't as interested, the Dad "Victor" is so interested. he came to church last week. Then we set a date with him on Tuesday for the 20th of Oct. and then yesterday he drove himself to watch conference at the stake center, watched the first session and then drove home. He is so ready for the gospel.
Rene: I don't know if yall remember Rene. He is sick!! He texted us the first 2 weeks here and we didn't know him, so we were kind of wary when we met him. He met the missionaries about 4 months ago. Hna Vila saw him sitting there with a cigarette and a beer and invite him to hear a message of Christ. He dumped the beer and threw away the cigarette and listened. Well he ended up going to prison for possession of drugs. He texted us when he got out. We taught him 5-6 times and had a date and he dropped off the earth. well he contacted us a week ago. He moved and changed numbers, so we did a transition lesson to move him to the sisters, but he is so ready. He promised hna vila he'd give this church a chance first and he's committed to it. He has had people bash on the church and also tell him to come to theirs and he says I'm not trying anything until I know if this church is true or not. He's so ready!!
English Class: Well we're out riding our bikes cleaning up the ward list. We ride past this couple and I notice they have papers and books their studying or reading. We ride back by 20 minutes later and their still there. I flip the bike around and ask them if they are teaching themselves english (at this point they had a friend there too). They say no but they want to learn. I say perfect because we are teaching a free english class that they should come to and invite them and leave it at that. Well their friend shows up to english class and I think, well we'll never see that couple again. bring...bring...bring... Goes the telephone on thursday night. We answer. Hi we met you yesterday and you invited us to your english class. We were wondering if you could come over to our house and teach you about your church. Yes we can come over, when would you like us to come over, whenever you can works for us. Today at 4? Perfect Les esperamos. (we'll wait for you). We go and he starts just asking us all these questions "when you baptize is it in the the name of the father the son and the holy ghost or just Jesus Christ" is it all the way under the water?' What do you believe about the trinity? We tell him we will answer all his questions as we teach what we have prepared for them. We teach them the restoration. They agree to be baptized (they didn't come to church so we have to reset the date) After the closing prayer, i asked him a question and he goes on talking about how he's felt hopeless and alone, but when we were there it was gone. He felt good. When we prayed and talked he felt a presence descend on him and it made him feel vulnerable and want to cry but it is good. We go back and teach them the next day the plan of salvation with a member. at the beginning we asked him what is God's plan for us. He basically explains the whole plan of salvation before we even teach him anything. They're so ready. English class works. As does talking to everyone!
Wanna hear about my insane conference saturday:
SO we've been teaching Albert. This old man in a wheelchair thats homeless and might be a drug lord. Well he didn't answer 5 phone calls that we made to him in the morning so we got on our bikes and headed off to conference. We're about 1/2 way there a bit over a mile when we see his wheelchair. I slam on the brakes. Hna Christensen about runs into me haha (I slam on my brakes a lot the poor girl...) He's asleep. We wake him up and say Albert we're going to church come on. He gets up and gets in the wheelchair. The session has now already begun. SO what do we do. Hna Christensen takes the 2 bikes. and runs. I get behind him in his wheelchair and run. About a mile later we're at the church. We push him in and sit down. I realize I'd lost my sweater on the way here running and so after the session we decide to rebike our journey and see if we find it. Sure enough we do. Its right on the side of the sidewalk. I put it on my waist. We're heading to give the english class couple 2 libros de mormon when we pass a farmers market. We'd passed it on the way with Albert and he said he'd buy us food after the session there. Then we pass it to get the sweater, and then again to go to Lopez to give them the Book of Mormon. Before my mission it was my plans to go to the farmers markets in my areas and contact there. I know heavenly father knows what I'm attracted to in life and will work through that to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. So we go to the farmers market. Literally the smallest farmers market of my life. There's a station with good bread though, so of course we check it out. We talk to the guy running the bread booth and he's 23, a baker, a WWF fighter, used to coach track, and used to be a Jehovah's witness. Well we talk about God religion. Womens roles in society, etc. I even brought the conversation back to the bread and he days "man we're in this deep conversation and you ask about bread?" and keeps talking about religion. We talk about the restoration with and emphasis on prophets. and tell him he can hear the prophet speak at conference at 5 that night or on Sunday. He takes the pamphlets, says he'll try, and thanks us so much. He said "I just have this good feeling now" thank you for coming, people aren't like you two, especially around our age" you two have purpose and drive" we end up buying 2 loaves of bread and head off. Well we're about a block away and realize that the farmers market was just about ending. We send him a text and invite him to come watch the conference at the chapel at 1. He says "Hi. Would love to come. Ill be done at market by 1:30. Would it be ok if I came late? I don't want to disrespect anyone by doing so..." We tell him to come and let us know when he gets there, of course in a loving a kinder way. HE shows up around 2; we slip him a paper and pencil for notes and he and sits down and watches the last hour with us. He says is it ok if I ask you a few questions. WE say definitely. He asks what is the sacrament? they kept talking about it and i don't know what it means. what motivation is bad for going to church? is it bad if I go to church because I don't want to go to hell?" we then reply with how any reason is a good reason and how our motivations change over time, like our conversion to God that we talked about at the farmers market. He asks is it against your religion to wrestle? I grew up Jehovahs Witness but my friends, now that I'm doing this, they won't talk to me. He says I just feel so good here. Its crazy to that I came, because I kept doubting coming. but when you two left, the business flipped around and I sold everything. THen I was like ok i need some caffeine and so if there's a 7-11 on the way I'll go. (sure enough there was one on the corner). Just like little things kept pointing me to coming. I'm usually sleeping right now because I'm up working at night, but I feel so awake it's so weird. I feel so good. It's like this weird feeling I've never felt before. Those are all my questions though. The rest that I wrote down is crazy stuff. LIke I've been having questions and stuff, but they answered what I've been thinking about. It's crazy. It was like they were talking right to me.
CRAZY RIGHT!!! SO we got in contact with the english ysa and sent his information to them within about 20 minutes and he's in their hands now. It's so cool because he is so ready!! and we met him like a 1/2 hr -hr earlier. Talking with EVERYONE works!! and what surprises me is how almost everyone wants to talk about God and Religion.
Baptisms:
This week is German and Francescas baptism on Saturday. Then Alfredos on Sunday ( the security guard) the next week is Torres on the 20th. I'll tell you what Satan is working hard against us, but more than that God is working in the hearts of men to bring them to him. People are being prepared all around us and all we have to do is open our mouths.
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