Pon Tu Hombro a la Lid!

Hey everyone, hope all is well back home!  This week was pretty interesting week.  Tuesday we worked hard in Choqui and found a man named Don Santos.  He lives down a little mountain and has a pretty big family.  One of his sons is a member but no one else in the family.  He loved hearing about the word of God and we shared quite a bit with him that Tuesday.  We´ve worked with him a little more and everytime we visit there´s a great Spirit present.  Kind of a long story short, with a little more work and with the help of Heavinly Father, I truly think he´ll be ready to be babtized.  

Thursday we had a multi zone confrence down in Toto, about an hour and a half from Choqui.  It was super nice to hear from President Smith, he gave us a lot of good advice and tips about how to be more effective.  He focused a ton on helping our investigators understand the feelings they feel are from the Holy Ghost.  He also helped us understand that of about 28,000 babtisms in Central America last year, only around 3,000 are active!  We should be shooting for conversion, not just simply babtisms.  This helped me realize that we shouldn´t be teaching people lessons, we should show people how the Gospel can forever change their lives.

The hardest part about this week was one of our progressing investigators, Angelica, dropped us.  I´m not sure what happened but I think some of the Evangelists told her some stuff.  I was pretty bummed about this, but we were lucky enough to find a man named Celixto.  He´s kind of quiet but just a real solid guy.  His wife is a less active member and he´s a Catholic but only wants to know the truth.  Long story short, this week we invited him to be babtized in October.  He kind of dodged the question but we told him he could recieve and answer if we prayed together.  We all kneeled down and he gave one of the best prayers I´ve ever heard.  We asked his wife to bear her testimony and she started crying and gave an awesome testimony.  The Spirit in the room was just incredible.  Celixto is a super busy man but we challenged him to pray with his wife for a date.  We´re going to call him tonight and hopefully he has a date in mind!

Another miracle happened for us this week.  We found a girl named Jimmena in Choqui.  Our lesson with her wasn´t the best but she asked for two Book´s of Mormon, one for her and one for her sister.  I didn´t really think too much would happen with her but this week we ¨just so happened¨ to run into her all the way in Patalup!  She´s been reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and had all these questions for us.  She is super smart, she was asking all these questions about the Jews and stuff, just a great girl.  We invited her to be babtized the 25 and she said yes.  I asked her why she wanted to be babtized and she said it´s because she knows the Book of Mormon is true and feels like the Church is true.  We still have to talk to her grandma but I really think she´ll join the Church.

This October our zone has a goal to have a ¨month of miracles.¨ Our entire zone hasn´t had a babtism in like 3 months and right now it´s looking like we should have 9!  I feel so blessed to be where I´m at and to help change people´s lives.  Sure, there´s a lot of hard things that happen but everyday I feel happy and excited to share the Gospel because it has changed my life.  I know miracles will happen if we ask for them in faith and that anything is possible with the help of God.  Pray, fast, and just have the faith that Heavinly Father can do anything.  Adios! 

                         This is the church in Choqui-Jack and his companion live in an apartment in the back

                                                            This is Jackson's "kitchen"!

                                                    This is Patalup, part of Jackson's area

  This is the church in San Bartolo, the town where Jack goes every p-day to email and buy supplies.  They have to stay the night in this church every p-day because there aren't any more buses back to Choqui in the afternoon.