New companion: Elder Oliveros

Hey hey hey!

 

What a great week! I got my new companioin on Tuesday and his name is Elder Oliveros. He is from Acapulca which is in a different part of Mexico but very simialer to here because it is also near the beach. He only has 7 months on the mission (I just barely finished my 6th month) but he was only in the MTC for 3 weeks (missionaries are only in the MTC for 3 weeks if they are not learning a language) and so he has more field expeience. He is really great, we get along really well and we work hard together.

 

We met the new president on Thursday! His name is President Jordan and he seems like a great guy. We got together with two other zones and he introduced himself to us a little. It will be very interesting for me to see them grow into their callings.

 

We have had much more success this week than usual. We have been finding a lot more new investigators, and a few inactive members. We stopped by Karina´s house but she wasnt there this week, but we ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation to her two daughters Ayde and Rosa. We also put a baptisimal date for them on the 28th which is the same date as their mother. That was pretty great and I really would love to see them get baptized together as a family. Karina has an eleven year old son but he is always off playing so we havent really talked to him.

 

We have been working with Andrea and Carlos to get them prepared for their baptisimal date on the 14th, but they both didnt show up to church which means we have to set their dates back again. It has been pretty tough to get our investigators to come to church. Maybe becasue its 9 in the morning. Or maybe because it rained really hard Sunday morning. We are going to work harder to get our investigators to church because it is so important for them to go and make friends with the members and to feel the Spirit there. There is also a requirment that they got at least 2 times to church before they can get baptized, but we avoid telling them that because we dont want them to go only twice just to get baptized and then not go again.

 

I dont know if I told you about Mario, but we taught him last week in the house of a member. He wants to get baptized and married in the temple with the member, but he wants to know if it is all true first. He is pretty great, but we discovered that they are living together and are both in the process of divorce and the divorce of his girlfriend is going to take a long time.

 

Pedro got the Arronic Priesthood on Sunday!!!! He is doing so awesome and he is going to bless the sacrament next Sunday! I was so happy to see him get the Priesthood because we had some problems a few weeks after his baptism, but now he is back on the right track! After sacrament meeting we take all the recent converts and investigators and take them to a class taught by the ward mission leader and the ward missionaries. None of them showed up this Sunday so I got to teach the class about prayer. It was pretty fun to get to teach and have a white board and everything. Pedro brought his nephew, Ricardo, to church. Ricardo wants to change like Pedro did and stop drinking. We taught him later that Sunday and he seems like he sincerely wants to change so that is great.

 

Sunday night just an hour before we were supposed to head back to the apartment it rained. It rained hard. Luckily we were teaching Orquidea (one of our baptisms form my first transfer) and so we got to stay inside for a bit, but when we had to leave we got soaked. All of the streets were submerged almost, and luckily we passed by a members house who offered to drive us to our apartment. our apartment wasnt far away, the problem was that we could only get to it by either walking through waist deep water or walking really far. Luckily the car didnt flood.

 

I have to go but I love you all so much and I am glad that things are going well for all of you. Im sorry that Abby has been a handful lately. Dad should try playing the piano for her sometime when shes in a bad mood and maybe it would calm her down.

 

¡Tenga una buena semana!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Johns