The government's back in business! Whoooo! Good, because we want to go to the Hoover Dam sometime this transfer.
This week has gone by very fast. Zaida and her sons, plus Benita and Claudette are all getting baptized on the 26th. We had a super powerful lesson last night. We went to the Retis' house again. (the one we taught the life size POS with) As usual, they had a lot more people there than we expected, so we taught to a crowd again. It was night time and we were all outside. We taught the restoration, but used candles as a visual of how the authority is like a light in the world. We lit candles for the prophets, Jesus Christ, and the 12 apostles. We blew them out when the sacerdocio was taken from the earth, then lit them up again when it was restored..just a visual to show we have the same organization that Christ established. Then when we went to share the first vision, we sang Joseph Smith's first prayer and on the 3rd verse one of us hummed the tune while the other one recited the first vision. Then we sang the 4th verse together again. We bore our testimonies and lit a candle to show how we are a part of this light in the world. Then we invited the 5 that are getting baptized, plus hno y hna Retis to do the same. It was super powerful. They're so ready. It's going to be a full blown fiesta on Saturday.
We currently have 9 people total with a baptismal date, baptizing weekly in November. We've been maintaining a solid 10 Member Present lessons per week. This area is booming, and it has nothing to do with us. The Lord has prepared so many people and many of them we've found through members. In the beginning of this week, we found a lot of new people to teach and everyone seemed to answer the door and let us in. One man we found, cried after we asked a pretty inspired question and opened up a lot to us. He told us he would come to church. He wasn't there yesterday, but we'll keep working on him and get him there next week. Hugo - Zaida's husband - is getting baptized on the 16th, because he still has to come to church a couple more times and read and pray regularly, but he's got that goal. Luisa - Benita's mom - is getting baptized on the 23rd and even Zaida's mom came down from Mexico this past week and told us she wants to be baptized on the same day as Luisa (we haven't set her yet, though, so she's not included in the 9)... these families are awesome. And their examples are spreading to their family members and they all want to get baptized! Even Ron, Benita's husband who doesn't speak Spanish, has been touched by Claudette's example and change of behavior so much that he wants to meet with the English elders. Lourdes and her son mike are set for the 9th, but we need to get mike to church, because he hasn't come yet. He's interested, though.
We also have a really awesome investigator named Rosie. Next time we see her we are going to commit her to a date, but she already said she'll be baptized when she receives an answer. I LOVE HER. She's a single mom, and loves us to death. She also cooks like a goddess and always prepares us something. She wants to feed us dinner on the days we don't have it. The other day she made healthy chocolate cake... don't ask me how she did it. She's got the skills. She's super interested, though and she's already best friends with Hna. Acosta, the member we usually bring with us. They live in the same apartment complex and hang out before and after our lessons. Unfortunately, we didn't see her at church yesterday even though she said she'd be there, but it's because she was with her friend who was receiving her cancer results. Her friend's doing good and healthy apparently. :)
We had a meeting this morning about the Gladys Knight performances. Let me tell you, that woman is my hero. She tours the country putting on these performances of music and testimonies and it's all a missionary opportunity. They expect half of the audience to be non-members and less active and the other half to be the members who are fellowshipping them. They even have little referral cards attached to each ticket for the people to write their information if they want to hear more about the church. At the end, the missionaries collect the cards and for filling out the card they get a packet with a CD by Gladys Knight and her Choir, a book of Mormon, and the Restoration DVD. That woman's going to get herself a first class ticket to the Celestial Kingdom, I tell you what... what an example of taking those talents God has blessed you with and using them to build up the kingdom of God and become an instrument in his hands. How many lives has she already changed? It's crazy. We got to watch a video about the performance, learn a little bit more about sister Knight and how everything would play out. There was a man there that works with her setting up these firesides all over the country. He said they had to sneak in one of the 12 apostles to one of the firesides and he was clapping and singing along with everyone else. So it's going to be Baptist church style choir and everyone is encouraged to clap along and everything. I'm so excited. Not only to see it myself, but to invite others so they can feel of the spirit there. During the video there were a few people who shared their stories about how they were converted though attending one of these firesides. Even though Gladys Knight lives here in Vegas, she hasn't done a tour here since 2006. So they probably won't do it again here for 6 years or so.
I'm doing good. :) I got your package, but I haven't opened it yet. I will definitely take pictures of the life size POS. You have to send me pictures first, though! Like, printed ones maybe? ;)
I love you so much!
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