We still talk with Gustavo over phone. Myra's doing great as well. She tells us some days she feels totally ready for baptism and other days she feels a little nervous. We advised her to hold on to the good feelings, because those are from the Holy Ghost. She was supposed to go to the singles ward yesterday, but I guess something came up and she told those sister missionaries that she couldn't...we have a lesson with her tomorrow, though, so we can find out more then. We also picked up a former investigator named Rafael. Do you remember Rafael? He had a baptismal date while sister Hill and I were teaching him, but didn't come to church enough times before his date and started smoking again and said he needed time to be 100% positive this is something he wanted. Yep, that Rafael. Well, we stopped by in the beginning of the week and he told us he was 100% sure now and decided that baptism into our church is what he wanted. He told us it was a sign from God that we came by and that he would be in church every Sunday for all 3 hours (which he never was that committed to before.) So, we set him with a baptismal date for Aug. 16th along with Myra. He came to church yesterday and stayed all 3 hours for the first time. He is ready to change his life.
We've also been getting a LOT of referrals lately, which is rare for Alta Vista...well, with what we're used to anyway. Our area may have died last week, but it must have just been to make way for it to be built up again with a whole new teaching pool. Haha.
Exchanges are good. Exhausting, but good. Haha... only 1 left! We're doing it tomorrow. Last exchange was weird with sis Hill in Los Feliz. We ate dinner with a member couple, but the husband started going off on how he doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon and him and his wife started arguing... none of us were expecting that. Haha.
As for Gustavo, he texts and calls us from time to time. I'm really impressed with Gustavo. He's having a ton of spiritual experiences out there. The other day he was having the worst day and didn't have enough money for food and gas, so he prayed and out of no where someone gave him 20 dollars which he used to buy some gas and food and then he went looking for work and made 350 dollars in one day. Every time he shares those experiences with us, it ends up being the result of fervent prayer and reading in the Book of Mormon. And he recognized them as blessings from God. He already has a job as a carpenter and is looking for an apartment over there. That's super impressive because he's been homeless for a little over a week and now he's barely homeless now. He's working hard. If there's a will there's a way... President Pecjak told us he had been praying for him and has a feeling Gustavo's going to be just fine. That's the feeling I get as well. Yesterday he asked us how often we fast and we told him and then asked him if he knew how to fast. His simple response was, "ensenenme como" And so we called him and gave him a little lesson about fasting. That's just how he is. 'Teach me how.' He opened up to us yesterday a lot about his childhood. He wants to go back to Mexico one day to talk to his dad because his dad was abusive and alcoholic to him, his siblings and mom and he's apparently one of the only kids who doesn't have hatred towards his dad. It seems he's forgiven him. He told us he's been struggling his whole life from timidness and low self esteem because of his father. I still remember one of our first lessons with Gustavo where he told us about the marital problems his sister and her husband were having. He told us he used to bust out the bible and try to help his sister see how their fighting was influencing their children. And when his sister told him to leave the house, he told us, 'todo va a estar bien' and that he knew she was just acting on emotions and didn't mean what she said. Now knowing how he grew up, it really impresses me how he handles things and how he really strives to be the example in his family. It's all from experience. It's no wonder the Lord is blessing him. Keep him in your prayers.
It hasn't really hit me fully that i'm leaving in a week yet. I'm not trunky at all...hopefully it hits me soon, though, so I can actually think of something to say for my departing testimony. Hah.
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