Sorry
for emailing so late. It´s been a crazy week. I had to go to Málaga Sunday
morning to renew my residency card early Monday. I had to leave church early on
Sunday and take an 9 hour bus ride to Málaga without Elder Sharp. I was with a
couple other missionaries. The bad part was that it was Sunday so we couldn´t
buy any snacks along the way. We were starving. We stayed at the mission home
Sunday night and then Monday morning we went to do our residency. After, we
were able to have the day off, but Elder Sharp was then traveling to Malaga so
I didn´t want to email without him. So we walked around Malaga for a while. I
went and saw Inma who was working that day in Malaga. She seemed happy to see
me and I gave her a letter that I had written and also some letters for the
family.
After
that we had a meeting in the mission home for the night. We heard some good
talks about how to be better missionaries and stuff like that. Then the next
afternoon we headed back to Elche in a car. We did intercambios with some
missionaries in Malaga, so Elder Sharp stayed in Malaga and I went with an
Elder Olsen back to Elche. I was a little nervous because I still don´t know
the area very well and I had to figure it out. But we stayed busy that night
and set three baptismal dates with new investigators. One is with a really cool
mexican kid named Cxxxx. His mom had spoken with missionaries before, and her
ex-husband back in Mexico was Mormon and so she has close relations to the
church. The date is for the 28th of June. Then after, we went by two other investigators
and had our first real lesson with them. They are an ecuadorian mother and her
16 year old daughter. We invited them to be baptized and the daughter said yes
right away. The mom is a little less convinced but more or less agreed to a
baptismal date for the 28th as well. The daughter for sure is getting baptized.
It might take a little more time with the mom.
Then
the next day Elder Sharp came back and we went to visit a reference that a
member gave us. It was a family of 4. Two grandparents, a woman and her 12 year
old child. We taught them about the restoration and then committed them to be
baptized on the 28th if they recieved an answer that the church was true. Just
the mother and her child. The grandparents are a little tougher. We´ll get them
though. Then after, we went and visited another investigator. She had had a few
lessons before but this was the first time I had met her. We taught her the
restoration as well, and then invited her to be baptized on the 5th of July and
she accepted. So in 24 hours our area changed a ton. We still have other
investigators we want to invite to be baptized, so we´re hoping to make June a
great month.
O
yeah, our Romanian family that we found and were making good progress with: We
went and were planning on giving them a baptismal date, but they informed us
that they were getting kicked out of their house in 3 days and were going to have
to live on the street because they would be unable to find a new apartment in
time. We calmed them down and told them they would find one. We decided not to
talk about baptism because they had other problems at the time. A couple days
later they found a new apartment, but it is right on the other side of the
border with the other ward here in Elche. So they don´t even belong to our ward
anymore. We arenñt sure what we are going to do with them. We of course will
have the other missionaries teach them. But they won´t really understand why it
has to be that way. O well. We´ll figure it out.
But
yeah. That was the week.
Elder
Sharp is 20. So I guess that´s average? We came here at the same time, yes. The
other companionships in the zone are doing well. May was a rough month for the
whole zone but June will definitely be better. we have a goal of three baptisms
as a companionship, and 6 as a zone.
I
guess we´ll be talking in a few days now.
One
thing we´ve started doing in lessons is teaching very simply about the
restoration on the very first visit. i don´t know why this started writing
in italics. But we just say that in the history of the world, when there was a
prophet, there was also the true church of God. When there wasn’t a prophet,
there wasn’t the true church of God. We beat this into their heads a million
times. Then we talk about Jesus and how he gave his apostles authority and
established the true church again. But then he died and the authority was lost.
because there was no longer a prophet, there was no longer the true church of
God. Many people looked for the true church but because there was no prophet,
there couldn’t be one. Joseph smith asked, and was called to be a prophet. Because
there was a prophet, there was also the true church of God. Then we tell them
to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Then we invite them to be
baptized. And that’s it. We don´t talk about the Book of Mormon or anything.
And it´s working like crazy. So good. Tell all your friends.
Love
ya, bye
Calvin
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