13th Week—December 5-11, 2011

 These first three pictures were taken at a French Restuarant, Mimi's, near Costco in Glendale, CA.

These last two pictures are taken on Olvera St. in Los Angeles, CA. 

                                                                                                                   

          Monday, December 5 we decided to do something fun.  We haven’t taken much time since we arrived here 3 months ago to sight see.  We went down to Olvera Street.  We saw the first house built in Los Angeles.  There were lots of outdoor shops where Latinos can sell their wares.  The café we ate at had singers with guitars, etc.  We went to an old cathedral and saw a huge nativity scene.  On weekends there is more going on but we didn’t get to see everything anyway.  It is a fun place to go and a very pleasant day.

          Victoria Olasaba told us she has a very strong personality and wants things her way.  We asked if it would be better if we taught Jaime alone and she said it might be.  Our visit with him went much better this week.  He opened up and we felt we had a great meeting.  He said he is very interested in the church (He has had the missionary lessons before.) and if he joins, he wants to share the message with others like we do.  He wants to be very involved.  Dale encouraged him to keep reading the Book of Mormon. 

          When we saw Beatriz de le Pena she was quite sick.  Bishop Estrada is going to help her so she can have her surgery.  We are so relieved as we have never felt such despair and didn’t know what to do for her when we met her.  Her mom is going to help her with the kids.  I hope all is successful for her.  We put her name on the temple prayer rolls.  Remember her in your prayers.  Those little kids need their mother.

          When we met Evelin Ramirez and the elders Saturday she told us she wants to be baptized.  Her boyfriend is moving out the end of this week and she has a job lined up.  She is giving up a lot and making some big commitments.  We are so happy for her.  Her sister, Xiomara, is withdrawing.  We don’t know what is happening with her.  She seemed like the strong one all along. 

          Sunday as we were leaving church, we had the feeling we should go back and talk to Maria Guzman and her daughter, Jeanette, who is home from college for the holidays.  José did not come to church and we think that he is struggling in his efforts to stop drinking beer.  After discussing his problem we decided to visit with him at 5:00 Sunday evening.  We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with something to help him. Finally I (Dale) found an article about the LDS Addiction Recovery program and printed Spanish and English copies. We both read and highlighted our copies. Then discussed what we should do.

When we arrived we started some lighthearted conversation, but José was not even looking up. You could tell that he was deep in thought.  So I asked him about his problem. As he had told others he said that it helps the pain in his back and his right leg go away if he drinks a couple of beers.  We asked Jeanette to translate every so often for Connie.  We talked about taking something like Aleve. That didn’t work so I asked about the Addiction Recovery Program to his reply he said that they had only missed two times since starting.  After some talk about this I completely departed from the planned lesson and started talking blessings of being sealed in the temple to his wife and their three children really emphasizing the joy that he will be able to receive when this happens.  The best part of the whole discussion was when we began reading about Alma’s description of the sorrow he felt for his sin.  Here we talked about the many times when José had decided to quit and then took just one more beer and how he felt.  (Alma 36:6-13)  Then we examined how the Savior’s atonement was for all of the sins of everyone who has ever lived or ever will live. This especially included and the beer drinking of José. Finally we read about and discussed Alma’s joy in being forgiven (verses 18-21). This is expressed so well I did not have to say very much except that this is the kind of feeling José can expect when he has his family sealed to him for eternity! We immediately knelt in prayer and José asked me to say it.  I had such a wonderfully spiritual feeling as I said the prayer.  It was great!

A very wonderful way to end one more week in the mission field.