Week 47 July 30-August 5, 2011

Ximora Ramirez's girls with Dale. 
(As with most Latinos here, their beds are in the Living Room/Kitchen.
Many do not have bedrooms or couches to sit on)

We took some of the "Visa Waiters" (elders waiting for their visas)
to the Mexican Consulate to get their visas.  While we were their they had
Mexican dancers and a band entertaining.  Connie was the only one that got to watch it..

They were celebrating 25 years of ?  I never could figure out what.

When they were finished with their dances this teenage girl asked me to dance with her. 
One of the Mexican men also asked me about the same time.  I was relieved she asked me first as I didn't think I should be dancing with him when I was a missionary.  I was very relieved Dale and the missionaries weren't there to watch me.

(Note:  Dale wrote most of this posting>)

August Birthdays

Happy Birthday Dear Cheyenne—10 Years Old—August 1

Happy Birthday Dear Sarah—8 years old—August 9

Happy Baptism Day!!

Happy Birthday Dear Dale, Dad, Grandpa—70+ years old—August 26

Happy Birthday Dear Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma—89 years old—August 31

Missionary Work

          It has been a very interesting week, starting on Sunday with Dale being sick enough with the flu to return home after the second Sacrament Meeting (not staying for Sunday school or Priesthood.) This continued until Wednesday pm when we met with Jorge Arzu with the Elders giving the restoration lesson and Pedro Portillo with his wife, Maria teaching them (her) about love as contained in 1John 4. Both went well.  Jorge agreed to make a decision on when he will be baptized and Maria softening up a little more. Thursday Connie cooked a luscious lasagna dinner. The nine Elders assigned to 3^rd Ward loved it. On Thursday we were able to meet with the Ramirez sisters again with hopes of helping Evelyn become active and Xiomara gaining an understanding of Jesus in the Book of Mormon so she will want to listen to the Elders’ lessons. Then on Friday we had a special meeting with Roberto Cartagena, husband of the very active Maria. He had talked with several pairs of Elders and was not interested. She feeds the Elders regularly.  She was not very confident that he would want to listen to us.

          When we started, he was pretty doubtful, I could not even get him to agree that he wanted to listen to us! He did not say no, so we started in. When we got to 2Ne:31, I really stressed the plainness that Nephi loved, and that the Book of Mormon is written plainly. I did not force any decisions upon Roberto about his baptism just explaining that it was his decision and no one else. I just stressed that he had to have “full purpose of heart”, with “no hypocrisy” and “real intent”, as Nephi explains in verse 13.  He accepted this very well and you could tell that he was very sincere in what he was thinking. The spirit was strong when he said, “You are right, the Book of Mormon is written clearly.” When I asked him if he would read and pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon he agreed and when I asked him who he wanted to the prayer to close the meeting, he responded that he would and gave a very sincere humble prayer. We are now going to continue teaching him next Friday.

          Saturday we were finally able to get back in to talk to Silvia Campos and her husband, Jose. She has such a hard work schedule, not knowing from week to week or day to day what her schedule will be. We had a good lesson reading in 3Nephi and then got very serious with her, asking about her about her baptism. Since the next day would be Fast Sunday I explained fasting and fast offerings to them. Then I asked her if she would fast and pray about her decision of when to be baptized. She said that she would and let us know her decision the next time we met.

          We met with Celzo Portillo several weeks after he had deserted Reina for her sister. What a shocked that was. We had thought that we would not see him again. He is back with Reina and she is as happy as can be. First we talked with her about our concerns for the situation.   Then we talked to President Baker and he gave us the go ahead. So last week we gave him a very strong lesson on chastity, especially adultery. He accepted it and said that he was willing to live the law of chastity. We then reviewed the law of tithing and fast offerings, which he also accepted and would live.

This week we asked him what the law of chastity meant which he remembered. (When we met with he had a hard time learning, and still does.) Then he did very well in remembering the details of the restoration and what the word prophet means. He replied correctly in his own simple way. So we are asking the Elders to start teaching him next week.

          The week ended with a slight downer--Hna. Gloria Navas was not home for her scheduled appointment.  We will try again.