I cant believe the babies are so close to being born! Crazy crazy! I still forget every once in a while that they exist. sorry! But I am excited!
Yeah the church is very different here... its kinda sad but... there isn't a whole lot I can do to help. the best thing to motivate and change a ward is baptize haha so that's what i'll keep trying to do. Its hard not having a bishop because the ward is very unorganized and not very united. We have stake conference this weekend and also changes. I am pretty sure I am going to leave the area but who knows.
Sorry I haven't taken many pictures. I really don`t like carrying my camera around so... I will take pics when I can. I sent a bunch that Esteban has taken over the past few months haha because I told him my mom would probably be sad that I haven't sent many pictures and so I told him to send them to me. Most of them are from a service project we did at a members house. machetes and shovels! :p (mom loves Estaban!)
Okay so about the week...
On Tuesday we had divisions with one of the district leaders. I went to his area with his companion who right now is about to finish his training. His name is Elder Flores. Good kid. But when we got to their house Elder Funke (its pronounced funky) (the district leader, awesome elder) had left a few talks out for me and they were exactly what I needed to hear. One is called "Honest, Simple, Solid, True" by C. Terry Warner, the other Leaders and Managers by Hugh Nibley, and another called Self-Image, Self-Love, and Salvation by James Faulconer. The first two are on BYU Speeches and the other one you can google. I recommend them :) I have been super stressed out lately because I have felt like my progress has kinda come to a standstill and I didn't know why and I was struggling to feel the spirit and not be discouraged and I felt like a bad leader and just felt all around bad and not good and it was just making me more stressed. I have been thinking a lot lately and I realized that even though I have changed a lot in the past few years, both before the mission and in the mission, pretty much everything I have ever done has been for ME. And I feel selfish. Even though the changes I have made are good, I haven't made them for the right reasons. So I have been praying and fasting to change that and then on Tuesday I read those talks and it was an answer to my prayer :) You all should really read them. Brad I think you would really like Leaders and Managers. But read all of them haha. Its worth it. So now I feel a lot better and am in the process of repenting and changing :)
So.... After all that, on Thursday well... Short version is there is a companionship in the zone that is having problems and president didn't want them to be together so now I have a new companion for the rest of the change. Pray for my struggling companion.
So since Thursday I have had to do pretty much everything alone in the area which has been stressful, but we have seen many miracles in the area. On Thursday after changing companions, we started working and well... nothing good was happening. We were walking and walking and walking and nobody accepted us. All the plans fell through and we were tired and I was stressed and try to be happy and encouraging with my new companion and trying to be his friend and earn his trust and it was stressful. At the end of the day at like 7 we had nothing left to do in the part of the area where we were working so we decided to go to a different area. Everyone we tried to visit in that area wasn't home so we went to another area haha. We went with a less active that never answers the door but this time he was outside sweeping so we started talking to him. He was nice but doesn't want anything to do with the church. So leaving there I just started walking without any idea where to go or what to do and all of a sudden a few little 8 year old girls come running up and say ELders! My mom wants you to come to our house! So I was all confused because there aren't any members that we knew of in that area... so we follow the kids about a block and we get to a cyber that is owned by a member in the neighboring ward. She was really nice and offered us water and a chair and all that and I was just thinking... okay well this is good a nice member but... she is active and there isn't much we can do here... but then she told us that her sister lives a block away and she has been inactive for about a year but last week she went with her to her ward and her son and daughter aren't baptized! The kids that were with her were her nieces and nephews that aren't baptized so we got to know them and they are super great and want to be baptized :) So we got their address and Saturday went to visit them and we met the mom and she is super nice and wants to return to the church. This Sunday they went to the other ward (they meet in the same chapel) to see her nephew pass the sacrament for the first time but next week they are going to come to our ward. Yay!
Then the next day the same exact thing happened. All our appointments and plans fell through and we spent the whole day walking and contacting and getting rejected. At the end of the day we had one appointment that was our ray of hope and we went and brought a member with us and everything and the investigator wasn't home :( her husband was but he didn't look too excited to meet us and he didn't want anything to do with us. But we started asking him questions and inviting him to listen and he just kept saying o well maybe another day when my wife is home and then the wife showed up! She had gotten home a bit late and was practically running to get home in time to see us! So at that point we go inside and start talking and the husband starts to open up a bit more and we taught about God and how he is our loving Heavenly Father because the husband had never even gone to a church before and didn't know much about God but it was a super awesome lesson. The problem is they both work on Sunday., but the member that was there shared her testimony of the sabbath and how she also worked on Sundays but decided to trust god and close her store on Sundays and it was just great haha. They said they were going to do what is necessary to go to church and be baptized.
Those are just a few of the miracles we saw this week and I don't have much time so I cant write all of them but I know this work is Gods work and he is pouring his spirit over this people :D
Love you lots
Elder Skalla
PS did you find that talk I asked about last week... Character of Christ by Bednar. If you can find it that would be awesome. thanks
The Familia Camacho Arriaga, one of my favorite families here in the ward :) One of their sons is missing haha he wasnt home when we took the pic. Alejandro, Diana, Dana, and Valeria and Alan but he isnt in the pic
Service Project Pics
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