13 August 2012
Letter to all:
This week went well; I
had my first baptism, and my first family. A family of two the man had
been investigating the church for 30 or 40 years and she had been for a year
and a half. A different elder came to baptize them.
Saturday was crazy, at
7 in the morning the bishop called us and said he didn´t have all the papers to
marry this couple, so we had to go over and talk to them and then we had to go find
new witnesses because the witnesses that we had couldn´t come. Then we
had to decorate for the wedding and coordinate with people to get food and
everything. Normally it isn´t that big of an event but this baptism was
special because he has been assisting the ward for a long time. We spent
almost the whole day running around organizing the baptism and wedding.
But it was worth the pain! The baptismal service went very well,
the elder that came to baptize perormed a musical number as well, the members really
liked this elder when he was there a year ago. The spirit was strong and
everyone was happy. 2 baptisms (one family)! The goal for the
mission is to baptize a family every month, at least. The ideal would be a
family every week. That is what the president would like to see one day.
I believe that we are
going to see more baptisms than in the past; my companion only had 3 here
before I came. We have 4 new investigators that are part of a family of
one the members, 2 very positive and have gone to church twice and will be
baptized the 25 and 2 others in the family that are curious. We´ve received
a lot of references these last 3 days and we finally had a ward council.
I believe in time this area will explode, It´s starting to... We
had 111 in the church and when we hit 125 they are going to build a new church,
bigger and better. They church we have now is very small.
They like to put a lot
of salt in their drinks... Someone stole the rails to a nearby bridge,
and I´m getting tired of rice and beans haha...
That´s all for this
week
-Elder Willden
Notice Elder Willden is the tallest!!!
This Dog LOOKS EVIL!!
20 August 2012
Letter to all:
This week went
alright...could have been better. We have 3 different families that we are
focused on and for most of our appointments with them fell through and none of
them came to church this week. But it´s okay we´re going to work hard so
we can baptize these 3 families next month! We have 2 baptisms scheduled
for the 25, they are ready and excited to be baptized! I believe next
month well be an excellent month if we finish off this month meeting will all
of the investigators and motivating them to be baptized.
Sunday I gave a talk
about the tree in the vision of Lehi and Nephi, and how it´s the love of God
and that we all need to share this love of God as Lehi wanted to in the Vision.
If we want blessings in this life we need to help others. If we want to
be more like Christ we must help others come unto him. This life was
never meant to be focused on yourself but to focus on others. As we look
and pray and fast for opportunities for missionary work we will find it.
D and C 18:15-18
The talk went well,
the words came easily.
The language is coming
along well, still It´s a challenge to understand some because of the way they
speak Spanish, fast and unclear. I can converse with my companion almost
just as I would in English.
My first exchange is
now past, I believe these next 6 weeks will be great!
Adios
Elder Willden
