Baptismos

Another super fast week that I can barely remember, but it was awesome like always. We taught the last few lessons with Daniel and he was baptized on Saturday, it was so amazing and he loved it so much. His little brother Snayder has listened to all the lessons too and he turned 8 on Thursday so I call the bishop to see if he could get interviewed and baptized with his brother and he was which made it even more awesome.

The hermanas had a father and his two sons get baptized too so it was quite the baptismal service. Our mission leader Ricardo conducts them and he gets really nervous, so it was a little awkward but still beautiful. We have been working a lot with Marleny who is Francheska ́s mom and we started going over the baptismal questions with her and apparently she has done some crazy things in her past like robbing and some other stuff we probably we not supposed to find out. She is amazing and truly understands repentance, she was very emotional with a few other things and I shared 2 Cori. 12:7-10.

We set up an interview with the Mission President for yesterday but unfortunately she was not able to attend, but she will be good to go for the next week. Had an intercambio with Elder Espinoza so that was a nice full day of Spanish again, been feeling bad for speaking so much English with my white comp right now.

On the way home from an amazing Noche Hogar, this kid was crying and I so I showed him a magic trick, it was really funny, his eyes got huge and he followed us all the way home.

Built a roof on Jueves with the boys(Elderes) got burnt to heck. A mini missionary spot opened up in the mission and we told Jesus about it, think he might be a missionary soon. Also have been teaching a guy named Luis the lock man because he has lots of locks on his door, he lives alone and sells books in the market, he is extremely smart and has read a lot in El Libro de Mormon already, during the middle of the second lesson with him my comp just put a date with him and he agreed so that was really off guard but awesome!

Went to Catacaos again today and bought a custom leather bookcase for my quad, should be pretty cool. Work is great and we must be doing something right because we are teaching the lesson in district meeting tomorrow. Hope everyone is progressing in some way or another, that is the point right. Chao

--
Elder John C. Blazzard

Spider Oh My

Awesome week! I cannot believe I am already writing again, hard to remember what even happened this past week. Started the week sprinting across our whole area making it to lessons on time, pretty funny, my comp was not joking around. We have been working hard in our area, finding news and getting past the whole two white guys thing where no one really wants to listen to you. Improving every day though and seeing the miracles in the work.

One of the most amazing ones that I want to talk about is David, he was a convert from a while ago and things went pretty bad for him. He has been in the mental hospital lately and we and his family are not sure what happened. All of a sudden Wednesday morning we hear a knock on our door and it ́s DAVID! Kinda forgot I'm a little bigger than people down here as I gave him a big hug. It was so great to see him and he is doing better now. He is an amazing man and talked so much about wanting to help us with the work. He kept on expressing the importance of family and friends, together we are strong.

This weekend we had stake conference and we have a few people with health issues that we were running across town trying to coordinate rides and hook them up with ties and white shirts. We also had a baptism on Friday of a girl named Maria Fernanda, or Mafer. She is 14 and extremely intelligent. Besides the fact that we saw a woman get robbed at gunpoint right in front of the church while we were waiting for people to show up for the baptism, it was amazing. We have a couple more baptisms lined up so we are excited for those.

Other than that we killed a giant spider with a flamethrower and my comp broke the fridge, hope all is well with everyone!

Rapido es la palabra

Que tal todos!!?! Super fast week, but I say that every week. My comp Elder Wittwer is so cool, we get along well and he has showed me the miracles that come from hard work and obedience. Even though my mission president does not allow any sort of music except for hymns and only on Mondays, its okay, and we still have fun. The area is getting used to us two gringos slowly and the lessons are great. A few issues with baptism stuff this week though. First a boy named D who has been waiting a month to get baptized finally has a date for the 22nd because his mom is difficult to work with and gives them tea to drink. We gave her a blessing because she is really sick and her husband died so it has been hard to raise her 5 kids. M´s parents do not want her to be baptized but we will talk with them today and get her in the water for this coming Friday. Other than them and a few others, a lady named Mar is so ready for baptism its awesome. She is just a little worried about the actual water part but I assured her that I would be able to lift her up.

I mixed up a Noche de Hogar with la Familia Cruz on Thursday because apparently there is another Familia Cruz that lives a couple doors down on the same street, all good though and I played games with their kids. Another long-time investigator named Veronica still has not committed to baptism because she is waiting for a grand revelation. Contacted a ton Friday morning out in ¨Las Dunas¨ and later found found another investigator drinking outside his house with his friends, totally guilty and hilarious. Also we told our house owner we were moving because it was hot and other things and she freaked out and installed 4 ceiling fans without telling us. We've got them in grasps lol.

Amazing week in all, still burning, and happy birthday DAD

Dos Gringos

First week with my new comp was great, and super fast. We are both white boys so that's quite the sight for some people down here, they just cannot believe it and are blown away. I'm making sure we don't get scammed paying for stuff though and standing our ground, we ́re all good.

Lessons are going great with our investigators and I think I showed my comp around the area well enough. He is a hard worker and likes to push it, but I'm the one with long legs so it evens out. We have been taking out a couple of members to teach with us and balance out the ratio, no really they are super helpful. Jesus Villajuan is preparing for his mission and Ricardo recently got back.

We did a few service projects this week which I am always up for, one may have been a little dangerous as my comp was dangling from a bamboo crossbeam cutting wires so we could strip the roof. We also discovered a few more flavors of bodoques, Oreo and some peanut one that pretty much taste like Reeses;).

We finalized a baptismal date for Francheska's mom(Marleni) so that is really exciting. Almost every day this week I was able to directly apply my personal study into a lesson. The one for Marleni was Mosiah 16:9 talking about Christ as the light of the world. Marleni has had health issues and her son died a couple years ago, She glowed up once I shared this scripture with her which goes to show the power and importance of the Book of Mormon, as a missionary I am simple a tool helping people come to Christ, the more faith you have the easier it is so just let Him work through you, that's it. Other than a few more amazing lessons, these two gringos are killing down here, even if at times he is a little annoying and I want to punch him, that's part of it, what do you expect.