Week 18

This week was another good one! We got a kid named Eduardo on date for baptism! He's scheduled for December 12th.  He isn't quite as solid as Angie is, but I believe that he will be ready by then if he keeps his commitments and comes to church. His parents are Catholic though, and don't speak English, so we aren't really sure how it will all go down. It's a little crazy at this point.

Soooo I have officially acclimated to the weather here.. I went out and bought some sweaters today because I have been getting cold at night, despite it being like 60 degrees.

Angie AND Juanita came to church on Sunday! It was Juanita's first time!! Hooray!!! Hopefully they can both continue to progress towards the waters of baptism.

This last week my companion and I decided to do something called the 40 day missionary fast. It is from a talk called being purified, and it's purpose is just that, to be purified so that we can more fully qualify for the spirit and submit to the will of the Lord in our work. We did the math and because we started yesterday, we end on December 24, just in time for Christmas. It's like our birthday present to Christ! So yesterday we fasted from food and drink. While we were fasting, we wrote down on a personal list all of the things that the spirit prompted us to fast from for the next 40 days. Some items that showed up on my list were, "singing regular/non church music" which I would often do while going about my day, but not anymore. Another was "gossiping" and another was "saying the word gay" which I had kind of gotten into the habit of saying thanks to Elder Dube. 

And that's been my week! Love you so much!

Here I am with Elder Hansen

Week 17

This week was great! We taught more lessons this week than any other
so far! Our teaching pool is starting to grow and the work is starting
to pick up! Hopefully we can continue to improve and maintain our
level of dedication and diligence, because we have a lot of potential
for this ward over the next 7 weeks of Elder Cook's training.
Despite our incredible successes, this week it was really hard to find
motivation to stay hard at work and continue in our finding and
teaching efforts. There were some days where I did Not want to go out
and find haha, but I can say that I pushed through it and did my best
to work as hard as I could! I might not have had the best attitude the
whole time haha, but we worked hard and it paid off!
Angie Bainbridge accepted the invitation to be baptized this week!!!
She and her mom have decided on December 12!!! How great is that!?!?
Angie is like the smartest 9 year old ever! She just paid attention so
well and answered all of our questions perfectly. She just emanates
the light of Christ, and readily accepted the invitation to be
baptized. Her father, however, is Catholic, and might not approve her
being baptized. So please keep her in your prayers.
So we also had zone conference this week! It was great! I learned a
ton and decided that I need to be more dedicated, diligent, and
consecrated to my missionary purpose! So I am going at it with a
renewed vigor!
And another highlight of the week is that we got to go to the temple!!
There was a temple tour and Mark and Lyndsey came! So we got to go
too!!! I just love the temple soooo much. And even though we just
toured the grounds, the spirit was so strong and sacred. They have
olive trees on the grounds and I got a short opportunity to sit in the
shade of an olive tree and ponder and just feel the spirit. I loved
it. I can't wait till the next chance I get to go to a session. Go as
often as you can!
And that's pretty much how my week has gone! Here are some pictures from our Pday hike and the temple.
-Elder Francis

Week 16

This week was pretty slow, up until yesterday. We didn't have much
success at all in our finding efforts. It wasn't til yesterday that we
were able to meet with Jorge Flores, and give him the first blessing
he has ever had, and also the Bainbridges, where we set up an
appointment to come teach their family the restoration for this
Wednesday. Hopefully at that appointment we will be able to get Angie
on date for baptism! We also received a referral last night, and they
are already progressing, so we are going over tonight to meet her.
Awesome!
Something that was NOT awesome, was that I got super sick this week.
Tuesday morning I woke up and just felt awful. It was the first time
that I've been sick and had no mother figure to comfort and care for
me. We also had no medicine at the apartment, so I had to wait to go
get some. That day we got up, had elders Dube and Durney come give me
a blessing, and I fell back asleep while my companion studied. After
studies we went out and taught a lesson, came back for lunch and I
took a nap. Then we went out and did finding for several hours, came
back for dinner and I took another nap. Then we went out and taught
some lessons and finally I could come back and sleep. So we have
stayed busy all week despite my sickness. I've been loading up on the
vitamin C and am finally feeling a lot better. It is not fun being
sick on a mission.
We went over to the Cannons last night and shared a message and had
brownies and ice cream! It was a lot of fun haha, they are an awesome
family. Sister Cannon also referred me to a barber shop, which I went
to this morning. She texted the lady in advance and paid for most of
my hair cut so it only cost me 5 bucks!. I also was
able to teach the salon lady a lesson while she was cutting my hair,
and she wants to come to church! Coolio!
My companion is getting better and better at talking to people. Slowly
but surely. We are now 4 weeks into his training, and things are
starting to pick up hopefully. This week should be an awesome one.
Well my 4 month mark was yesterday! Time sure flies! But it also feels
like an eternity haha. I am 1/6 of the way through my mission, and
that feels good to say, but I still have 20 months left!!