Elder Jones week 60

Hey guys, that`s crazy to hear that Courtney is going to be home in such short time!  I can´t believe it.  Also that Tyler will be on his mission in less than a year.  Maybe if I extend we could end up in the same mission and I could train him. 

I had a great week! We reactivated 2 people.  José and Guillermo. José got reactivated before the end of the month, so he´s going to count for July and he was part of our goal for August so this entire week we`ve been looking for another person to reactivate in August.  And we found him!  his name is Alex, he´s 12 years old, and he´s best friends with Josael, Colin, and Jerico.  They all live in the same block.  Alex got baptized a year ago and his aunt and uncle always brought him to church, but then they went inactive because apparently there was a bishop in our ward that got excommunicated a year ago.  And they stopped bringing Alex.  But we met him this week and he went to Colin and Jerico´s baptismal interview with them and he came to church with them yesterday, he met the young men´s president and he wants to get the priesthood and pass the sacrament with Josael and Jerico.  So we have high hopes that he will be reactivated this month.  So, like I said, Jerico and Colin had their interview and the´re ready to get baptized on Saturday.  Both of them want me to baptize them.  Jerico wants to get baptized in the ocean and Colin wants to get baptized in the baptismal font, so they did rock paper scissors and Colin won. Lame.  But it´s going to be a really great baptismal service, they´ve come so far.  This week the only doubt that they had was that they felt that their answer from God still wasn´t coming so we watched a Mormon message called models of light (I don´t know if it translates exactly in English) by David A. Bednar, about recognizing answers and revelation from God, and that helped them out a lot.  Also we had Josael talk to them about how he received his answer about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  Their other cousin Jeremi came to church yesterday for the first time and he really liked it.  His sister gave birth at 3 in the morning on Sunday at he hadn´t slept at all when we came by to pick him up but he was determined to go to the church to be able to find out if the Book of Mormon is true, and to be able to get baptized on the 22nd. He´s 15. 

 So about Guillermo, I think sharing a little bit about his story would help everyone understand a little bit more about the dangers of procrastinating.  He is a pioneer in Perú.  He and his family were some of the first members of the church in this country.  He used to be a counselor of a branch in Callao.  He loved reading the Book of Mormon.  He read it everyday.  But one day someone stole his glasses, so he stopped reading.  He stopped nurturing his testimony, and he went inactive for 30 years.  He hasn´t been able to read anything for 30 years because he "hasn´t gotten around to buying new glasses yet".  He still hasn´t gotten glasses yet but his daughter reads the Book of Mormon to him now and he´s attending church again.  It just makes me think of how important the ability to read is and how much of life you can miss out on just from procrastinating.

         

Andres, the father of Dayanna, wants to get baptized really badly. And he´s getting married on August 22nd.  His future wife is also an active member.  So we´re visiting them frequently with members of the ward because they´re a family that can get sealed in the temple a year from now.  Also another family that we´re working with is the family of Erick and Mariela.  We eat dinner at their house every Thursday and Sunday.  The mother of Mariela, also named Mariela, is the primary president.  Erick and Mariela are both less-active members that are recently coming back to church. They have 2 little boys ages 7 and 2 years old.  Mariela now has 2 church attendances and will be reactivated next week.  The area lost Erick´s membership record and he needs to be baptized again.  It´s a little difficult for him to attend church because of his work schedule.  One week he can attend, and the next week he has to work.  But they have the desire to return to the church and later get sealed as a family.  They´re always there when we eat dinner, they just needed someone to invite them to come back.  They´re both seminary graduates and it´s been a great experience this week watching them remember the things they´ve known for a long time.

I´m having a lot of great experiences here and I´m learning a lot.  Missionary work is the best.  I would encourage Tyler to talk to the ward mission leader and try to accompany the missionaries in some of their lessons.  It always makes the missionaries happy when someone wants to accompany them.  I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Jones