June 20, 2016

Hey so this week was one of the best weeks I've had in a long time!

We met a 19 year old guy named Jorge and his mom María. Jorge has a
ton of friends in the church and even some serving a mission so he was
pretty interested when we met him. His mom told us that she was going
to be straight forward with us. "I am Catholic and I'm not even
thinking in changing anything! I am only here to support my son." Well
she challenged us and we were more than happy to take it. That day we
taught them both the restoration with a solid returned missionary
named Jenny. We focused mostly on María and helping her feel
comfortable taking the next step which was to read the Book of Mormon
with Jorge and also to go to church with him. She said " Look. I
already met with missionaries 2 times and they didn't convert me then
and you won't convert me now."
Us- "did you ever attend church during those two times?"
Her- "no."
Us- "when the missionaries brought us a baptism date did you ever accept it?"
Her- "no."
Us- "well that's why you weren't converted! We promise you that you
need to exercise your faith and go to church in order to feel the
spirit of the lord testify to you that you have to be baptized!"
Her- "I know but I just get so scared of stuff like that! The last
time the missionaries invited me to be baptized I just couldn't! The
same with church!"
Us-"well this time you don't have to go alone. We will sit with you
the entire time and your son will be there to help you as well."
Jorge-"yeah mom you should come!"

That's when she agreed to go! We finished teaching the lesson and
picked them both up as new investigators. Well the next day we
received a text from Jenny telling us that we should come over because
they were having a huge soccer game and Jorge was invited. So we went
and we were dressed in white shirt and tie but no importa, we played.
It was only for like 30 minutes but it gave us more time to talk to
Jorge and also to meet some of his best friends who both already
received their mission calls!!!! We told him that Jorge and him mom
was coming to church with us the next day and invited them to come
with us and they said yes! So we got their numbers and left. Elder
Jimenez went to a meeting and I stayed in the area working with a
member. We went to visit a potential investigator but he wasn't home.
We then went to visit a member family and we taught the the
restoration and shared conversion experiences. After listening I
realized that they would be perfect for María. So we talked about her
a little and I committed them to sit by her during church.

Well Sunday came and they both showed up at church! Jorge had his best
friends sitting by them and María was talking to the family. Later
that night we taught Jorge and with 3 of his best friends and taught
him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During the lesson we asked how
his mom like church. She loved it and wouldn't stop talking about how
the family who sat next to her were so nice! She wants to come back
next week. We were really happy to hear about that. Later in the
lesson his friends all had the opportunity to tell Jorge that they
want him to be baptized. After this I extended the baptism invitation.
He is on date for the 9th of July. We are very excited for him.

Also we were able to find a ton of investigators and achieve the
standards of excellence! Elder Jimenez has a goal to baptized every
single week after the 2nd. I just want to baptized all the families
that we're teaching. We'll see how everything goes. We're teaching
Jorge this Tuesday and again Thursday with his mom. We also have
another investigator on date for the 2nd named Juan. I don't know much
about him because only my companion taught him but he was at church
and it sounds like that he is ready. His son is a member and I really
want his son to have the opportunity to baptize his dad.

Well that's all that I can say. I just ran out of time. Have a great week!

Elder Austin