November 21, 2016

This week had a lot of ups and downs. It was an upward battle for most
of it and it looked hopeless at one point. But it ended with an
amazing miracle.

So we've been working with a kid named José for a while now. He's a
really cool kid and he's going to be the first one in his family who
becomes a member of the church. Wednesday we taught him and his
brother, Axel, the plan of salvation. It was a very difficult lesson
because they both had so many strange questions like "who created
God?" and "did God creat the devil?" But by the end we invited Axel to
be baptized and he accepted a date for 10th of December. We were super
excited!!! Just then their mom (who never talks to us) came into the
room and asked us if we would like some eggs. We were like "why not!"
She made us dinner and it was eggs, beans, and tortillas. It was
delicious!!!! It was the first time that she wanted to talk to us.
Also they invited us over for thanksgiving dinner! We're super
excited!

We also taught a man named Ramiro. We have been teaching him for some
time now. He was a man who just walked into church with his friend,
Brother Taylor. It turned out that he lived with Brother Taylor. We
went over there about 3 times every week and we were there that night
after we ate with José and his family. We taught Ramiro about modern
day prophets and we showed him a video of Thomas S. Monson. Ramiro
didn't like the fact that we had Prophets. He told us of a man in Peru
who claimed that he was a prophet and fooled many people into giving
him money. We assured him that it is not the same here and he asked
"how do you know?" We shared the scripture "by your fruits ye shall
know them." He then told us that he read the testimony of Joseph Smith
just before we came and had fallen asleep and he had a dream about a
man planting seeds. We have him Alma 32 to read and told him that it
would help him interpret his dream. We left thinking that it was a
really hard lesson we had and we just prayed that what we gave him was
the will of God.

Later we talked with José again on Friday and he told us that all of
his family besides him and Axel all went to California. His uncle was
in charge of them and he lived in west valley which is outside of the
mission. We were like "oh great..." We asked "well are you both still
good to go to church?" They said that they couldn't because they would
have to ask their uncle for permission and they had no way to get into
contact with him. Just then his uncle opened the door and we invited
him to sit down with us. We didn't waist any time and started teaching
them all about Jesus Christ through Alma 7. The uncle, Christian,
asked us about the Book of Mormon and that's when we started teaching
him the restoration. He accepted a Book of Mormon and was committed to
read it completely! He also accepted to come to church and to also
take José and Axel with him. Right when we were about to invite him to
be baptized, the door opened and Christian's cousin and his girlfriend
walked in and ruined the moment. But we were able to leave with a
prayer. We were super excited and wee eager to see them all at church.

Saturday came along and we had a battle of a lesson with a kid named
Fernando. Fernando has been taught by many missionaries in the past
but has never come to church. We showed him the restoration video and
talked to him about Prophets. We ended by inviting him to church. He
declined immediately. But we would just not give up. He said that it
just wasn't that important to him at the moment. That he had other
things go on. We told him that it was important to his Heavenly Father
who wanted the best for him. He asked why it was necessary to go to
church. We told him because that would help him prepare to be
baptized. He thought about it a little and then asked by baptism was
necessary. We taught him the Atonement and his purpose in life. We
also taught him about part of the plan of salvation. He then accepted
to go but only if we brought him a white shirt and woke him up in the
morning. He showed us his bedroom window and told us to knock it at
8:30 A.M. tomorrow. We were super excited!!!! We were going to have
like 5 people at church!

Sunday came and we went to go wake up Fernando. He got up and we gave
him the white shirt and told him to get changed and that we would be
back. We then left to go to talk to Jose and Axel. They didn't answer
the door so we threw rocks at their window. They waved us to stop and
they opened the door and let us in. Apparently they were playing video
games and couldn't hear the door but they weren't dressed for church
at all. We asked if they were ready to go and it turns out that their
uncle told them on Saturday that they couldn't go because he wouldn't
be able to make it. Which means that José won't be able to be baptized
this Saturday and his brother won't be able to on the 10th either. We
were devastated. But later that day we were able to go over and teach
them a lesson in which we moved José's date to the 3rd of December. He
is soooo ready to convert but he just doesn't have the support fork
the family. Hopefully after thanksgiving his mom will want to come to
church with him and she can be the one who takes him.

However Fernando and Ramiro did come to church and they both loved it.
We had a lesson that night with Ramiro that changed everything!!!!

It was Elder Sewell, Jorge, and I at the door of Brother Taylor's
house. He let us on and Ramiro came down stairs to greet us. Ramiro is
one of the most humble men you'll ever meet. He is the only one that
will hug you whenever he sees you. Also everything he does he does it
for his family. We sit down and we start to talk about the questions
he had over what he hear about in church. He said "I love everything
about your church except for the fact that you all talk about Joseph
Smith too much. A man cannot be saved through Joseph Smith! Only
through Jesus Christ!" We then neared our testimony about how we
believed that the words that have come from every prophet are the
words of Christ. We talked about Moses and Abraham and Noah. We talked
about how they received the teachings of Christ and gave it to their
people. We neared testimony that the prophets today do the same. He
accepted it but he still didn't like it too much. He brought up the
chapter that we left him to read, Alma 32. He said that he loved it
and especially the part where it talks about the seed. He said that he
thinks that he just has the plan the seed and be baptized and after
that he will know it's true. We knew that he wouldn't pass the
baptismal interview without a testimony so his idea wouldn't work. So
we said "keep the idea of baptism in your mind and let's pray right
now. We're going to kneel down and that he will say a prayer and ask
for an answer concerning baptism in the church. That afterwards we
will stay silent and let you feel the Holy Spirit tell you what you
need to do." We did so and we spent about 20 minutes kneeling in
silence. He ended the silence and told us how he felt. He said that he
felt an overwhelming sense of warmth in his heart and that it was a
sign from God telling him that our church is true. We invited him to
be baptized this very Saturday and he accepted wholeheartedly. It was
a miracle and we all left that house rejoicing. We're going to go back
tonight and set up the time for his baptism.

I'm very excited for this week and please keep Ramiro in your prayers
as he prepares to be baptized this Saturday. I love you all and I hope
you all have a great week!