THE GEAR SHIFTER IS WHERE?

Shifter is in a weird place!

Different kind of car!

The week was fine, we had a lot of good appointments and found some good families.  The area is progressing, we are finding more and more people everyday, we just need to be able to meet with them.  We set the appointments and for some reason they always seem to forget that we´re coming, so its a little disappointing.  But they are all progressing at their own speed and we´re working on getting them all to the church so they can start progressing for real. The new area is good just have to get used to the people and relearn the area, I get so lost here but I just need a little more time to figure it out.  The difference is that it's hillier, greener, colder and above all a concrete jungle.  But I love that we live super close to the chapel and the market so I don´t have to walk a lot to buy things.  But otherwise it's the same, the people are just a little colder, but it just means I have to be more certain of the message and share my testimony more.  The best part of the week was when we taught a Joven of 21 years old, and he told us that perhaps he is going to be baptized on the 12th, which is better than when he was saying that it wasn't going to happen, so little miracles. I get to go to the temple this week so I´m super excited for that because I haven't been for more than a year without going to the temple.  But the time is going to go by fast now, I´m going to try and work harder and hopefully I´ll receive the blessings whether it be greater understanding of the scriptures or more people that are ready to be taught, I just want to recognize them and use them well. 

Birthday girl Rosio who is investigating.

Cooking with a new family.

Perro Eddy

Me and Walter

The soup has caramel corn in it and it was delicious!

Pirate Bandy...Arg!

I just turned my shoes in today to get them fixed, but if I don´t like how they turn out I´ll buy new ones.  Today we got our hair cut, went shopping and we are helping the sisters move out of their house tonight.

Well I´m going to get home and throw some golf clubs around because I´m not as good as I used to be and it is too expensive to play out here and I don't have time to play a round of golf.  LOL  But no really, I´m going to throw clubs around because I will be so bad at it.  But as for the whole ritual of burning clothes, I don´t believe in it, doing it means that you want to go home and that is the opposite of what we are trying to achieve here.  I can burn my suit when I get home since it´ll be so bad that I won´t ever want to use it again. 

As for the week we were teaching a family that we were thinking didn't have any interest in listening to us and so we weren't going into the lesson with the grandest expectations, but we started talking about how our Heavenly Father (God) is real, that he loves us and has provided the means of allowing us to return to live with him.  We had left the first pamphlet of the restoration with him, we got there with the expectation that they hadn't read it, but as we were teaching he had the question, who is José Smith? We were a little confused until he explained that he had read the whole pamphlet and was wondering people had really seen our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  We were like, WHAT!  He actually read it and had questions.   Raphael ( the investigator) told us, "I have been praying for 3 years to know if this is real and if there was a church that I can use to unite my family, that will bring us the happiness that I have been searching for."  I was thrown back, I was thinking that nobody was going to say anything like that.  I hear stories of missionaries that have investigators that say it but I was thinking it was a myth, something that happens in every blue moon, but we were feeling the spirit strongly in the lesson and I was so happy to be able to be there with my companion to see this change and feelings.  We also had a youth called Mario that we have been teaching regularly that tells us that he isn't going to get baptized until he receives an answer, but he told us the other day that "perhaps he´s going to get baptized."  Reminds me of a story from Sister Beale I believe when she said that when an investigator changes from "no" to "maybe." that it´s progress, and it´s true, for us it's the same as a yes, he just needs a little more understanding  to do it.

I hope everyone watched conference.  

P.S.  Congratulations to our new American citizen.....Sister Otto.