November 4, 2013

November 4, 2013

Dear Family,

Great to hear from you this week!

I have a miracle to share: 

We went to visit Manuel for the second time on Saturday, and started off our meeting after the prayer by asking him if he had any questions. He said: "Yes, where's your church?" (This is all in Spanish). We explained to him that the branch meets in Orland - about 20 miles away. He paused for a minute, and then said: "Well, I've ridden my bike to Hamilton before (about halfway to Orland), so I think I could make it there. It would take me a few hours, and I might get there a little bit late. I don't have a car. But I want to be at church." His faith is incredible. He's already prayed about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and he knows that the gospel is true. He accepted a commitment to be baptized on December 7th!

Right now we're trying to coordinate some way to find him a ride to church next Sunday since we don't want him to have to ride his bike. So now we have three investigators with baptismal dates: Alonso, Clarisa, and Manuel. We're really excited. Right now Clarisa's Mom is unwilling to give her permission to let her daughter be baptized. We're still not sure exactly why, but we're going to meet with them this week. Hopefully her mom comes around. 

This week was great. Other than all of that, I blessed the sacrament for the first time in Spanish, which was kind of cool. 

In other news, we got a new car! The mission replaced our Malibu (which I had grown to hate because it turned about as well as an aircraft carrier and bottomed out all of the time) with a 2014 Toyota Corolla. It's amazing how well the church is able to take care of missionaries, and I know it's because of our faithfulness in keeping the Law of Tithing. 

I've heard that BYU has changed a lot since the mission age-change. I hope it's back to normal when I get back. I feel bad for all of the RMs who are coming home right now and not really meeting anyone. 

For Halloween we had to be in by 6:00 because of all of the stuff that happens in Chico that night, so we just sat around and played board games. It was pretty fun, I guess. We got In-N-Out to eat for dinner too, so it wasn't all bad. 

  

Tell Kate congratulations on her basketball win for me! 

Mom, how's being the Primary President going? I can't imagine that. I don't remember if I told you, but we've had to teach the primary class in our branch a few times because of lack of teachers, and it's AWFUL. I know that's probably bad, but teaching in Spanish is hard, and teaching kids is even worse. I'm not well cut out for it. And doing both at the same time? Bleh. 

 

I know you do a fantastic job using your mom-skills though. You're great :)  Thanks for being my mom. You put up with a lot while you were raising me, and I'm where I am today because of that

Good on you, Dad, for talking with Pedro. A lot of people undervalue the connection that speaking someone's native language can make - especially when they don't speak English. Even when it's not perfect, I know that they tend to appreciate someone communicating with them. That's a great missionary opportunity too.

Love you, 

Jake