Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Referrals

September 2, 2009
Hola familia,

This has been a very busy week. We had interviews which is why I'm writing today instead of yesterday. Interviews went well. Elder Godinez and I were the ones that were in charge of planning and organizing it. And we had to do a lot of training presentation stuff. It was a little stressful at first but it turned out well.

Just yesterday we went on exchanges with the AP's. Elder Duncan came into Pasco with me and Elder Godinez went over to Kennewick. Right after dinner we got a hold of Brother Miles and went and visited all of the members of his small apartment complex, it has four vacancies. We ended up teaching two of them and just talking to the third and setting up a return appointment. Talk about referrals received. And both of the lessons were both with Brother Miles there, which was a huge contribution. He's a lot like Kobe in his desire and willingness to share the gospel (I got the email from Amy about Kobe's missionary experience). The first lady, Adriana, has three super crazy little boys. They are so happy and full of energy. Since the lesson was in Spanish Elder Duncan was spending the whole time trying to calm these little guys down. They would grab onto you and take your scriptures. It was so funny. Anyway she was a really cool lady and hopefully will be able to come to church this Sunday. We're just going to have to provide a lot of fellowshipping to help with her little boys. The other girl we saw was named Aby. She's a really young mom with a boyfriend who doesn't live with her. Those young mom's with kids always seem to be pretty receptive. It's just something about being in the presence of a little kid that just came from the presence of our Heavenly Father. She actually was born in the US so we had the lesson in English. That way Brother Miles and Elder Duncan could participate. She said that she would come to church with Brother Miles this Sunday and she even offered the prayer at the end.

Teresa came to church this week! It's been a while since she's been. It brings me so much joy to see her progressing in the gospel.

Leonardo is still trying hard to come. I'm praying that his situation improves. He has such a strong desire to do what is right and he recognizes what he needs to do.

We had a really cool lesson with another member named Brother Lybbert. For now he works for his father in law on his farm. So he knows a lot of Hispanic people. He invited one of his friends over for dinner and had us come over at the same time. He told his friend Victor about us coming over. Later on during the lesson we found out that he expected the lesson to be really boring. Which means it wasn't. He's a really intelligent guy, a lot like Felix. He really caught on to everything that we taught about and he was really willing to do what we asked him. The thing that was crazy about that lesson was that it lasted for an hour and a half. Including a little bit of talking at the beginning because we were there for dinner too. It only felt like we were there for about 20 minutes. The time just goes by so quickly while you're sharing the gospel.

Then to top off our week of referrals just the other day we got two media referrals, which I haven't gotten very many of lately. We were able to get a hold of one of them yesterday and taught a great first lesson.

Just because of how crazy things have been and with Felix's bad work schedule it looks like his baptism will have to be pushed back another week. He's still really excited about it; we just have to keep working hard and get it to happen.

I got some DVD's! That means I'm going to actually be sending some pictures home soon.

This last week has also been the week for giving blessings. We have given probably 5 or 6 in this last week. It's not hard to do in Spanish anymore. Which is great because I can say what it is that the spirit tells me more easily.

I love you. Keep sharing the gospel.

Elder Ben Arnold