This whole having the spirit thing is awesome (02/02/2010)

Well transfers have come and gone and I am really enjoying my time with Elder Urbina. We both seem to be on the same page and both have an extreme desire to work hard and be good. Here are some of the things that we have been doing

Wednesday, we had transfers and one of the first things we did was go to Duvi's house. We talked to her about lesson number three which is essentially the 4th Article of Faith, repentance, baptism, light of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. It went really well, the spirit was really strong and we committed her to baptism on the 21st of February. She hesitated at first saying it was too soon but the spirit helped us be bolder and resolve her doubts. She is a really good lady who wants to know the truth.

Then later that night we stopped over at Rosa's house so Elder Urbina could get to know her. Well Eduardo (her son) was there and was actually paying attention. He usually zones in and out. Then Rosa said that he had told her that he wanted to be baptized. We set a date for the 14th of February. He is really doing well. He came to mutual for the first time on Thursday and really enjoyed it.

Then Friday night we had an appointment with Herraldo. We went in with a motive that we weren't going to just talk religion. We were going to teach the doctrine and help him realize that we wanted him to be baptized, and if he is not interested in that then we are going to have to stop meeting him. We told him that if you have no desire to know if this church is true or not, then we are wasting our time and more importantly yours. He whole-heartedly agreed. We also read 1 Nephi 14 with him about the Church of God and the church of the devil. It was really good. We told him we are preaching that we are the only true church here on the earth today. We committed him to read 2 Nephi 31 about baptism and we would talk about his prayers to know if the church is true and if he needs to be baptized. We are going to talk to him tonight about what happened.

We found another family. They were taught here in about September but they were dropped for not keeping commitments. We saw their name in our Area book and decided to go over and see how they were doing. Their last name is Pimintel. So we went over and they let us right in. We taught the 1st lesson, left and the spirit was really strong. Then we went last night and read with them 1 Nephi 8 about Lehi's dream. We have decided that we aren't going to move on until they have a testimony about the Book of Mormon. So we will just read it with them and hopefully they will read it on their own so they can know that it is true. President Benson once said that we need Book of Mormon converts.

Also last night we went to Jorge’s house. We showed up and he was quite angry because of something that happened in the bank. A very minor thing. A little background on Jorge. He is from Guatemala and is 59 years old. When he was 6 years old he was living on the streets, he took his first alcoholic drink when he was 8 and was an alcoholic by age 8. He has tried to stop drinking for many years but became sober and has been for 7 years now. He is a great guy, but he feels that God does not want to forgive him of his sins because he says his life is so crappy now that God is punishing him. Well before we even saw him that day we decided to read with him from Alma 7 about Christ suffering for us and 2 Nephi 31 about how Christ was baptized and He was perfect and how important it was for us to be baptized to be cleansed of our sins. Well, as you remember, he was pretty irritated with himself and God when we walked in, but we stuck to our game plan and by the end he was crying. He had realized that God really did love him and how much He really had. We committed him to pray if he should be baptized on the 28th of February. He said he would and we are going back on Thursday to see how it went.

I am so grateful for the spirit accompanying us in our visits so we can have so much success. I contribute most of this to my wonderful parents who lovingly told me that I needed to get my rear in gear. It breaks my heart that I was too ignorant the first year of my mission to figure this out, but I am grateful I have when I have. I am excited to go out and work and talk to everyone. This gospel really is true and the blessings are apparent in our everyday lives.