First of all, congrats Jenna for graduating from Seminary and Lindsey for surviving the AP test! You guys are stellar. I still can´t really believe that Lindsey is going to be dating, driving, and in high school when I get back or that Jenna will be at BYU. But I guess if I´m growing up that means that you guys are too.
So like I told you during the Skype call, a family of investigators is going to be baptized this week! We´re so excited. It´s a family of four: the two parents and two sons who are 10 and 9 years old. They also have a little baby who is 3 months old. We received their referral back in March; the mother and brother of the mom of the family was baptized about 9 months ago in another ward and the elders met her in her mom´s house and took her address so we could visit them. We contacted them my first day here in the area and we´ve been teaching them ever since. They are a golden family. It took a couple of weeks to get them to go to Church but since then they´ve been super active in the ward and the ward members have been so awesome in reaching out to them and fellowshipping them. It´s the first time in my mission that an entire family is going to be baptized, and I am so excited for the change they´re making together. And I´m especially excited for their three sons to become missionaries a few years down the road :)
To answer your question about street contacting Jenna: the people here are really approachable and pretty easy to contact. We usually just greet them by saying ¨¡Buenas tardes!¨ (or half-yelling it as we run to them from across the street) and begin talking to them. The most effective contact is when we can pull out the scriptures and teach them right there in the street, because they´re more likely to feel the Spirit and accept another visit. But we´re always trying to be creative in the way we contact. I´ve heard a couple of success stories of missionaries who contacted simply by asking the question, ¨Do you know anyone who wants to be baptized?¨ and the person responding that they do, and turning into an investigator. It was super hard for me to contact at the beginning of my mission but I´ve gotten over that fear. Our area is huge and there are always a ton of people in the street, so we can easily contact about 200 people each week.
Two weeks ago something really special actually happened: an investigator contacted us! We were walking down the street when a teenage kid walked out of a store and told us that the guy working inside wanted to talk to us. We went in and introduced ourselves and he asked us when and where the church meetings were. He said he had been praying a lot and wanted to know the truth. Last week we taught him all of lesson 1, the Restoration, and he accepted it all and went to church. The catch? He doesn´t live in our area, so we can´t keep teaching him. On Sunday we introduced him to the elders in Barrio Aeropuerto so they could set up an appointment with him. When we told them how we found him and that we had already taught him the Restoration and he already had a testimony one of them said to us, ¨Hermanas, don´t spoil us so much!¨ Ha ha we kind of just handed them a baptism on a silver platter. Hopefully he continues to progress with the elders.
Also, another miracle happened this week. About three weeks ago I lost my hymnal. I thought I had left it in an investigator´s house but when we went back the next day she said she hadn´t seen it. I was kind of bummed because Grandma had given it to me for my birthday last year and it´s kind of inconvenient, but on Wednesday during the ward activity the bishop told me that my hymnal had shown up in the back of his truck and that he had it there for me. I was shocked because there´s no way I could have left it in the bishop´s truck, but all I know is that Heavenly Father answers even the smallest prayers.
I love you so much and hope you have a great week. I´ll be sure to send you pictures next week of the baptism. Keep praying for the investigators that are going to be baptized, the familia Ramirez Perez. I know this work is true; the Lord is working with us and we see great things every day.
Love,
Hermana Southard
