¡Hola, Buenos Dias a mi familia y mis amigos! ¿Como están ustedes? I hope that all fares very well for everyone back home, and wherever they may be found!
Well...do I have stories of the week for you all! Sit back and prepare yourselves, as I unwind several tales of hard-working missionaries, fantastic members, new investigators, exciting adventures, and many, many hours of tracting.
So, on Tuesday, we had our District Meeting; but this time, the Mission president and one of his assistants came. So, of course, I think, "Oh crap! What did we do?" But, turns out that we had done nothing bad and there were no drastic changes. The Assistant, Elder Jones, sat in with us as we had our meeting, and I was very happy for that because he is a great friend of mine. But, he and the president called this week “The week to find.” We had been falling behind on our numbers as a zone, and needed to find a lot of new investigators, especially families. So, Elder Rodriguez and I tightened our belts, and determined to go and fulfill our mission.
We taught a lot this week. A lot. And we did a lot of tracting. A lot. We went into another part of our area 3 times this past week to find new people, and to teach a few new families that we met. The area is called Brisas de Occidente, but it is a little tough of an area. There are a lot of hard hearts, and there are churches literally every 5 houses. No joke. And, we can only teach there until about 5 p.m. because it gets really dangerous at night, so not only for our safety, but also everybody shuts their houses tight. But, there are always diamonds in the rough, and we found a few of them. One being the Romero family. A very nice family with 8 children! Sheesh! But, they are very open to the lessons, and are now in possession of a Book of Mormon to help them develop their faith.
Thursday was a fantastic day. Why? Well, here are a few reasons! First: As we were walking to the park to pick up a member to teach with us after lunch, a very downcast fellow walked up to us holding documents that talked about how his wife was killed by 2 men. He is a member of the church, but hasn’t attended for 6 months. Currently, he is without work and food for his 4 kids. He also said that if he still was in the church, he wouldn’t be scared, but he can’t go back because he is afraid of what people will say. We gave him a very brief message about the church, it’s importance, and how no one will judge him. We hugged, and parted ways, and I felt the Spirit super strong.
Second: We had an amazing lesson with the Santa Maria family. But, they are a little frustrating because the husband, Antonio, didn’t come to church with us again. His wife, Miriah, is attending and progressing well, but without being married we can’t really count her as a fully progressing investigator. We will be going to talk with them very soon, and letting them know just how important church is.
Third: We received another investigator through a reference of a member. She got us to start teaching her best friend. I was super proud of her, because a lot of times people are scared to share the gospel with their friends, but she called us and wanted us to come talk to her. She is also very receptive, and receives support from her friend.
We met a few crazies in the week, but one of the more strange experiences was yesterday as we were waiting for our investigators, a man without legs came sliding up to hop onto a bus. He was freshly showered, dressed, and came up to us with a smile and talked about how great a day it was. What an example he was of embracing trials!
But, the funniest thing yesterday: So, we are teaching a family in an area called El Rancho, and they have a very young son. Well, as we were waiting outside for the husband to return with pizza for dinner, he closed the door...and it was locked! So, we then proceeded to dismantle their window, and literally break into their home! Gah! What a strange experience!
But, it was indeed a great week for finding. We found many new people to hear our message, and we taught a lot. I am almost out of time, but I just wanted to testify that the Church is True!
Love you all! ¡Que les vaya bien!
Elder Tinkham
