Hellllooooooo to everyone! Life is going fantastically out here in La Jutosa the beautiful village lost in the mountains! I am sorry for writing a little late...we spent the day in San Pedro. SO! I shall make this go faster to get the information down.
First of all, according to the picture,
WE HAD A BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY! The Rosa-Garcia family was married and baptized
on Saturday in an amazing ceremony. We had a confusion where we asked the
Branch President to do one of the baptisms, but the suit we had brought for Hna
Garcia was too small. So, he had to give her his pants and shirt so she could
be baptized, and my companion ended up doing the 2 baptisms. BUT! It was an
amazing experience and I loved every moment of it. Then, afterwards on Sunday,
they were already presenting us to their family members that they want to come
to church with us. Supposedly, Hno Rosa was "really tough" and so now
they have a very strong testimony that miracles can happen, and that people can
change thanks to this gospel.
That was by far the highlight of the
week, and also the other picture of us is the Zone as "Zona
Celestial" or, the Zone that has the most baptisms of families for the
month. Our zone won with 7 families in 7 areas, so President invited us to lunch
at his house, and paid for us to play in a really cool indoor soccer court. I
really enjoyed this P-Day, with the soccer, the sweet & sour chicken, and
the amazing German Chocolate Cake with Coconut....oooo....
But yes! This week was really cool with
meeting new people. I really enjoyed meeting some of them, washing clothes and
chopping wood to gain their confidence in us so that we could keep coming back
and teaching them and they can obtain the baptismal status! We have some pretty
good looking prospects for this Sunday at church, and they are all really
excited and interested to go and listen to the words of the PROPHET! I am so
excited for General Conference! It is Christmas for us missionaries, and I can’t
sleep just thinking about it! We are going to have to work hard to get the
investigators to want to come to Fesitranh with us for some 4 hours...but! We
stay hopeful!
On Thursday, out of last-minute need, I
was called out to Monterrey again with Elder Cortez to ride bikes again! They
needed a gringo to teach the English class, and I was the only one available or
something. I was happy to go out and help him in whatever way I could (which I
still don’t know if it is much...) but I enjoyed riding bikes once again!
Although, I had thought that I lost my bag I took for the splits...which had my
journal, camera, sandals...a lot of important stuff! But, when we returned
again the next day, I found it in the food stand where I had left it and
thankfully the people were loving enough to guard it for me! So, I was unable
to take pictures of my time there again...darn.
Friday we taught our own English class,
and only non-members showed up. It was pretty interesting, and we taught them
about prayer so that they could learn English AND the gospel! Woo!
Saturday we spent ALL day with our
baptism. I returned to the house super exhausted and full of the Spirit. I
daresay they are great converts!
Also, we found out today that my
companion has a transfer pending this Wednesday. According to my time in the
mission and the fact that I now know my area, the most probable outcome is that
I will have a "son," or that I will be training a new guy this coming
3rd of October. I am excited...but nervous at the same time. I hope he speaks
Spanish!
I love you all! Until next week!
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
