Buenos dias mi familia!!!
Sorry but I'm going to be lazy again- good ol' copy and paste. Here was my letter to president. Bleh-
"One of our best investigators almost dropped us last week. Sheila had a goal set for baptism on the 24th but she has a dad that is passing away. Her dad's health is really failing him and he's asked Sheila to attend his church instead of the LDS church. She's really conflicted right now but I know she had a growing testimony. We've tried to contact her but haven't been able to. We'll give her some time, keep her in our prayers, and then hopefully resume visits with her in the coming weeks.
Our best Spanish investigators continue to be the Torres family. Over the past several weeks we've found a new member of their family with almost each lesson. (Week 1- Dad. Week 2-Mom. Week 3-Daughter. Week 4- Son in law. Week 5-Another Daughter) We hope this pattern continues!
Heavenly Father continues to help me with my Spanish. My ability to speak and understand has been growing rapidly, a true blessing from above. Elder Foote seems to be healthy and happy. I learn a lot from him. He teaches with testimony in a simple way but it's really powerful."
So yup that's kind of the update on this week. Sheila's dad basically is leaving her with the death wish of going to a different church. Pretty hard to say no to that. So we are going to give her time then hopefully we'll be able to return and help her realize the testimony that she was developing.
But the Torres family is awesome. Hermano Torres has read the first few chapters of the Book of Mormon and he remembers perfectly what he reads. He probably knows 1 Nephi better than I do! Now we just need to help him pray and recognize an answer. He doesn't have the best eyesight in the world so we got him a MEGA size Libro de Mormon. Even this is difficult for him to read. We've read a few verses with him and it's really slow going but he's willing to do it. So to me it's really impressive that he's read so many chapters already and understands it so well! We're hopeful for him and his family. We even got our branch president out with us to a lesson to meet Hermano Torres. I think it really made Presidente Vilches excited to see that we were teaching a cool family like they are.
Hmmm what else... Well training is exhausting but it's also super rewarding. The difference between my Spanish comprehension now in contrast to 2 weeks ago is black and white. It's AWESOME. But I have to be careful. I realize that I can communicate well in "DO or Die" situations. But if we have a member helping us teach I sometimes think to myself that I don't have to focus as hard because "the native member will understand". So sometimes I relax and then don't end up understanding anything. It's like if I get lazy for 5 minutes Heavenly Father gives me a slap on the hand and takes away the gift of tongues for a moment. So we're going to really work hard to maintain this level of improvement.
Lessons were few this last week but we always end the week with a part member family that we love. Last night we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them and bore testimony after. We always leave their home with a sweet feeling of the Spirit. I LOVE it. It's so powerful to know that Christ lives and that we have a loving Heavenly Father who has a divine plan for us. What amazing purpose this provides for our lives. It makes all the difficulties and bumps in the road worth it. I literally have fallen asleep during all of my nightly prayers this last week from exhaustion but I wouldn't trade it for anything. LOVE YOU all. You're the best. Have an awesome Week!!!!
