Not sure if I will be able to write a whole lot today because this keyboard I am writing on is terrible! All of the letters are sticking together.. But thanks for the updates from everyone there. Today all the Colombian kids entered back into their schools and I was thinking of the kids there too. Hope everyone is getting back into the flow of things!
Well this week was full of ups and downs, but it turned out to be one of the most successful weeks of my mission so far! This week we had 13 investigators attend church with us (the highest I´ve had in the mission) and we also set 8 baptismal dates that are looking pretty solid (also the highest mark I´ve hit and one of the highest in the mission right now!). All these baptismal dates are none other than the Osorio family and the Lenis family. I know that all of your prayers definitely helped us out a lot and we are super excited for these two families. The best part about this area is that we are actually teaching and baptizing families, which is exactly what the mission wants. With the Lenis Family, all of them accepted a baptismal date except for the mom of 2 of the kids. In this house lives Sister Lenis (an inactive member now returning) with her two kids and husband, and also her sister Sandra with her two kids. All of them are going to be baptized this Saturday except Sandra. We need to keep meeting with her and figure out what is her doubt to be baptized, but we are just super grateful and happy that all the rest have chosen to be baptized this Saturday. It will be 5 baptisms so we are going to plan a program super special and they will be a great family to add to the branch here.
The other family the Osorio´s are coming along super great too. They are scheduled to get married on the 31st of this month, and then they will be baptized with their daughter (it is actually their grand daughter, but they are raising her) onFeb. 1st. They are super excited too, and we are going to help them raise the money to get married. Sister Osorio is going to make the food and we are going to sell lunches to all the members and missionaries here. This family is a little bit more prone to go inactive, but we are going to work hard with them and ensure that they become converts in the church and not just baptisms.
Apart from them we have a couple other people that we are working with that are progressing along, but we are just putting all our efforts to make sure these families keep on progressing without problems.
Well the other things that happened this week is that I had to do about 5 baptismal interviews. At first I was super scared to have to do an interview, but now I think I am getting the hang of it a little more. I realized that the thing about the interviews is that you just have to try and rely completely on the spirit. There were so many moments where I thought I had no idea what to say in the interviews, but then somehow thoughts came to my head and I was able to resolve a lot of concerns that I thought I couldn´t! One interview in particular that I did was super hard this week. It was this 21 year old investigator that has been an investigator for almost 2 years. He was telling me that he wasn´t sure if he believed in God, and that he has been trying to get answers to his prayers for months and that nothing was working. I had no idea what to say, but when we finally got into talking about the commandments, it became clear that he wasn´t living a lot of commandments in his life. I told him that if he wants to get an answer from God then he needs to be able to live the commandments first! He told me in the end that I had helped him and that he was going to start trying some of the suggestions I gave him to get an answer from God. Obviously not quite ready for baptism, but hopefully he will start living the commandments and get an answer.
Well now I've got to go, but thanks for all the encouragements and updates and prayers! I know that all the prayers really helped and we are going to be able to meet our goal that we set for this month of 5 baptisms. Keep pushing along there in Utah, and talk to everyone next week!
Love,
Elder Armstrong
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