March 14, 2011 E-Mail

My first week here in Mattawa has been a pretty good one. I found out that the translation of Mattawa in Indian literally means "the middle of nowhere." This place is just a desert full of spanish speaking people. So far all it has done is blown wind really hard. It's a really small place. It's been good though. I've already noticed a significant difference with my spanish. I use it so much more. We do work in the english ward, and then the spanish branch. But the ward is pretty strong. Like 80% of the members are active which is a ton. So at first it was really weird coming here because the place is so small. It's like Warden again. So after being in a bigger city for the past 7 months then coming here was little bit of a shocker.
As far as work goes, when I first got here there were like 40-50 teaching records in the area book under the investigators. Well none of them are progressing. It's just sort of been an area where a ton of lessons have been taught but pretty much no one has even been to church. So a lot of time has been spent on teaching those who just want to be friends rather than finding those that the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel. So we are going to be working a lot on trying to find those that the Lord has prepared at this time.
We live with members again. We live in a double wide trailer and we are provided one room which is 10x10 at the biggest. And that is where we keep all of our stuff, sleep, and do our studies. So that is a big change from my last area. I guess you could pretty much say that this area is complete opposite of the last area. I'm getting used to it though and starting to like it. We don't really work with the ward very much because they are already really strong like I said above. The branc needs a lot of work. So one of my focuses while here I think will be trying and strengthening the branch with new members and also with in active members.
The other night all of our stuff fell through and we didn't eat dinner so we decided we were going to go and grab something to eat. Well our options here aren't to many. So we went to the taco truck. But the taco truck only accepts cash and we only had our cards. So we were walking over to a different place and this drunk guy came up to us and was asking for money. Well my companion didn't understand anything he was saying so he started making agreements with him and stuff. Anyways we got it all worked out and I told the guy we didn't have any money. So my companion just invited him to come to dinner with us. So we walked across the street and went into this other restaurant where we had dinner with this drunk guy. He told us how he had been out of work for about 2 weeks and was living on the streets. He asked if he could come live with us. But considering our living conditions we didn't really have room. And we wouldn't really do that anyways. But yeah, he was a really good guy. I was hoping we would get to see him again and try to teach him. But we haven't seen him since, and I think that was on Wednesday.
The language is still tough for me, and I don't understand everything, but it's coming fast. I have really seen the Lord's hand in the work these last few days. It has been a great blessing to feel the help of the Lord and to see the things he can do to help the progression of his work.
I know that this church is true and I'm so grateful to be a member of it. I know that the gifts of the spirit are real. I have been studying a little lately from the New Testament and have learned a lot about the life of our Savior. I know that he atoned for our sins and that he died for us. The Atonement is just not to make bad people good. But also to make good people better. As we exercise our faith in Christ, great things can come to pass. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all you do for me. Have a great week!!!