July 5, 2011 E-Mail

It was a great 4th of July weekend. Because of the holiday yesterday was a proselyting day and today is p-day. Unfortunately, the orchards don't close down on holidays and all of the hispanics still work. So yesterday was not a very successful day at all. If anything most people left this little town to go to some bigger events. But we got out and still worked. It was the same on Saturday too. We spent pretty much the whole day knocking on doors and we went to a place called Desert Aire. It's basically just a place full of weekend homes and it's right down on the river. So there was a ton of people there this weekend vacationing. The bad part it, when people are vacationing they definately don't want to talk to us! But we did meet some really nice people and enjoyed the weekend.

Saturday evening Ruben was baptized. He didn't make up his mind until Friday morning. And when we got there he was actually saying no. But we had the zone leaders with us because they do the interviews. It was really nice to have two more people who speak good spanish because the three of us were able to bear powerful testimony and promise him blessings. So he had his interview and decided to get baptized. It was a great service and he even brought his wife and his daughter who are farely active in the catholic church. His daughter is actually preparing for her confirmation in the catholic church. But hopefully we can show her the truth and she will start coming with his dad. Sunday in church I was worn out. Ruben couldn't make it to the spanish meeting so he came to english. So I had to translate from english to spanish for him. And testimony meetings are the worst to translate. Because there is a lot of crazy stories and crying. Then in the spanish branch I had to translate from spanish to english for people. And it really is an exhausting thing to do. Especially when you're fasting. But it's one of the best ways to improve with a language.
Last night we went to the Christensen's for a little bit. That was fun other than we couldn't do anything that they were doing. But it was fun to watch. People were swimming then shooting guns. And we had to be in our house before they did any fireworks. So we didn't get to watch those. And from how many were set up it was probably better than most city fireworks back home. It was crazy. They also have a cannon that was pretty cool to see shoot stuff off. When you live out in the middle of nowhere you can do whatever you want. But it shot peanut can's that were full of concrete and it was shoot them clear up in the air to where all you could see was a little speckle. Then they have all types of guns that they were shooting and some sort of explosive stuff that when you shoot it just blows up. It was pretty entertaining.
For the most part that was our week. We tried to do a lot of finding but didn't see much success. We are progressing with a few investigators. Abel and Irma and also Isabel. It would be great if you would pray for them. They have baptismal dates for the 30th of July. This week it really hit me how powerful other's testimonies are. Between testimony meeting then seeing Ruben change because of testimonies. And I'm so grateful for the testimony that I have. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have had to strengthen my testimony, but also to see other's either develop or strengthen there testimonies. I know that this church is true. I know that God is the Father and that Christ is His son. I know that He paid the price for our sins and I know that this church is true. Thank you for all you do. I love you so much!!!!