Happy Mother's Day!!! Día de las Madres!! It was great talking to you guys yesterday. We didn't really talk much about how my week went.
This week went very well for us. We had 10 investigators at Church with 1 baptism and 1 confirmation. It went super well! Which is surprising because we didn't work all day Wednesday, and only half day Thursday and Saturday. My companion got sick so we were confined to the house. It was a boring day Wednesday.
Saturday we baptized Arturo. It was a very special baptism because there were three of us trying to baptize him. We got him completely under on the first time but we had to carry him into the faunt and out of it because he's in a wheelchair. He is really cool and we are working with his daughter for this week. We will need a miracle to pull it off but we can do it.
So the 10 we had in church came from 3 families. We had a family of 4, a family of 3, and a family of 2, and the son of another family we are teaching. The family of 4 is a great family. They are in a very difficult situation right now seeing that the father doesn't have a job and is about to separate from his family because he thinks it will help them. He told us that all their problems are caused by the economy. We took him to the self sufficient center that the Church has here and they took down his information and are in the process of looking for a job for him. We are praying for a job opening this week because he's losing hope. We can only do so much to help him and his family but I fear that if he doesn't find a job soon, things will keep getting worse and worse until he doesn't want anything to do with the church or God.
The family of 3 we found this week and they came. There's actually more than 3 in the family but only 3 came. It's a family of 5 or 6 but they couldn't come. They seemed to like it. Being Mother's day yesterday, they only stayed for the first hour. They are really good and I hope they continue to progress. Right now they have a baptismal date for the 7th of June which would be my last week here in Mexico, so I'm crossing my fingers that they are baptized so I can go out with a bang!
The family of 2 is actually the family of Arturo. His mom and his daughter. His mom has a problem with coffee, smoking and drinking but she's doing very well right now. I kind of hit her with reality last week because I pulled out the mathematics on her. no, not algebra or calculus. I doubt I'll ever use those again. But simple multiplication. It costs 5 pesos for one cigarette. She smoked one a day and has been smoking for at least 10 years. And also one beer costs 25 pesos and its never just one. So, 5 pesos for 7 days is 35. 35 pesos a week plus the 75 pesos of beer she drank every week, 110 pesos a week. Now for 52 weeks in a year = 5720 pesos a year. Now for 10 years....57,200 pesos in 10 years! I remember that lesson that Conrad Johnson taught me in elementary school. Probably one of the most important things I learned in school. Of all the things one could do with money, why waste it on something that literally destroys your life. Anyways, she hasn't smoked or drank after that stunning fact.
So everything here in Veracruz is going great. It's still hotter and more humid than ever but I better enjoy it while it lasts because in 4 weeks I'll be back in the freezing Idaho weather.
Before I go I have to tell you something funny that happened to me yesterday. So we were walking to an investigators house to go pick them up for church when out of no where I feel something hit my backpack and then explode on the ground. I look down and see a can of beer exploding all over my companions shoes. Hahaha I look over and see a guy glaring at us. I just smiled and waved. I don't know what made him more upset; the fact that we wasted a beer or that he saw us "Mormons." Hahaha We just kept walking and there on the corner of the street were a couple of old guys that saw the entire thing and they were saying, "Don't pay attention to him, he's the devil. It's only the devil" and I just laughed. The bad part was that we smelled like beer but Eagle Scout Dial is always prepared and had his trusty deodorant in his backpack. So after a good Deodorant shower, everything was fine. It was pretty funny. I was happy because we didn't even have to teach the guy the Word of Wisdom and he willingly threw away his beer.
The devil is strong here in Mexico but we are strong. I know God lives and loves us. In spite of everything bad that happens in the world, there is always hope. Christ lives. He suffered so we might not suffer. If we seek him, we will find peace and rest.
Elder Dial
Pictures: Baptism and celebrating 23 months with Pizza in the English class!!!!
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