Monson Tryon, 6-6-11

It’s the Goof Boy!

Hey fam ¿Como Andan?

All is great here in the south! Except my camera, sorry about that, I hope to get it fixed today.

Yesterday we had an amazingly spiritual fast and testimony meeting. Member after member got up giving awesome testimonies non-stop. We had 4 investigators at the start of the meeting which was actually a really depressively low number (even though 3 months ago it would have been a miracle, but now 4 is nothing, our vision has been raised.) But by the end of passing the sacrament 2 more had come by themselves. That is such an awesome feeling seeing investigators come in to church! One that came was a nonmember mom of 5 children that are all members but one, 3 of the 5 bore their testimonies and the mom had a few tears by the end. I also had a few tears during all the testimonies, weird huh? But they were sweet. Hearing the testimonies from a missionary’s point of view is so amazing!

The other one that came a little late is our investigator Blanca. She is the friend and neighbor of our Ma Olga. I want to tell you a little about what happened to her this week. She recently got divorced and was having tons of problems. She started reading the Book of Mormon and changed completely. Tuesday we had a lesson on the plan of salvation (our convert Fabian was there, he is so awesome!!) and at the end we asked her when she wants to get baptized (she already had a baptismal date for the 23 of July but that is so far away!). She said she was thinking maybe the 2nd week of July and asked what she needed to do to prepare. We told hold she was pretty much already ready, so then we decided to do it in 5 days (yesterday) and she agreed. So we had the plan to teach her a little every day but all of a sudden she has to work a ton. So we had to settle with a 20 minute lesson on Thursday (we still hadn’t even taught her the word of wisdom, law of chastity or tithing). On Thursday we ended up spending the whole 20 of our minutes on how she was working too much and wanted to wait a little longer. Luckily Ma Olga (who isn’t even a member yet!) was there to testify that satan is trying to stop her from getting baptized and that she should go through with her goal. She agreed and I gave her the word or wisdom and the law of chastity pamphlets to read since we didn’t have time to teach and scheduled a 20 minute lesson for the next day, Friday. On Friday when we got there it all went wrong. She had read the word of wisdom pamphlet and went off on how she still needs a lot of time to be able to comply with that commandment so she can’t get baptized. Dang that Satan!! So we talked a little and told her we would change the date. Saturday we taught her another 20 minutes, she also came to the English class. When she didn’t’ show up to church on Sunday we were really getting worried that we were losing her (happens often to the investigators that don’t make it to their set baptismal dates) But then she came! All by herself, not even Ma Olga could come yesterday, so we still have lots of hope for her! She was pretty teary eyed by the end too.

We got lots of awesome investigators. The family that the dad was never giving permission for the daughters to get baptized has been softening a lot. We have been teaching them with tons of members and it helps so much! The goal is for the 18th of June!

Lots of our investigators are so sweet but just have very little time. They are the ones that are going to make great members, it just takes more patience and more work planning (which can sometimes be the hardest part in the mission but so important!) I remember my MTC teacher telling us that in the mission we will talk with lots of crazy people because they are easier to find because they usually aren’t working. The really good ones are harder to find and teach but make better members if you are willing to pay the price.

That’s what the whole mission is about! The blessings are there, are you just willing to pay the price?

Love you all!!!

Elder Tryon