Last Wednesday was pretty much full of
trying to visit people and carol to them, or at least share a nice message with
them about Christmas and the meaning of Christ's coming to earth. We were able
to visit a lot of people, (more than we expected), and were able to hand out a
lot of "He is the Gift" cards to a lot of Spanish-speakers, which was
quite the miracle, since we weren't expecting there to be any Hispanics out on
the streets, seeing as it was la Noche Buena. We stopped by I's and left him
a little Christmas gift, just to let him know that we're thinking about him.
We're planning on contacting him this week to see if we can stop by and visit
him again. He told us to give him a couple of weeks until the New Year, so
we'll be trying to call him this week. We also ended up having dinner with
L., and he made us some fantastic food. We then shared the "He is the
Gift" video with him, and he said he'd share it with all of his friends.
He had a friend, F., who was there visiting him, and we invited him to
watch it with L. We also solidified L's baptismal service for this
Saturday, so if you can, pray for him that he'll be able to meet the date, and
that he'll be able to endure faithfully to the end after baptism! We then
finished the night off with caroling.
Thursday, Elder G. was itching to
open all of his presents right after we woke up, and the Twin Peaks Elders and
myself were hoping to open them around lunch-time. But, we ended up opening all
of the presents right after we woke up, and then we went through our studies.
We then talked to all y'all, and had a great time doing so. After that, we went
right out to work. We started some weekly planning, went out and contacted
several people to wish them a Feliz Navidad and such, and were back at the
H's house for dinner later that night. They made tamales, and they were
pretty darn good! I wasn't expecting tamales from an American family, but they
knew how to cook them well! We then went caroling after that to some
non-members of some English missionaries.
Friday, I had planned on having some
district meeting 'n stuff early on, but nobody wanted to, so we finished weekly
planning. We then gave a blessing to one of the sisters, and from there, went
out and got some good work done. We contacted a referral and set up a time to
meet with him later. He actually doesn't have a house, so we had to teach him
on the street that he works on. He speaks Mixteco, and knows just a bit of Spanish, so it was a little interesting trying to speak really dumbed-down Spanish. We then had dinner with some members, and they had family visiting
from Layton, UT, and they are members of one of the Spanish wards up there. We
then stopped by and wished J. and B. a Feliz Navidad, and shared a message
with them. Then, coordination cancelled, so we floated around trying to find
someone to visit at 8:00 at night, and couldn't find anyone. So we had a quick
district meeting.
Then on Saturday, we had everything to
get done, and only us to do it. It was the missionaries who were supposed to
clean that chapel this time. So Elder G. and I showed up and started
cleaning, and nobody showed up. Not even the Sisters. On top of that, Elder
G. had forgotten the phone at the apartment, so we got as much done as we
could, went back, got the phone, and asked Hno. H. if he could call some
people to come finish for us, since we had an appointment with L. that
morning. We had a great lesson with him, and talked about how his baptism would
go, and went through the baptismal interview questions. He passed them all
pretty easily. No problems. We then went and met with F., and finished
teaching him all of the lessons. We then invited him to L's baptism, and
asked him if he had picked a date for himself yet. "Not yet," he
says, "but soon." Okie day then. We then did all of our studies, and
went to contact some referrals. None of them really liked us, so we went and
had dinner. We then visited Hno. L. to see how he was doing, and he was all
by himself since his daughters were with their mom. He made us some
chocolate/vegetable/gluten-free pancakes. And then he gave us some stalks of
kale to eat with it. He's pretty fanatic about his health. We finished the
night off with some contacting.
Then, on Sunday, we went to branch
council to tell everyone about L's baptism. For some reason, all of the
sisters showed up as well, which was quite inconvenient since the office is
uber tiny. I fasted all day so that L. would be ready for this week, since
Satan is going to try and stop him from being baptized. I ended up teaching
Gospel Principles since Hno. H.'s whole family was sick. It was on
exaltation, and the principle of becoming exactly like God. I was a little
worried about how L. would take the lesson, but I feel like he was okay with
it. Then, Hno. Z. wanted to make a point to the brethren, so he picked
L. and F., (the only two non-members), to stand up and sing by
themselves from the hymn book. His idea was to have us missionaries come in and
sing with them, then leave, and have the brethren sing with them after we
left. I was a little iffy on this idea since L. had only come to church for
the third time, and he had to stand in front of people and sing. He took it
like a champ, though. We're really hoping and working for some good member
support for L. Then, in sacrament meeting, A. B. blessed the
sacrament with Elder G., and he did an awesome job! After church,
F.'s sister had made dinner for a bunch of people and the missionaries.
So we went to Hno. Z.'s house and ate, and L. came with us. We ate and
had a good time, and then we left with L. and went to visit some
less-actives. None of them were available, or were asleep, so we mostly spent
the night driving around to each appointment.
Yesterday, we helped Hno. L. out with
painting a room in his house. We had hoped that there would've been sufficient
tools, but there weren't, and on top of that, his daughters were getting in our
way. We tried to get as much as we could done, but because of a lack of tools,
we didn't finish and had to leave to go to a dinner appointment with the
O.'s. They gave us chile relleno with some Colombian dumpling lookin'
things. It was pretty darn good! They told us all about how their trip to San
Francisco went. After that, we went and visited the Familia M. that we
added last week. We got there, and when we sat down, there was just two of the
four that we added. We started teaching them about the Plan of Salvation, explaining
the need for a Savior, and the importance of following the Gospel in our lives.
As the lesson progressed, another of the four joined us, and another brother
walked in and listened. We gave them some more copies of the Book of Mormon,
and invited them to read from 3 Nephi 11 about Christ's visit to the Americas.
They agreed, and thanked us, and gave us a glass of milk right before we left.
We then visited J. and B., and finished teaching them all of the lessons.
We also invited them to come to L's baptism, just so that they could see what
it was like. They'll be going to Riverside to take care of their sister-in-law
right after, so we're hoping that it leaves an impression on them. We then
visited L. to see how he was doing, and to share a scripture with him. His
baptismal interview is tonight, and Elder G. and I are going on splits
with the zone leaders so that they can get to an appointment of theirs.
Well, that's just about all that's
happened this week. We're going to leave A. alone for awhile, and we'll
check up on her in a little while. We'll text her to invite her to L's
baptism, to see if she'd like to see what one is like. All I'd ask is that you
remember L. in your prayers! He's really going to need some blessings this
week. We have to be in by 6:00 on the 31st, so we'll probably call him that day
to check up on him. I hope you all have a Happy New Year, and that you enjoy
some good fireworks!
Talk to you next
week!
-Love, Elder Crook
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