Monday, July 1, 2013

Hola Mi Familia! Another week gone and it just seems like time is flying by WAY too fast! The weeks now feel like days they are just flying by! I can't believe my eyes! It is weird to think that one week from today I will be turning 17 months, which is just one month away from 18, which is just 6 MONTHS away from the END!!! That is the craziest thought ever! And June just flew by oh so fast! Crazy! TODAY the mission split! There is now a Ciudad Obregon Mission and Hermosillo Mission. That will be weird. We are now like 80 or 90 missionaries less now, but I don't think it will take too long to receive new ones in the months to come. But it is kind of sad to think of the missionaries that stayed there in Obregon and in the south and that we won't ever see friends again, but it is great that the work is moving along and that we have the opportunity to divide and expand. This week was quite amazing in many ways. I mentioned how we have been struggling for receiving references in the past week and how we were only receiving 5 or so and very few from members. Well, this week we hit a record for our companionship of 20 references! And half of those were from members! I don't know what we did to get these results, but it was amazing! The investigator that we have set a baptismal date with is so ready for his baptism this Saturday! We were a little nervous about some things that have happened in his past, but after he cleared the baptismal interview, he was all good to go! His wife's cousin, who is a Priest, will be baptizing him which will be really special for their family. Everyone is quite excited and his wife's family helped us put together a baptismal program for the day. This is going to be great! I love how in our branch, the members actually attend baptism, unlike in other branches or wards, so this should really be a special day. Last week I mentioned a family that we have begun teaching that are co-workers with some members. They were the ones who believed in the weird Theology doctrine and not religions.. This week was absolutely fantastic with them! We had our second lesson with them and it was fantastic! We taught The Restoration and they seemed to understand it well and had various questions. We watched the video of "The Restoration" as well the spirit was strong and testified of the message. We taught them about The Book of Mormon and they committed to reading it. We wanted to put another lesson for that week, but said that they were busy with graduation stuff, that it would be best to hold off till this coming week. However, one day we just stopped by to see how they were doing and they invited us in and excitedly wanted to read The Book Of Mormon with us. This was surprising to us, but we didn't pass up the opportunity. We read 3rd Nefi 11 when Christ comes to the Americas and boy was the spirit strong! They had a lot of questions and seemed quite interested. They had told us before that they didn't believe in baptism, but thought that it was just for the rebellious who need more help, but after reading what Christ says in this chapter about baptism, they began to ask questions. We left the lesson feeling good. This past Sunday, yesterday, the member friends invited them to church and went and picked them up. The Branch had just gone on a temple trip the day before and so they talked about the temple and a family that was just sealed all got up and bore really beautiful testimonies. The spirit was so strong during this meeting and the family began asking a bunch of questions about what they were saying. They all went to their respective classes and had a good time there too. One time in the Gospel Doctrines class, a brother asked this lady if she was a member, and she responded no. He then asked her when she was going to be one. She didn't know what to respond! Haha! It was kind of surprising how direct the brother was, but I think it made an impact on her and he proceeded to tell her that he knew that one day she would be baptized. Oh I so hope so too! This family is really special and I can so see them progressing and getting baptized one day. We are going to work really hard to help them reach this point. We also found a few others this week, but I won't say too much about them at this moment, but the months of July and August are thankfully looking like baptizing months! This week we have been practicing a special musical number because on Friday we are going to have a special Multi-Zone conference with Nogales and Elder Benjamin De Hoyos of the Seventy and in the Area seventy presidency for Mexico is coming to meet with us. We will be singing an arrangement of We'll Bring The World His Truth that I did. We are going to sing in English and Spanish so here's to hoping it goes well! I kind of feel like this letter was short and not very filled, but I hope it is enough to tie you over till next week. Have a fantastic week and keep relaxing. 1/2 of your summer is over! Haha! :) Love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner