"Paciencía Y Fe...."

¡Hola Mi Familia! First of all...."¡Féliz Cumpleaños Papi!" Sorry, I meant to say that in my letter on Friday, but trying to fit in all the deets I thought you all might want to know! These last few days have been a blur! I don´t remember what day was what, so I will try and pick up where I left off... So we had The Restoration lesson with that one family, The Martinez family with the mom who had a dream. They agreed to be baptized just like I thought, but one problem that could be an issue in the future. The Mom and Dad are not married. I´ve come to find out that that is a big problem down here. So many of our investigators have "spouses" and children, but they aren´t married. I think my companion said it costs so much is why. So many of our lessons this week was focusing on the importance of marriage and getting them to pray and consider getting married. It is difficult! Friday night was...interesting...to say the least... There is this family, this really, really great family--The Armenta Family--and they have been meeting with the missionaries for a few months and I think from what I understand from my companion is that they like the church and belive it´s true or something and they like the Book Of Mormon. They especially like the Hymns and my companion and his previous comp even gave them a hymn book and CD and they listen to it and love to sing the hymns when we come for lessons. They loophole, however, is...well, first the mom basically wears the pants in the family. She is the "leader" and if she would agree to be baptized, the whole family would. But here´s the thing: the mom is a leader in the Catholic church in town! HA! Crazy! Apparently they really like the church and would get baptized if it were not for the criticism of the Catholic church as well as the sister´s mom. Apparently this sister told her mother that the family was thinking of getting baptized and the mom got all upset and won´t talk to them. Even on this sister´s birthday the mom didn´t call to talk. How sad! They are a really neat and fun family that needs to be baptized so that they can be sealed! Ugh! I want that so bad for them, but they won´t accept. Oh, wow, this was all background...well the Friday night wasn´t that exciting I guess. We went and visited them and they are really outgoing like most Latin Americans, and they were asking me all these questions, but the sad thing was, I couldn´t understand a single thing they were saying! I felt bad! It is funny, they like to play around and "discuss" back and forth whose church is the true church, ours or theirs. We went and had "dinner" (Well, sandwiches) with them the next day, Saturday, and did an activity pertaining to the Atonement. We then discussed Ch. 11 or 3rd Nephi when Christ comes to the Americas, which we gave them to read. To close we sang a Hymn and when we were done they wanted to sing another. After the hymns I could just feel the spirit so strongly in that house with that family! Hymns really are the best and greatest way to bring the spirit, I think! So Saturday, I got a surprise! I found out I would be speaking in Sacrament meeting on Sunday! Yay! >:l Yuckily I had those "5 Minute" talks in Spanish we had to write in the MTC every sunday, so I had about 7 or 8 to choose from! I chose to speak on the Doctrine of Christ and how it relates to our purpose as missionaries. On sunday we went and picked up 2 of our investigators for church, Edgar, an awesome 12 year boy, and his sister 10 year old Yenny (Jenny). We got a ride to church from the Ward mission leader. Church was really great! I loved it! I especially love the members here! They are really the best and are so kind and love us a lot! We had about 30 people including kids at church. It was nice! My talk went really well, and after my talk we had an investigator, Jose, show up. I thought for church I would surely be asked to play piano since there is no one who plays, but luckily I wasn´t! We sing with CDs instead! Ha! For Sunday school, my companion and I took our investigator, Jose, and went and taught him about baptism. Jose is an interesting fellow. He is 23 and homeless. He also likes to get off topic? When we teach and ask him questions, he will respond and go off on a rant about something. It is funny because I don´t understand any of it! And I can tell he does it because my comp has to bring it back in! He met with some missionaries somewhere else I believe. He sits outside the grocery store selling candy and so the first night I got here, he took us aside and said he wanted to meet with us. We taught him about baptism sunday and he agreed to be baptized! After church we went to the ward mission leader´s house for lunch! He is a great guy! Basically a single parent. He and his kids were baptized, but his wife wasn´t. Apparently, his wife is a little crazy! She drinks and smokes and doesn´t like the church I think? She recently moved out with a neighbor because of her smoking and such and so he basically takes care of his 4 kids by himself! He´s a cool guy! After lunch, we visited some less actives with him and then returned to our house to pack up for the next day. Since we are the only elders in Sonoyta and there is nothing to do there, we go to Puerto Peñasco for P-day. Puerto Peñasco is that town we came to on the Bus from Hermosillo to get another bus to Sonoyta. It is an hour away. We are staying with 4 other elders in our district. They have a super nice and really big house. Well, no surprise since they are in the city. This morning we woke up at 5:45AM, went to the Gym, then we went to play soccer....FOR 3 HOURS.....I could do it for 1, but these people love thier soccer! I got tired after an hour and sat out. Waking up early every P-day and playing soccer for 3 hours....how will I survive these next 12 weeks?! After we came back to their house and chilled for a bit and then went and ate lunch and did their grocery shopping. I got a little sun this week, so I tried to find Aloe Vera, but they don´t have it down here. It was hard to find! We had to go to a pharmacy. I´m still not sure if I have the right stuff, but we will see how it works out. We will return to Sonoyta early tomorrow morning. To answer some questions.... I don´t have a local address for mail and so you will just have to give people this mission office one. However, I hear we don´t get mail often, especially since we are 8 hours away. I think like once a month or every couple of months? I wouldn´t know seeing as how I just got here....If people want my address, just give them my email, since I will get that quicker, but tell them to leave their address so I can write them back. I don´t know how well the mailing system is here, but I will try and send some letters to some I haven´t responded to. But I haven´t had any time.Oh and just so you know if you ever send packages, you may have read this, but pictures of Christ and the Virigin Mary on all sides and all around it. I guess Mexican postal gets superspicious and won´t mess it a "religious" package! Oh exciting news: The president is supposed to be coming to sonoyta this week to buy us new beds and me a new desk (since the one I have is just a wood plank....). Thank heavens too! The beds we have now are not comfortable at all! That´s my week! Hope I didn´t leave anything out....things are getting better slowly and little by little I just need to remember "patience and faith"! Love and miss you all dearly! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner