"Oh Of All Things, Can It Be Really..."

Hola Mi Familia! So it was absolutely so wonderful to talk to you all on Thursday! Hightlight of the past month! It was hard to get off, but luckily Heavenly Father helped me quickly redirect my thoughts to the work and I was able to move on the with rest of the day and week. Happy 3 Months to me this past Tuesday! And Thursday was 1 month in Mexico! I have one week left and then I've made it through my first change! Crazy stuff! It did go by pretty quickly! So I will just start over with the week for those who I didn't talk to. So we decided after P-day last week that we were going to have a baptism this week. This young chap named Jose who is 23 years old has been coming to church every few weeks and we have met with him a few times, but he is kind of a flake sometimes. He is homeless and his identification/work papers were stollen so he is not able to work, so he sells candy in front of the grocery store to earn money to eat that day, ect. Because of this he has been kind of hard to make appointments with. However, this week we decided that we were going to prepare him for baptism and convince him that this would turn his life around and help him in so many ways! So, all week have been teaching him and he more or less decided that this is what he wanted to do. Our lessons are quite difficult sometimes because he likes to talk alot and when he starts talking the subject quickly changes multilple times before we can bring it back in to the lesson we were teaching....Anyway....We taught him all the lessons and helped him clean up a bit. We got him a haircut and helped him fix some of his clothes. We set up an appointment with the District Leader for an interview this past Friday. Well, when we went to go verify this with him on Thursday we couldn't find him anywhere. We told him to meet us at the Chapel at 5PM Thursday, but since our phone call on Thursday went a little long, by the time we reached the church he wasn't there. We went everywhere trying to find him, but couldn't. The next morning we found him early luckily and still made it through the interview that day. He went through the interview and the District leader said he was ready. I think the interview was really quite a spiritual experience that helped him understand the importance of baptism. That night, Friday night, we had a Branch Actvivty for Mother's Day. They had games for the moms to play and a big bbq. We didn't get home till like 11:15 PM! Ha! The activity was supposed to start at 7, but the food didn't get there and most of everyone else didn't show up till 8:30PM. It was a fun night and we had a good bunch of our investigators show up who we invited which was exciting! I think they had a good time! The next day we left for the chapel early to fill up the font. The font is a little font outside and we had to clean it and the fill it with the hose which takes about 3 hours. So we got to the church and did all that hoping it would be ready for a 3PM baptism. Well about 3PM people started arriving and I got dressed to perform the baptism and Jose got dressed too. A few minutes before we were going to start it I remembered that we never showed him how we were going to perform the baptism. So we were about to show him and we asked for his full name so I could practice and he tells us, he doesn't think he wants to do this or he's not ready. I had heard about this from our MTC teachers: Satan will try and persuade people that they are not ready, but that they should just go ahead with it and when they are baptized they will feel it was the right thing to do. We tried to convince him of this and he said he had an empty feeling inside. The branch President even talked to him and he still wasn't feeling right and like he wanted to do it. So after keeping the members waiting for 45 minutes, we called off the baptism. It was kind of disappointing! I was so excited and prepared myself for this day hoping that I would have a spiritual experience and rejuvination as well as Jose. It was hard, we had already filled the font and the members were there waiting and we had to call it off. "Oh of all things, can it be really" that we aren't having a baptism today?! The branch presidency had brought the left-overs from the activity the night before and we all ate our emotions out...okay, really just I ate my emotions out, everyone else was probs just hungry! The next day was Sunday and during our Gospel Principles class, Elder Melchor received a call from President Velez saying that he needed to come to Hermosillo with me! I was relieved that I wouldn't have to go alone. We left that afternoon and arrived around 10PM. There were a bunch of other Elders in town for this gathering too and there wasn't room at the offices for us to sleep so we got to sleep in the Mission Home with President and Hermana Velez! It was great! There were about 6 other Elders staying with us too. Yesterday, we began our meeting at 8AM and went till almost 2PM! Long day, but full of great stuff! At the meeting was the 3 of us newbies that came in at the beginning of this 6 weeks, and then the missionaries who came in 6 weeks before us. So who knows, maybe I will have to go again at the end of this next 6 week to close our 12 week program, but maybe not since that is when we get a new President. The meeting was good and re-energizing! We talked a lot about planning and the key things we need to do to be successful missionaries. Afterwards, we had a lunch and went back to the offices for interviews! Can I just say I love my mission President so much! He is just the greatest! I am really going to miss him and Hermana Velez! I was able to tell him everything that was bothering me that I talked to you all about. I had a hard time trying to collect my thoughts and express it in spanish, but I did the best I could and luckily it sounds like there will be some changes with some missionaries in this next week with changes being Monday! I still feel like I could have talked to him more and that there was more I wanted to say, but it is hard when you don't know the vocab to say it...oh well... We returned to Sonoyta late last night at 11:30PM. So that was my week! No questions this week mom? I guess the youth's package hasn't made it yet...it wasn't in Hermosillo yesterday...hmmm... Sounds like Mother's Day was nice! I wish I could have been there! I was confused, I thought Mother's Day was this coming Sunday, but I guess not. I love you so much mom and am thankful for you and your love and example. I haven't been able to send your letter, but I am doing it today! So look for it in a few weeks! Happy Birthday this week to Max! I miss that little fur-ball tons! Well, not too much else I guess... The photo I am attaching is of a baseball team here in Sonoyta called Los Misioneros! Ha! The sign says "Helping the Missionaries!" Ha! Isn't that great! Well, thanks for all of your love and advice this past week in the call home and emails! I really appreciate it and hold it dear! I love and miss you all so much! Keep the emails coming! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Much Amor, Elder Joyner