Monday, March 11, 2013

Hola Mi Familia! Welp, I've completed 13 months in the mish! Time just seems to slip through our hands like water! I seriously feel like it was just yesterday that I completed 1 year! How crazy! I am already starting to understand and feel what they say that when you hit 1 year it is all down hill running from there. I received my 3 packages this week! And boy was I a happy fella! The sister in our ward called me on Thursday night and said that she had my 2 from Arizona and then the next day we had a zone meeting and the zone leaders brought my other package from the offices from when they went to their monthly meeting. My comp was quite jealous and was in happy land seeing all the goodies that were being sent. Of course I was nice and shared with him a little...but just a little....Thanks so much for the CD mom! I really really love and each and every song touches my heart and each brings a memory from the mission to mind! I also feel so eager and encouraged every time I listen to that CD. I don't know, the things that it talks about and memories that come to mind just pump me up to go out and work! Thanks! I also really appreciate the CD you sent, dad! I don't remember if I told you that the ward is really struggling here to get a ward mission plan together and we aren't really sure how to help them because we aren't so sure what it consists and so the CD really helped us and gave us so me good ideas. We may type it out and translate it to give to the members of our ward council. So if, I didn't tell you that or not, it was pure inspiration that you sent it! Thanks! This week has been....pretty down! Yes, we have a few really neat investigators that seem to be progressing well and we have put a goal of having at least 4 baptisms, if not 5 at the end of this transfer. That will be awesome! However, apart from like 4 or 5 families, we have nothing to do! It really is the pits! Usually Tuesday and Fridays are our busiest days, but apart from that...not too much. We have visited basically all of the less actives in our ward and also old investigators, but nothing really new has come out. Thankfully this week we were able to encourage our ward mission leader to start charging his batteries and helping us more. He is young and just returned from his mission a few months ago, but is really busy with work. But he is starting to get excited helping us, so that is good. Our first lady is the coolest ever! She is progressing so well. She has really experienced a conversion and basically asked us when she could be baptized. We have set a date for 2 weeks, the 23rd of this month. She surprised us yesterday when she arrived at church by herself. Usually she goes to church with her sister, who was baptized 2 months ago, but when the sister didn't get up to go, she just came on her own and brought her 9 year old son too! We hope to be able to baptize him as well! She always loves our lessons and every time, she is always waiting on us for arrive. She has loved the change she has made in her life that she has introduced us to her 23 year old brother from Obregon and we have started to teach him. Who knows if anything will come of it since he wants to go back to Obregon, but hopefully we can get in there more and touch his heart before he makes a decision to go. The other lady and her son have yet to come to church. They are doing so well with everything, and we have seen a change in them, but the only thing they lack is to go to church. We will work on this. This week the son was sick and so we didn't get to have but only one good lesson in this week. They still seem to be holding on to their Catholic Saints, but we are working on that. We taught them lesson 3, The Gospel, this week and extended the baptism invitation. They said they would really like to, but they feel like it is kind of soon and that they need to know more and need more time. The lady also expressed that if she and her son were going to do it, she would like her husband and other 2 sons to do it as well, but they are a little harder. Her husband isn't exactly too happy that we are teaching them. We go with a sister in our ward who is friends with her and she helps us a lot in teaching and helping them understand. We have also been teaching another family who is a part-member family. The dad is inactive, but the mom and daughter say they are interested. They are a little harder to teach because they know very little about religion and God and the bible, but we are going. We have set a date with them for the 13th of April. Let's hope we can keep going. We have really been trying to focus our efforts more on getting members to help us. Us as missionaries have really only been called to teach the Gospel, but it is the members who should be the ones finding people for us to teach. We have seen that members really are a force for good in missionary work and add a significant help and support for the investigators. The past 4 baptisms that we have had in this ward have all been member referrals. It is so true that it is more like for investigators to be baptized when they are member referrals. Like always, I want to encourage you all to talk to everyone you know! Talk to everyone about the Gospel! Although you may not be set apart missionaries, you are full time, for life, missionaries. Give names to the missionaries of people they can visit! But don't just give the names, but go with them and visit those people and help bring more people to the truth and to true happiness! Well, I hope this week is just the greatest for you all! I love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner