January 23, 2013

Wow, the birthday celebration for Elder Valenzuela just never ends.........

Why hello Mother of mine!!!

Well hey!!! First off mom, I think that your letters are starting to be longer than dad´s, but that´s okay!! It´s really entertaining for me!!! I love reading about all of your adventures there in Texas, with the y´all and all of that other stuff!!!   But oh well, life´s still good!! Oh, and thanks for the letters from:
Wil and Trey Frank
Micah (Elder) Hodges



View from the house we went to eat on Thursday! Super cool!!

So Thursday was a really good day!!! Planning of course, but after that we went to eat lunch at a member´s house who lives close to Almatriche, a pueblo not too far away from Las Palmas. It was a nice place, and a really cool quiet place to live. I would love to live there, but it´s too far away from anything, so then again, not really. But it was good, as well as the food!! Food is good, keeps us alive and going, especially if it´s good food, then you like it, then you just want to eat more of it, even though you may explode and stuff!! But that´s fine, so yeah, that´s my say on food!! We then got back to Las Palmas and tried to see José, but he wasn´t home. We then decided that we´d visit some former investigators, so we did that, and no success, but that´s fine. We´ll keep going! We then went to Luram´s house to see how he was doing and to have a lesson with him. He told us on Sunday that he wanted us to think and pray about a lesson for him.

So that´s what we did and that very morning Elder Valenzuela and I got it!! We both studied in Luke Chapter 15 and thought that the parable of the prodigal son would be good for him. He´s an inactive member, that has come by himself to church and has changed his life to be able to live according to the gospel. We pretty much are now helping him to do it and by reading that parable, he felt the spirit big time!!! It was amazing!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, it was just super cool and awesome and amazing and....just.........COOOOL!!!!!!!!! I can´t explain it, but it was just............yeah...I won´t even try to explain, so yeah, that´s how awesome it was!!!!!!!!! So there. We then went to a former investigator´s house to see if we could meet with him since he set that appointment up. He wasn´t there, but his father was, and he invited us in. He´s a really cool nice guy, and he´s also a member!!!! He´s been a member for a while, but inactive for a while too. Still strong and his testimony is burning, but I don´t know why he doesn´t go to church. Oh well, it was fun to talk to him for a bit and learn a bit more about Las Palmas from him!! Super cool day!!!

Friday was pretty good, but not too exciting. We did go to Cristian´s house to talk about keeping the Sabbath Day holy, but that´s all for Friday. We tried to find more former investigators, but that´s it. Saturday was pretty much just like Friday, but it´s okay. We did go and eat with the Ramos family and it was really good food again!! We then missed the lesson with José again, but whatever. It´s hard to get from place to place fast when the bus system here isn´t as good as it is in the peninsula, but oh well. We do the best we can. We then went to see Fani, and taught her about tithing. She´s really good and I wish that she was married so that she could be baptized soon, but oh well. Some day she will get there, and she´ll get there when it´s her time. That´s it for Saturday.

Sunday we went to church, of course!! We then had food with the Gomez family and it was good food once again!!! If you can´t tell, I just love FOOD!!!! I may still be super thin and stuff, but I eat, of course, who could deny food, especially yummy food!!! We then finally had the lesson with José about tithing, but he had a hard time thinking about paying 10% of what he earned when he´s in need. It hasn´t been hard for me, but for others it is, and I understand, but trust God that you will be able to survive if you give him a little bit, and then the rest will be fine. We were there for an hour and a half trying to help him understand, but he didn´t get it. Oh well, some time he will. We invited him to pray about it and read the folleto [brochure], but in the reverse order, read then pray. Yeah, that works better. We then went to correlation meeting and it´s crazy how long it takes the buses on weekends. We waited for the bus for 15 - 20 minutes. We kept having fun about it though. We kept saying, "Here comes the 91" when we needed bus number 9. Then when it finally came, we were so happy!!! I didn´t think I would be so happy to see those big yellow Guaguas [buses], but yeah!! Super fun!!

Monday we didn´t have anything. Well, we did and it was a great day, but also not really. We had a lesson with a less active called Gustavo, we don´t know him, but at around 4:00 PM. He said that he lives in a street, number 16, Bajo [downstairs] A. We went to that street, and when we got to the number, we looked on the apartment intercom doorbell thingy and there wasn´t a Bajo A. It started with 1ºA and went from there. We were confused and were running around La Feria trying to find this guy, and I swear that we pushed every single doorbell that was 16 and Bajo A. It was really funny! We then called him at 5:00 and told him that we had to leave it for another day since we had to go to the church for interviews, but we set up another day to visit him. We then took a bus down to the church for interviews with the Mission President! Super cool and awesome to see him!! President Jackson is awesome!!!! He even took time to talk to us about something that he received from Elder Russel M. Nelson and it was cool!!! It talked about a hastening in the work and how we´ve been blessed to live in this time and actually be able to be a part of the gathering of Israel. It was cool!! Then Hermana [sister] Jackson gave us a Christmas present from them, and it was Olive Oil from Jerusalem!!! They also talked about the symbolism of the Garden of Gethsemane, and I already knew about the symbolism since dad sent me a letter about a year and a half ago about that. So, I have olive oil, consecrated, grown, pressed, and everything, from Israel!!! Super cool!!! We then had our interviews and it was fun!! We then went to a Noche de Hogar [home evening] and it was cool!! That´s it!!

The Oil from Israel!!

Tuesday was amazing!!! District meeting was cool and fun since we learned how to make inspired questions for our investigators!! Amazing!!! It makes a difference when teaching so I hope to be able to put it into practice. Not much happened after, but we did try to teach Oscar, but for some reason he didn´t want to, and we were there in his house too!! SO, we will have to figure out what it is he needs/wants. Oh well. Today is P-Day and we´re planning to sleep. I´m really tired and just need a nap or something to help me keep my energy up! Well, I hope that all continues to go well. Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer