Moving Forward...

So, no huge huge news for the week, but some cool experiences as Elder Vega and I are trying to boost the area as best we can.  Things are proving harder than we thought as this week we had only two investigators in church, way way less than we were expecting.  We are realizing that we will have to boost the strength of the members here first if God is going to trust this area with new converts.  Tough, but we will not become discouraged!


An update on an investigator named Hector.  This week, we talked to him about how he´s doing with quiting smoking.  He said that he has gone from about 20 cigs a day to 5!  And he hardly drinks coffee now too.  He´s made incredible progress for just one week.  We gave him a blessing, and then commenced to teach lesson one... that turned out to be a funny experience.


We started if he had ever heard the word prophet before.  "well, I think they are people called of God to lead and direct us here on the earth."  That was a little to much of a perfect answer, and my comp and I actually started to laugh a bit.  Then my comp just straight up asked him, "so what do you know about the life of Jesus Christ?" 


"Well, He organized His church, primarily upon the blocks of prophets and apostles, whom He gave His authority to act in His name."  What the!?


We asked him how he knew all that, and aparently he was listening in the other room when the missionaries spoke with his wife when she was baptized.  He didn´t remember too well about the Book of Mormon, so we gave him one and we will see how he does with reading it.  Easiest lesson one I´ve ever taught.  Haha.  I am blown away by the faith of this man!  I really love Hector.


We also have a baptism scheduled for a little girl named Leivi!  This will be this Saturday because she´s come to church for four weeks straight, and we´ve only just now gotten to talk to her.  We didn´t even know if she wanted to be baptized.  We talked to here and said we got permission from her Dad to baptize her, and she just smiled.  We asked if she would like that, and she just smiled and noded her head yes emphatically.  The next day in the lesson, she said she had a dream that she was being baptized and that she can´t wait.  Haha!  How cool is this kid!


We don´t really want to get a reptuation for being baby baptizers as they say, but this girl wants it and this will be the first baptism in Nuevo San Juan since January.  Almost seven months.  Pretty cool.


We´re still preparing many really great investigators, and families!  Byan and Marisela are still really good, and they came to church yesterday minus Bryan.  He said for sure he´ll come next week.  We´re getting them started on family prayers and the Book of Mormon.  I love how much we´re using the Book of Mormon now in the work.  That´s def how it should be.


I love this mission, and can see the hand of God ever in this work and in my soul.  I feel Him changing me, and I´m starting to feel more capable of enduring the trials before me.  That´s what I think David Bednar means when he used the phrase, "enableing power of the Atonement of Christ."  He doesn´t just take things away when they´re hard, but rather He gives us the strength to overcome them through the Atonement that we might grow. 


I have hope that this week will be even better than the last.  I love my companion.  I love this mission.  I love the people here, and mostly, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father.  I also love and miss you all, and pray that you will try this week to experience the sweet fruits of missionary work in your every day lives this week.  Try and put more effort this week to help someone learn about the gospel and then write me about it! ;)  haha, but seriously.  do it.


Les Quiero mucho,


Elder Kent Thalman