It finally happened! We made a plan to focus only on the investigators that were progressing and it worked. We had many great investigators in church on Sunday. I feel so happy that God led us to the ones who are truly searching for answers. They are the ones that progress. It hit me; we don´t really do anything. There´s God´s work, which is the Spirit that prepares the hearts of men, and there are the people that receive that Spirit because of righteous use of agency. In the end, we just work and try to be obedient so that God makes us tools in His hands. I felt so blessed this week to see these people make steps towards repentance and baptism through faith.
Juan and Bessy are a young couple that are just ecstatic about the gospel. They went to church, and what seemed like something difficult (getting them married) totally resolved itself. After church, we taught them the Plan of Salvation and they mentioned marriage again. She had already talked to her father, and he´s going to drive to Colón (really really really far) and back to take out the partida (marriage paper that you need here) so that they can get married! What a miracle. We love them so much, and the branch is excited to see a family come to church.
The futbol activity showed it´s fruits this week. Three of the players went to church. We taught two of them this week and one has a baptismal date with his mother and brother. They are all very receptive. The boy with the date is Mercado (not his real name, but we all call him by his last name). He is 17 and played with us in Progreso. It was way fun, and he seems like a very receptive cool teen. I say that because he sort of acts cool and uninterested, but he´s really engaged in the lesson, and he went to church, which really means a lot. He´s the most committed of his family.
The other is our magical goalie (portero, I don´t remember how it is in English)... Richard. He´s also 17 and really cool. He and his younger brother live with two very catholic grandparents. But they are receptive, and Richard went to church all on his own on Sunday. We haven´t hardly taught him anything yet, but he´s great.
Our young Carlos is doing great, and went to church. He said that he prayed to know, but didn´t get an answer. He said, "I just don´t have the faith." I felt a little bad for him, but I know that he´ll get and recognize his answer soon. We explained that reading, praying, and going to church (all three things that he´s doing) are great signs of faith, and that the Lord will respond if he keeps going forward. He´s a really good kid. I feel like all these young men are going to serve missions!
Iris is also great. She went to church and is accepting the commandments. She has been getting really hit by all sorts of trials (lost her job, brother got really ill), but she´s facing them valiantly and prays to be able to get baptized in every lesson. It´s exciting. She´s actually our next baptism, even though almost all the people I mentioned just now have dates. There are a few more, but we´ll see if they make the blog next week.
The mission is pure insanity! In a really good way... My companion is awesome. I often forget that I´m training. We just work and work and work. I love you all, and we´ll see what news there are in the next exciting chapter of Elder Thalman´s blog next week!
Elder Thalman
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