Dear Irvine Family:
I'm going ENGLISH!!!!
Yup, President wants me to take a break and go English. To the desert, going to be driving a Chevy truck in the middle of the desert. What luck, eh? I'm gonna be hangin' with the Joshua trees.
APRIL FOOL'S!! Yeah, I'm kidding. But, I really enjoyed this week. Not as stressed, now I'm getting used to being senior comp and my comp Lynn is way chill so he's making it really easy on me. I get all uptight sometimes but he's cool with it so we get along real well. Yeah...try to have a comp who hasn't spoken much Spanish in about 7 months and having a ton of appointments and having to speak about 90% to start off the transfer. Rough! But, it taught me I have to help him out more. It's funny what Kristy said- where'd all the money go? Well, bought photos and a 100 buck bike. Yup, that's about it. At least I don't waste money asking the parents to send stuff every week. :-) Oh yeah, Uncle David sent me 100 bucks too. How nice!
New investigators are falling into our laps, literally. Because we took over the bike area (other elders didn't work at all) we got new referrals. Technically we got 2 new investigators but we have at least 3 others that we'll have appointments with this coming week. So the work is picking back up, and everything is calming down for me. I'm not all over my head now so...it's all good now. I'm so glad that President blessed me with Lynn, because if I had a pushy comp I really would be going nuts. His Spanish is coming, so I'm really glad of his progress and now he's really getting his confidence up (which helps a lot in teaching lessons). I used to teach the entire lesson because he wasn't exactly confident, but now he chips in once in a while and I'm turning more and more over to him. I'll have to let him teach more now we hit the 3 week mark together.
Well, no one is really progressing, with the exception of a few. The Jaimes didn't come to church because the father was working (that sabbath day thing doesn't click just yet nor does the application of faith) and the mother was really sick. She answered the phone and I thought it was the father. I was like huh? who? oh...sorry...hope you feel better. A bit awkward at first. Alex Gonzalez came to church with his wife (a member), as did a friend of a member whose name is Johnny Martinez. He's progressing, he's come to church two weeks in a row and we finally got an appointment with him. He asked to get baptized, but I said just a little more preparation and you'll be good. He's way excited! And, the non-member wife of a member has come to church for the last month, she even came without her husband yesterday! She dropped us in January...maybe we need to go teach her now. I'll have to check into that. After the baptism, we finally found an investigator! She used to have a baptismal date, but went to Mexico and lost her testimony. Now she's asking, 'which church is true?' yet again. All the work that the other elders put in, lost. We gotta start from ground zero again...man...why did she go to Mexico for two months? Right before baptism? Well, she's a really good friend with a local member so we'll see what happens. I'm afraid it'll take a while until she gets her testimony back. It's sad to see that...Well, being senior comp means a lot of phone calls and appointments set, but I'm handing that over slowly to Lynn so I don't have too much to do. The sister missionaries had a baptism yesterday, so it was a good day overall.
We did some service this past week, more than usual. On Tuesday we helped the amazing Sister Flick with weeds (so lame but she needs a lot of help in that department) and the next day we helped an elderly member pull weeds. It was weird because we got their in street clothes ready to dig in and the sister missionaries were there in proselyting attire. We were like...uh...sister Carrillo? Hermanas? So they helped us weed too. It got hot too, that's what you get when you weed in the afternoon. It's all good!
We had some really great and spiritual lessons this past week. The Cardenas, just money in the spiritual department. They always testify of how they've changed, how great they feel and that inner peace that they have. And, we found out last week that Alberto's brother wants to start listening to us. We're already teaching Gustavo, Alberto's other younger brother. Sweet! So we taught the third lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, the whole she-bang). The first time, we tried to just go through it to finish it all. But, the Spirit was strong and they kept on saying of how the Gospel has changed them...it was beautiful! Faith, repentance, baptism. They said they really felt great after baptism and that they are really happy where they are. Yadira mentioned how her faith has increased since their children, Adalay and Jeffrey, always say 'let's pray' when they have a problem. They were running out of gas, 'let's pray mommy!'. She said it was great to see their faith, even as little children. That was sweet. The next lesson was probably better. They asked us how they can tell people that they need the gift of the Holy Ghost, and thank goodness for personal study! I studied the Holy Ghost and how to describe it that morning, so I just whipped out some scriptures that illustrates the importance of it. Both were in the book of Acts (a really great book by the way) and they were happy to find evidence in the Bible to convince their Christian friends. These scriptures helped them understand the importance better, how Paul went preaching and found some disciples that were baptized after the manner of John, but needed the gift of the Holy Ghost (which Paul gave them after they were baptized in the name of Christ) which is found in Acts 19 (I think). And, about the magician Simon asking for money for the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 8). It was awesome! I just love them! They know the path will be hard, but they said they're preparing for it. I can only hope that I'll see them sealed in the temple this coming year...I'm so excited!
Our investigator Alex took us out to eat lunch at a local Mexican joint in Saugus (not as good as I expected- but it's Mexican food what can I expect?). It was good food, but not great. But, we had a great time with them. We joked around, and I think he's opening up to us more and more. We're his friends now, and his teachers. As usual, he made fun of me being Asian (actually they say I'm Chinese) and it was pretty funny for him. It's kinda getting old now...but whatever makes people happy, right? Even my comp Lynn says it's getting old after 3 weeks of hearing it.
We had the longest zone conference ever on Friday. 6 hours. Pure role-play. Really long. I learned some things, especially how to get members comfortable in asking neighbors to listen to the missionaries. Now I have an idea of how to get members involved, little by little. I think it'll really help this area, if I put it into practice. And I felt embarrassed when Sister Goodrich called us out to teach in a role-play about how to really describe the Holy Ghost. I was baffled, as was Lynn, because I tried to play it off a scripture and it didn't work. It was a good learning experience, and that's why the next personal study I studied the Holy Ghost. It was really long....gosh I don't like role-plays that much.
I have to admit, little children have the hardest and deepest questions ever. Our recent convert Lesley gave us a headache in our last lesson this past week, with all her questions. She asked us, 'who does God pray to? Does he need to pray?' I was like...uh...Lynn? I gave a neutral answer that didn't satisfy me. I really don't know. I just assume that he prays to his father, to his father...etc. But I didn't want to get into it too deep. So it was like 'well we don't know'. At least we're honest. Wow. She's loving church though, so that's good!
Life is great! The work is progressing!
I'm so ready to leave this area though...either a new Spanish area or just English. It's hard being in an area for over 6 months...I'm hitting that mark next month. Rough...and I'm happy knowing that the Cardenas are baptized. More and more I feel that the Jaimes will need more time...more time than I can really tell. But they will be, it depends when they decide that Sunday is the Sabbath, that the Lord will provide blessings, and if they really want to learn more and progress by staying for all classes on Sundays. It's their decision, I've done almost all that I can. I'm ready to go...elsewhere. I've been talking to other elders and they say that usually 6 months then we move on or one gets a bit lazy. I completely understand that point.
And Steven, I didn't mean it at all. Not supposed to have been a pun 'Davidson is a giant killer'. Lucky...sentence?
I love you all! I'm glad you are all safe!
Love,
Elder Spencer Irvine
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