Hey Mom! I wasn´t transferred, I´m still here in Jojutla! I´m the older companion now and President Gardner decided to make me a trainer. Elder Collins just arrived last Tuesday. He´s from San Diego, California. He´s a good guy, and is working on his Spanish. It´s kind of difficult now because I am teaching pretty much every lesson, every day because he doesn´t know Spanish. But he is learning.
Truthfully, we really don´t have that many investigators. Please pray that we find people who are truly searching for the gospel, and that we are faithful enough to have the Spirit with us. The last week we helped with a humanitarian project. A bunch of students came from Taylor University in Indiana and helped distribute glasses. A lot of people here have bad eyesight and they don´t have the resources to have glasses. The students brought down a BUNCH of old glasses from Indiana. The missionaries helped to translate in between the students and the Mexicans, helping them have their eyes examined and checked. It was pretty awesome to do that. I really liked working with the people in that way. It was easier to give pass-along cards away , because their hearts were opened after seeing us work with them and giving away free glasses. There were a lot of older ladies, but I had fun with them. Some of them waited 4-5 hours to get glasses, so a lot of the time I just went around and talked to them and made them laugh.
I went to Cuernavaca on Monday night to pick up Elder Collins. We stayed the night there in Cuernavaca, picked up our companions, and then went back to our areas.
How are you Mom? How´s life? Dad said you were sick. I´m sorry to hear that! Anestacio is doing just fine. I´m not worried about him. We went to visit him about three days ago, and he told me ¨I´m going to miss a Sunday¨, and I asked him ¨not this Sunday, right?¨ He told me ¨no, a Sunday in June.¨ It´s March, and if he´s worried about missing a Sunday in June I think he´s good for the rest of his life! He blessed the sacrament, and he told me that he was nervous and felt like he didn´t know what to do, but Heavenly Father helped him. He is having better relations with his son. He told me that before, his son didn´t like to see him because he was always drunk. But now he and his son are spending more time together. He has completely changed. And really we as missionaries didn´t have to do anything. He was just ready.
Mi hijito chiquito está bien. He´s the funniest little guy, and has a thoughtful mind. He was the most attentive one in the Sunday school class that I taught on Sunday. His aunt and uncle just barely were sealed in the temple in Mexico City, and asked me if they could have him sealed to them. I told them probably not, we´re gonna wait til his family joins the church.
Thanks for the quote Mom. Thanks for everything, for bringing me into the world even though it HURT! Thanks for accepting me the way I am. You have an accepting and kind heart. I hope you are feeling better.
So hopefully I understand everything in Conference. Elder Collins is gonna be confused out of his mind trying to understand. Pray Mom that we find people and that we have success, the success that the Lord wants us to have. I love you!
Russell
Hey Dad! How are you doing? I´m fine, just here with Elder Collins my new companion. I am still here in Jojutla, doing well. We really don´t have that many investigators. So I´m asking pretty much everyone I know to pray so that we find some that are sincere and want to change. One of our investigators went to church with us, he´s named Adrián. We found out that after church he had asked two different people for 10 pesos, and they each gave him 10 pesos. 20 pesos is much more than he needs to return home in a taxi. We went to his house, and found him completely high on drugs. He had used that money to buy some kind of drug that you inhale. I was pretty mad and discouraged and sad because he deceived us, and members of the ward. He´s 21 years old, has had a wife and child, and lives with his dad who really doesn´t care about him. He doesn´t eat very much, and he has a living washing cars. But the desire to change is his. If he doesn´t have it, we can´t help him. So we moved his baptismal date back, and we´re gonna see how it goes. We are tracting and contacting a lot, trying to find new people who want to change and listen.
I love you Dad and am glad I was sent to the family I was sent to. Thanks for always being the best you ever could have been. You are exemplary to us all.
It makes me miss Arizona when you talk about yard work and spring. Jojutla is pretty warm already. But the rainy seasons are coming so I think it´ll calm down. Thanks Dad, I love you Russell
Elder West
