Hey Mom and Dad!!!
That´s so cool Sterling and Matt are gonna go to BYU! Sterling needs to try out for the Men´s Choir, and Matt. Wow I am excited for them to go to college! And Sterling´s gonna be a teacher in the MTC?????? That´s awesome! I will definitely pray for him. The family that we found definitely have turned out to be not so great. They haven´t been there when they told us to go to their house, and we found Cristino drunk again. We´ve spent a lot of time with them, but they eventually decided that they don´t want baptism. We found a couple that definitely wants baptism. More than anything they want understanding and they want to ¨mejorar¨, or improve. Their names are Elia and Benito. We found Benito when we were contacting. He was sitting in his house, shirtless watching TV. He let us in and we taught him about prophets, Jesus, and the restoration. He listened and took the Book of Mormon. He was very nice, and told us he would go with us to church and accepted a visit for the next day. We went the next day with a couple of members in the branch. He wasn´t there, but his wife was. We explained that we are representatives of the Lord, and we help people to be more happy through the message that we bring. She let us in and listened. I´m always kind of worried with bringing members sometimes, because sometimes they´ll go off on some anti-catholic preaching spew and it´ll drive away any peaceful feelings that were there. But I don´t know, both of the members bore humble testimonies and invited her into the gospel. They both acted very Christ-like, which was unusual. Just kidding, they´re great, they just sometimes don´t understand. Elia, the wife of Benito, accepted to go to church with us too. So, we had some members pass by for them on Sunday. They went and thoroughly enjoyed the fast and testimony meeting.
The next day, a Monday night, we went to extend a baptismal date to them. I was kind of scared because it´s so hard sometimes to get people to commit to baptism. I taught as best I could, and eventually they accepted their baptismal date for the 26th of April, Dad´s birthday. That was a miracle in itself. But even more, Benito has a problem with drinking. We taught the Word of Wisdom and he accepted it all. Then we found out they weren´t married, and we taught the law of chastity, and they accepted the commitment to get married. They accepted all of that in less than an hour. So this week, Elder Collins and I are going to get them married. It´s quite a process to get somebody married here. But they´re so cool, and they´ll get married and be happier.
What´s even more awesome is that Benito hardly ever lets missionaries into his house. He doesn´t really know why he let us in that day. Also, he wasn´t really planning on going to church on Sunday. He told Elia, his ¨mujer¨, or woman, that he wasn´t going to go, that she should just go without him. But he felt something pushing him to go. He went and said he felt free and good after church. They´ve both told us that they used to fight quite a bit, but since we´ve been coming it´s been calm. They´ve been together almost 35 years and have six children. They´ve just never been married. Weird how they do things here. So they´re going to get baptized this week.
We´re also teaching una Señorita named Anna. She´s 22 and lives with her family that are also recent converts. She is quiet and has had a crazy life. But she´s expressed a willingness to change and wants to be happier. She left her ¨spouse¨ that she was living with. So we´re teaching her. Pray for her that she opens her heart to us and to God.
Anestacio is good. He is the coolest investigator and person. He is a truly changed man. I love him so much. Little bald guy that we found drunk is my favorite person in the branch. He is the most faithful out of all of them I´d say. He doesn´t say much, but he learns quietly and humbly does his duty. He loves God. I´m doing good and so is Elder Collins. His Spanish is fine. We all eventually learn. Even kids that have a hard time learning can speak and communicate just fine.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON SUNDAY DAD!!! You´re gonna be about 63 years old, right?? I´m just kidding. The only present I´m gonna give is three baptisms on your birthday.
Also give Caralynn the biggest hug you´ve ever given her in your life from me. I miss that little girl. She´s gonna be six years old. I seriously can´t believe that. Tell her I love her and want her to be happy!!!
I love you both and am glad to have you as my parents. Have a wonderful week!
Russell
Elder West
