Week #20 - - 5 Months in the Field

Eyyeee Hazzit,
         

    The work is coming great!  My companion and I have 2 baptisms coming up on March 14, which is my companion's birthday.  A 14 year old named Felipe and a 10 year old girl Monique.  We're still working on the parents, but the kids are committed and everything.  We took Felipe to Mutual Saturday night and he loved it, he was like, "you guys have this every week?!"  He was pumped  - - ha ha!  It was funny, our church here in this area is two stories and has an elevator.  Felipe was like, can we pleeease go up in the elevator?   I said, "Dude there are just classrooms on the second floor, it's nothing special."  He responded, "No, I just wanna go in the elevator!" I said, "why?" and he said "I've never been in one before!"  At first I thought he was joking, then I realized he was serious.  So we took him up and down twice, ha - - ha!  It made his day!   He loves the Young Men's program and all the young men so he's super pumped. 

 

Birthday Pa'ina

     This week we got invited to one of the guys in our ward birthday party dinner.  He wanted us to come, he thought it would be a good for his family and friends to meet the missionaries since he was the only member in his family. So we went, we ate and talked to people.  Then we had to leave so he got like everyone in the living room (like 20 people) so we could share a message.  Usually for these types of messages we share a scripture or a talk  and bear our testimony.   My companion and I had a feeling that we needed to teach the first lesson, A restauração (The Restoration), so we taught it!  The lesson was quick, 15 or 20 minutes, but before we left we had 8 referrals!  None of them lived in our area, so we had to pass them on to other missionaries, but that is ok!  8 of them wanted to know more about the church, it was cool.      

Members Ohana

     My companion and I found a rat in our house, we tried to kill it but it was to fast!  It ran into this hole in the wall in our kitchen, I think there is a colony of them in our ceiling.  If you're quiet at night you can hear a bunch of tiny little sounds in the ceiling.  I'm going to buy a mouse trap today.

 

     Remember the couple that we were helping get married and baptized this month?  They dropped us.  We went by their house Sunday morning to get them for church and they just told us, we don't want anymore - - we're good where we are right now.  My companion and I couldn't belive it.   3 days ago they were on fire, progressing, praying every night, and then just like that.  We were very disappointed, but we're not going to give up on them.   We'll still pass by, but when it comes down to it, people have agency.   As missionaries our job is to invite, not force.

 

This week was cool.  Love you guys lots :)  Elder Akina