August 30, 2010
This week was really crazy. On Monday we had a Family Home Evening with Eladio and Arline who are planning on getting married. On Tuesday the Hermanas and us did service for an elderly widow woman member named Hna.(hermana/sister) Flor. It took us from 9AM to 3PM to clean her whole garden/yard and cook and eat lunch. After that we taught our dueñas son Bryan again. (renter’s son) Hna. Lijia (his mom) has been in the hospital getting tests done for the past 3 weeks, so Bryan and his girlfriend Shirley have been cleaning and cooking for us. Although my clothes always end up in my comps closet, and almost all my socks have disappeared, *Ü* Bryan and Shirley do a great job and have become really good friends of ours. We started teaching Bryan already, and he is reading Liahonas and the Book of Mormon. We hope to teach Shirley this week as well.
On Wednesday I went to Turrialba for divisions. The purpose of divisions was to find out who could be baptized in Turrialba this week. We visited Vivianna who has been ready to be baptized for over a month now. We talked about her fears, read a few scriptures, and challenged her to be baptized on Sunday morning. I could tell she wanted to say yes but she told us, she would pray about it and tell us her decision on Friday. With her there was hope that Turrialba would meet their goal for the month.
After Vivianna we went to a faraway place in Turrialba called La Suiza, and taught a great family Juan and Brazilia.
Then we went to Patricia’s house and before we knocked we noticed that Danilo (her companion who wouldn’t let her go to church) was there. We started to walk away because we didn’t want any trouble, but then I felt that we should go in and talk to Danilo, so we went back to the house and that’s what we did. At first Danilo seemed mad at us and gave us dirty looks, but after talking with him for awhile and explaining certain things he started to change his attitude. He started to ask questions about the church, and he became pretty interested, he told us he wanted to change. We taught him about the steps he needed to take to follow Jesus Christ and change his life. He asked us what he needed to do to be baptized and we told him. We invited him to pray, and he told us he didn’t know how, so we taught him. Danilo then gave a very simple but sincere prayer to our Heavenly Father, and when he ended I noticed that he had tears in his eyes. This Sunday he went to church with Patricia, Diana (18), Cassidy (15), and Journey (12), and he really liked it. Although him and Patricia will take awhile longer to get baptized because they have to get married, the three kids want to be and should be baptized in a couple weeks.
After Patricia and Danilo and Fam, we went to Carolina. We put a baptismal fecha with her for September 11th, and she wants her son to be baptized as well.
On Thursday morning we ended divisions with Turrialba by going to District meeting in Cartago. We talked about and practiced how to teach People, Not Lessons. Afterward we made and ate brownies, because it was my companions Birthday. We gave him a card and some small presents and I hit him on the head with a balloon. After that we went to Jessica and Isas house down the street, where we ate some cake, and they smashed eggs on Elder Montoyas head. It sounded like it hurt. After going home to change, we went with the Hnas. to visit Jason and his mother Maria.
Earlier in the week (on Tuesday), Jason's mom had told the Hermanas that he wasn’t going to be baptized anymore, and that the hnas. Couldn’t teach him because he misbehaved again. He always gets home late without telling his mom where he is and that really scares her so she was pretty frustrated with him. On Wednesday we called the bishop and he talked with Jason and his mom and softened her up a bit, but his baptism still wasn’t a sure thing so on Thursday we went to visit them. We talked with Jason and his mom about many things and Jason promised ask his mom permission and tell her where he is. We invited him to be baptized on Sunday, and he and his mom agreed. Pheeeeew! Although Jason likes to give me scares and stress me out (for example getting his baptism postponed a day before it was set to happen, getting his baptism canceled the week after that, and then showing up late the morning of his baptism and basically getting baptized a just minutes before church) he is a really great kid, and the ward needs young men (when I got here there were no YM active, now there are like 3 or 4), especially ones like him. In the end he was baptized and I'm super happy about it. Not only am I happy for Jason, but for the Hermanas as well, because they have been working really hard and haven’t seen any success since I've been here (Hermana Flores 1st baptism). I know what that feels like so I am super happy that Jason was baptized this week.*Ü*
The rest of Thursday, we accompanied the Hermanas to a few of their appointments, one being an ex-investigator of theirs they started teaching again, Maria, who doesn’t feel worthy to pray, so we talked with her and helped her out. That night we went to Hna. Marielos (teaches Principios del Evangelio / Principles of the gospel) and Carlos Fernandez (Lider de Sumos)’z house and ate dinner there for my comps B-day. Hna. Marielos is one of those people who is always smiling and makes you want to smile too. She’s like sunshine. That’s probably why she is a kindergarten teacher.*Ü*
Ill finish the rest of the week, next week.
Elder Tobler
