Hey All!!!

I found myself missing home a ton this week... I don´t know why... maybe the fact that I only have five measly months left has something to do with it.

This past week, we achieved almost all of our goals... the really important ones at least... Five investigators in the chapel, six investigators con a future baptismal date, and seven lessons with members. No baptisms yet, but its a process.

Mabel went and enjoyed the service project and we went to the church to visit her and to take advantage of the time and we taught her the first part of the plan of salvation... we found out later that she stayed to help almost the whole day, and really loved visiting and chatting with the other hermanas in our ward and stake. She said that she very much enjoyed it, and to show it, brought herself, her husband Armin, and her three children to church... que lastima we can´t put a baptismal date... the whole marriage and document thing makes things super difficult... Its a really big problem here. About 2/3 of the people here are not married to the person they live with, but its something we as missionaries very much dread.

The father of Jorge, my convert, also named Jorge came to church yesterday. He has a history with the missionaries longer than the time of a missionary, but always had problems with drinking, but after a lunch appointment in their house, we felt that we needed to talk with him, and we talked to him about the blessings that come from obeying the commandments and put a baptismal date for the 21st of August. He confessed that he hadn´t drunken anything in 3 months, and hesitantly accepted the fecha... He felt it was a little soon, but we put it as a goal, and if he is not ready, we could change it. But he came to church yesterday with a different mirada, a look of peace and a little happiness, so we hope that he will feel ready to enter the waters of baptism. When he gets baptized, they can work together for a temple meta, so we are really exited for it.

We continue to work with the ward, and as we gain the trust of the members we get more and more assignments to look for menos activos. We are teaching a TON of menos activos, and with the Sociedad de Soccoro, which recently renewed and rennovated the visiting teaching list, we saw many less actives in church too. One of the families we are working with, Familia Acuña, is a really interesting case, the mother, Nora, got baptized forever ago, and none of her children got baptized, we started working with her and saw that she had alot of shame in her eyes, so we started by looking her in the eyes and told her that regardless of what she did, she was of worth, and then we told her that we were going to work with her and her kids so they can get baptized, and she can enjoy the blessings of the gospel again. We sang "I am a child of God" and taught part of the first lesson, and at the end, she smiled, the first real smile I have seen from her, and we have been working with her since Hermana Loria.

Sometimes, I think that people need people to look them right in the eyes, and instead of telling them that they need to repent all the time, tell them that they are worth saving, and they develop the need to repent on their own.

Anyway, Food for thought.

Love,
Hermana Tritsch