Our Grand focus this week was trying to find people to baptize. So what do we do? We try to put baptismal dates with everyone and we see what happens. Some accepted the challenge, and some did not, but President del Castillo says it is a way to weed out those who only want to be friends and those who have true interest in our message.

I guess it worked because we were able to put 7 baptismal dates this week and we were able to find key people, that we were not expecting to progress.

José Gauna is a very simple man, whose drug and alcohol use in his juventud, have reduced him into the thought process of a teenager. But he is really sincere, and when we teach him simply, he understands and wants to do what is right. He no longer drinks or smokes, but he has a firm belief that Christ has helped him overcome many problems in his life. He accepted a baptismal date for Christmas Day.

Olga Maldonado, accepted a baptismal commitment, but no fecha. We came to our appointment and told us that she was catholic and there was no way we were going to be able to change that. She was backed up with the wall of catholic Idols that she has inside of her home that we did not see before, because our first lesson was outside. We taught her the importance of the Book of Mormon, and invited her to Church, the spirit was very stong, and I know she felt something special. Then, miraculously sheshowed up to church this Sunday ALONE. She listened to the testimony and we introduced her to everyone, and I could tell it was very special for her.

Julia Muñoz continues to progress, even though she is beginning to doubt as her baptismal date gets closer and closer. She went to the Christmas Devotional last night to hear of the prophet and some apostles, and she promised to pray and see if she needed to get baptized.

The short story is this: in the conversion of a person, there are two factors, the faith of the investigator and the faith of the missionary. I realized that what was lacking was my own faith, and when I sucked it up and just did it, even though I was scared, God was able to bring about big miracles.

Love,
Hermana Tritsch