This week went by super rápido. On Tuesday for the district meeting, I gave my lesson about being direct but at the same time loving and caring. So my theme of the lesson was "seamos amorosados" which means "let's be loving and at the same time bold". (I mixed the two Spanish words amoroso (loving) and osado (bold) to make the work amorosado). President Smith has always stressed that we do the baptismal invitation the first time we meet someone which sometimes can seem a little rushed, but he really wants us to be direct about it.
On Wednesday we were planning on doing a family home evening and the other elders were in charge of organizing it all and inviting all the members and stuff. So we invited a couple of investigators and less active members but no one could come except on less active member that said she would come. So we got the the church about 30 minutes before and we ask the other elders what they had planned and they say nothing. Well anyways, we go and buy some donuts and stuff for the refreshment at the end and then start planning for what we were gonna do. Well it turns out it wasn't even necessary for us to plan because none of the members showed up, because the other elders had invited like only three families. So no members show up, except this less active 65 year old Maria that Elder Hernandez and I had invited. So then it was gonna be kind of awkward to have a family home evening with four elders and this 65 year old grandma. But luckily for us, there happened to be a family history class that the other ward who shared the chapel was putting on at that same time so we played it off like that was the class we meant to invite the less active to come to. And it turns out in the end she really liked the class and even more she invited us to come teach her 12 year old grandson who isn't a member. So the family home evening wasn't a total loss. (And in the end of it, all we ended up eating all the donuts just us four.)
Thursday we had interviews with President Smith and as usual it took serval hours longer than expected. During my interview President Smith looks at me and says "Elder I fell like I have cheated you because all of your interviews have been really short because you don't have any problems. So uhh...what do you want to talk about?" The question caught me off guard so I just asked for advice with some of the investigators we were teaching.
On Friday we had an interesting lesson with a less active named Hector. I don't know if I hate or love this guy. Every time he invites us over we end up arguing about the church and he criticizes a lot. But on the flip side he's super nice and on Friday when we went he made us a super nice dinner of fried fish with all his kids and wife (who are not members). I just feel bad for elder Hernandez when we go teach him because Hector roasts the crap out of him because Hernandez doesn't defend himself because he's super timid but oh well.
On Saturday we ate lunch with the other elders and the elders quorum president and his wife. The elders quorum president literally talked for 40 minutes straight without stopping to breathe. So we were in his house for 2 1/2 hours. Later Saturday afternoon Elder Hernandez really had to use the bathroom so we go to Maria's house (the less active who showed up to the family home evening) and knock on the door to hope to be able to use the bathroom and Maria's husband opens the door (he's not a member) and Elder Hernandez straight up blurts out "can I use your bathroom" and the guy says "no freaking way man", so that made me laugh.
We had an interesting sacrament meeting to say the least. It all started with the opening prayer where the lady gets up and starts talking as if she were giving a talk in an evangelical church. She was like "hallelujah, praise the Lord" and then sat down so I was entertained. Then for the musical number there was this super freaking opera style dude and it was a little irreverent but I repeat once again, I was well entertained.
As for our investigators, I've been realizing that we have been teaching bunch of "ponchos" which is mission slang for people who listen and received us but don't keep up with their commitments that they make. So I have made up my mind that in order to have success we are going to need to bug the crap out of the members so that they accompany us to visits and introduce us to their friends so we can teach them . We did find a really good guy named Alejandro knocking doors. Now Alejandro is a huge freaking dude who teaches martial arts and is really muscular. Turns out that Alejandro and his family lived in Florida for 12 years and speak English really well so we have been teaching Alejandro in English and he has been receptive but did not feel comfortable coming to a church, but we will help him come next week.
We are teaching the family of Hector, that less active who is a little crazy. But Hector struggles a lot to understand why God let's bad stuff happen in the world. Felix and Alva are the Venezuelan couple who are super nice but never have time to meet because they work so much and I can't just ask them to stop working because that's like asking them to not eat.
We met a really good woman named Carla who was a reference from a member who I think was just sick of us bugging her so she says "elders, go visit my neighbor. Her name is Carla. Bye." Turns out that Carla is pretty interested and accepted a baptismal invitation in the five minutes that we knew her. Anyways this week will be good and we are just hoping to see a miracle!
Tanner
On Wednesday we were planning on doing a family home evening and the other elders were in charge of organizing it all and inviting all the members and stuff. So we invited a couple of investigators and less active members but no one could come except on less active member that said she would come. So we got the the church about 30 minutes before and we ask the other elders what they had planned and they say nothing. Well anyways, we go and buy some donuts and stuff for the refreshment at the end and then start planning for what we were gonna do. Well it turns out it wasn't even necessary for us to plan because none of the members showed up, because the other elders had invited like only three families. So no members show up, except this less active 65 year old Maria that Elder Hernandez and I had invited. So then it was gonna be kind of awkward to have a family home evening with four elders and this 65 year old grandma. But luckily for us, there happened to be a family history class that the other ward who shared the chapel was putting on at that same time so we played it off like that was the class we meant to invite the less active to come to. And it turns out in the end she really liked the class and even more she invited us to come teach her 12 year old grandson who isn't a member. So the family home evening wasn't a total loss. (And in the end of it, all we ended up eating all the donuts just us four.)
Thursday we had interviews with President Smith and as usual it took serval hours longer than expected. During my interview President Smith looks at me and says "Elder I fell like I have cheated you because all of your interviews have been really short because you don't have any problems. So uhh...what do you want to talk about?" The question caught me off guard so I just asked for advice with some of the investigators we were teaching.
On Friday we had an interesting lesson with a less active named Hector. I don't know if I hate or love this guy. Every time he invites us over we end up arguing about the church and he criticizes a lot. But on the flip side he's super nice and on Friday when we went he made us a super nice dinner of fried fish with all his kids and wife (who are not members). I just feel bad for elder Hernandez when we go teach him because Hector roasts the crap out of him because Hernandez doesn't defend himself because he's super timid but oh well.
On Saturday we ate lunch with the other elders and the elders quorum president and his wife. The elders quorum president literally talked for 40 minutes straight without stopping to breathe. So we were in his house for 2 1/2 hours. Later Saturday afternoon Elder Hernandez really had to use the bathroom so we go to Maria's house (the less active who showed up to the family home evening) and knock on the door to hope to be able to use the bathroom and Maria's husband opens the door (he's not a member) and Elder Hernandez straight up blurts out "can I use your bathroom" and the guy says "no freaking way man", so that made me laugh.
We had an interesting sacrament meeting to say the least. It all started with the opening prayer where the lady gets up and starts talking as if she were giving a talk in an evangelical church. She was like "hallelujah, praise the Lord" and then sat down so I was entertained. Then for the musical number there was this super freaking opera style dude and it was a little irreverent but I repeat once again, I was well entertained.
As for our investigators, I've been realizing that we have been teaching bunch of "ponchos" which is mission slang for people who listen and received us but don't keep up with their commitments that they make. So I have made up my mind that in order to have success we are going to need to bug the crap out of the members so that they accompany us to visits and introduce us to their friends so we can teach them . We did find a really good guy named Alejandro knocking doors. Now Alejandro is a huge freaking dude who teaches martial arts and is really muscular. Turns out that Alejandro and his family lived in Florida for 12 years and speak English really well so we have been teaching Alejandro in English and he has been receptive but did not feel comfortable coming to a church, but we will help him come next week.
We are teaching the family of Hector, that less active who is a little crazy. But Hector struggles a lot to understand why God let's bad stuff happen in the world. Felix and Alva are the Venezuelan couple who are super nice but never have time to meet because they work so much and I can't just ask them to stop working because that's like asking them to not eat.
We met a really good woman named Carla who was a reference from a member who I think was just sick of us bugging her so she says "elders, go visit my neighbor. Her name is Carla. Bye." Turns out that Carla is pretty interested and accepted a baptismal invitation in the five minutes that we knew her. Anyways this week will be good and we are just hoping to see a miracle!
Tanner
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