Once again, i feel like it was yesterday that i was writing last week's email. but that's the way it goes i've heard. This week was good and bad at the same time. Good because I feel happy and more at home here. Bad because our investigators are going through really tough stuff right now. Tuesday night we were teaching Rosio and her daughter Karen--she had her in a previous marriage. In the middle of the lesson, a phone rang and she said, "Give me a second, this phone almost never rings." She answered it, heard a bit and then told Karen to go into her room. She continued to listen to the news she was receiving, and started crying. The call ended and in tears she said to us, "How am i going to tell my daughter that her father was just murdered?" It was such a helpless situation--her father had been killed about thirty minutes earlier. Karen came back, and we continued to teach her while her mom dealt with stuff. It was so heartbreaking because she is super smiley and happy and we knew that terrible news and she didn't. Because of all this, they are going to be out of town alot and we won't be able to teach them. They had been progressing so great, only lacking going to church. But their faith is so strong, its not a matter of if they'll be baptized, its when. Another is Maria. The government took away her house for no reason and with no warning and it has been a real stress for her. But yesterday we found out that she has gotten papers and is more sure that she'll be able to get it back. She and her daughter have a baptismal date set for the 26th. Another is Carlos. His wife is a member who is under a ton of stress because her kids and her siblings are going through tough stuff and takes it out on him. He wants to see a change before he gets baptized but hasn't realized yet that his lack of support for her kids (for a previous marriage which was terrible--sealed in the temple, her husband commited adultery with another woman sealed to her husband.) is the reason. He already has a testimony but lacks the realization of his own faults in the extremely disfunctional family. They are really struggling and we are struggling to find out what we need to do and say to help them come unto Christ. We did find a new investigator that accepted a baptismal date i nthe first lesson. Her name is Angelica. She lives with a legit family who recently got baptized. She also just got married to the brother of the member. She just got married and she's 16 years old. That's not as weird as the family she lives with. They got married when they were boht 15! And they had their first kid when they wer 16. Its weird but that Sinaloa, Mexico for ya. She is awesome though--already has gone to church and felt a change in her life in just this past week. We are struggling a bit in this area to find new people, but we've got a bunch of hope and faith and resolve that this week is going to be tons better.
We had an awesome experience this week. On Thursday, we planned to go and contact a bunch of references that we had received. So we went but some weren't home so we were left with some unplanned time. As a Plan B we planned to go with an inactvie member but decided to go with another member who we had planned to visit later in the day. Right when we arrived, the daughter ran out "Elders, my aunt just fainted, help!" So we ran inside, and we saw her aunt unconscious on the ground, with the sister of the woman trying and failing to wake her up and/or carry her to the car. So we carried her to the car and went with her to the hosptial. It turns out she had taken some pills that reacted badly and passed out. The member told us on the way to the hospital "If you guys hadn't have been there i don't know what i would have done." Her husband wasn't home, nobody and she had no way of carrying her to the car by herself. We saw clearly that the Lord SENT us there--where we were needed. That was a cool experience.
With all the troubles with our investigators, I have been reading and studying alot about how to overcome trials. I was reading in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians and found this awesome scripture--1:3-6: dice, "3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of amercies, and the God of all bcomfort;4 Who comforteth us in all our atribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the bcomfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
5 For as the asufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is aeffectual in the benduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation." This also reminds me of Alma 7:12 which says that Christ suffered our infirmidades so that he would know how to comfort us. In our trials, truly the only person who knows exactly what we are going through is Christ and he should be the first person that we should turn to in our struggles.For that reason he suffered for us--now only for our sins but for our struggles, our pains, our weaknesses. He felt the pain that Stephen feels for dropping a bowling ball on his finger. He felt the pain that Karen feels, whose father was jsut murdered. He has felt every pain we've ever had and possibly can have and for that reason we need to turn to him.
Now to the worldly stuff haha. Awesome Dodger news with the gold gloves and the selling and the probable Cy Young. Good good stuff. Keep me updated. Surprising stuff with Paterno. He's what, like 100 now? How's college football going other than that? NFL? I don't really care--just a little curious. Back to the nonworldly stuff. We get the Ensign every month, but we haven't gotten the conference one yet and i don't know why. I was really looking forward to it cause i really only heard one session but we haven't gotten it and i don't know if we will. If you could send one just in case that would be very kind of you--in english please :) I had actually read that talk that Mom left and that's such an awesome story.
Its great to hear from ya'll and hear from ya'll and hear how you're doing. I'm fine out here. A little sad for our investigators but happy that i'm hear to serve them and that i have the Spirit and the Lord's help to do it. Never lose faith in spite of trials because there's ALWAYS Christ to help you through them. As I have been teaching them this, I have felt like never before that it is undeniably true.
Que tengan buena semana!
-Elder Crisp