July 22, 2008 -- Pictures, Marriage

I have attached two more pictures. The first is a picture of my district from the MTC, including my teachers. [We also posted a copy of this with the June 10, 2008 entry.] The second is a picture of my first baptism, that of Jairo Sanchez. [We also posted a copy of this with the July 1, 2008 entry.]

Things are going very well for me. I have discovered that the harder I work, the happier I am. Yesterday I was alone in my area with another fairly new missionary (Elder Robledo--he is from Chile). And we worked very hard, so today I am very happy.

I had an interesting experience last week—there is a part-member (less active) family that we have been working with, including a 15 year old girl and a 14 year old boy. A few weeks or so ago I felt like I should get them a copy of For the Strength of Youth, so we got one from the office, but didn't have an opportunity to give it to them for a while. Last Thursday, we stopped by and started talking to them. They told us about many things that are happening in their life. We talked about school, dating, family, drinking, and music. As we talked, I had two feelings: one of gratitude for being raised by goodly parents, and one of gratitude for living prophets who have revealed guidance for youth today. They are wonderful people, but because of the way they have been raised, they have some problems in their lives. I also felt re-prompted to give them a copy of For the Strength of Youth. I took it out of my backpack, and started to explain to them what it was. As I read through the table of contents with them, I realized how many of the things we had just been discussing were talked about in that booklet. I could tell that they were interested in even more than the things we had talked about as well. After explaining it, we read the section on friends, and then gave them a copy and challenged them to read it and live it. It was a great experience.

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I heard something really cool this week—the church has just finished translating it's own version of the Bible in Spanish (right now there is no official church version.) The project was headed by Elder Scott. Besides the Joseph Smith version, which we don't have in fullness, this is the first time that a Bible has been translated and approved by the church, in any language. I can't wait until it comes out, although I'm sure it will be at least another year.

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I am very excited because this week I should have my first marriage in the mission. There is a family who the missionaries have been working with for about 8 months. They have changed a lot, even in the month that I have been here, and are now very ready for baptism. The only problem is the parents aren't married. We challenged them last week to save 50$ from their paycheck for the marriage license, and they did, so this week we should have a wedding and next week a baptism! I'm so excited. It is wonderful to see how much the gospel can change people's lives, and I can't wait to see them make those important steps.