11 June 2011

Hey mom, family and friends how are all of you?
This week was the best week yet of my mission because we not only had great success but also had the funniest things happen on Sunday. Saturday was great, we had 2 more baptisms; Christian and Norma Enrique. No they are not related to Enrique Eglesia, I already asked them and they said no. Anyway, great 2 investigators now members but wow they are truly studs.
Christian is 15 and was attending seminary 2 weeks before his baptism and has been an investigator for 3 weeks before his baptism. Norma went to Relief Society long before she was baptized. These 2 were just so amazing to be able to baptize and convert into the only true church on the planet. Christian was walking one day and was like-hey you lived in Alamo, California do you like e-40? So I, of course, was like-duhh, he is awesome-why? He was saying how he wants to see his house so bad so I talked to him about the rap world like 50 cent and Snoop Dogg and just everyone. It was funny because my companion right now hates rap and loves rock so he just had a puzzled face while we talked about rap for like ever. Man this baptism was just the best, I mean the feeling of the spirit and the fact that I can understand what they say makes it even more powerful. They are both just the best members now. So many people showed up to the baptism.
I love this work, it is just so rewarding. We have a brand new mission president and sees Elder Darby and Elder Bjorklund baptized 3 people in 2 weeks, not bad!!!!! My companion has 15 days left on his mission so we are just working up the wall-which makes it so fun.
This last week we reached our goals; had 6 in church and had 2 baptisms, like WOW, talk about being blessed. When you are obedient things just go so much better and trust me because I had the best week ever.
Saturday went so well-we found 3 new investigators by knocking doors and we had to teach all 3 the Word of Wisdom because apparently they want to change. So Saturday morning was the Word of Wisdom, then the 2 baptisms later in the day-so it was a very intersting day. Sunday morning we realize my comp. left his camera at the church so we had to walk 40 minutes in the morning to beat everyone to the church so we got there at 8am. WE FOUND HIS CAMERA!!!!
After we waited around till the classes started because we have priesthood, followed by gospel priciples and then the sacrament. But for the first class we are at the door just greeting people when one family we almost dropped shows up, I mean the whole family of 6 but 2 are members. They came at 9am which is a record for anyone who lives here. They came-then our 3 recent converts came early as well and 2 more investigators on time for the classes. Usually if people come they come at 11 for the sacrament but this Sunday-they came on time!!
So the classes go well because they are about marriage so me and my comp. were just making jokes to each other, it was fun as can be. Then our second class we joined the larger 'old people' class and watched Faith in Christ which is so weird in spanish because the voice of Jesus is a lot different. The class went very well and ended leaving it time for the confirmation of 2 more investigators and the sacrament. The 6 investigators that showed up stayed for the sacrament and 2 minutes before we started the sacrament meeting, my comp and I get called to give 12 minute talks!!! Me being ok with the language but not a pro, I was so nervous. I quickly remembered that they were leaving for the temple the next day so I thought I'd talk about temples but my comp. gave his talk all about temples so I quickly pulled out the Foundation of Christ. I pulled out 2 scriptures and just talked and talked for 13 minutes in pure spanish. I was so blessed.
The confirmations for Norma and Christian just went so well. After church we start working and get to an area we want to knock at and see Jehovah Witnesses at all the doors, so we see if they visited one member in that area. We turn the corner and see 2 of the witnesses in front of the members house so I wave and say 'hey brother how are you"? The witnesses immediately look back with faces like uh oh. The member gives me a giant smile and a thumbs up because he is a good member and was a missionary at one point so you could tell he was getting a kick out of it. So yes, on the sabbath we punked the Jehovah Witnesses. Later we visited that member and he said their faces were priceless and when they asked if he was Mormon, he told them he'd served a mission and they just left.
Classic story but the next hour we are down on numbers we needed 2 new investigators and a member present but we realize all the members are busy getting ready to go to Bolivia for the temple. So we get to an appointment but find out our investigator was sick and didn't show so we asked this sister if she was home alone and said nope. So we entered and her husband wanted to listen to us but we needed a member present because it doesn't count if the member lives in the same house. At this point it is almost 9pm and we need to be in the pension by 9:30pm so we ran to a members house, we politely asked him if he could come to this cita with us and he said yes. (this member has 7 in his family going to the temple and was packing for them but still came with us) we had the cita with this member and so 1 new investigator down and a member present down but we needed one more investigator. The member says can we pass bye my neighbor, I need my haircut and he says the lady is a member and you guys can teach her son. My comp. and I look at each other with 12 minutes before curfew and just smile. We ended up teaching the son and completed our numbers in the last minutes of the week.
I said that this was the best week because of the faith that I have grown. Last night my comp. said it isn't possible to complete this week so lets just knock and I said "comp. it is the 4th quarter with 10 minutes on the clock we have one cita and we can find a new after that." (at this point we were walking back from the church that normally is about 40 minutes) When I said this-he looked at me with a smile and said "ok hail mary" so we started walking FASTER AND FASTER!!!! We were exhausted from the week but while walking we saw frogs and a ton of them. Mom-Frogs!!! We watched one live frogger in the street, he dodged 3 cars and a scooter, so tight. So we had a good laugh and completed the night with faith AND frogs!
I learned that we need to always trust in the Lord and have faith because with this faith he will always provide a way for us to succeed. We were blessed a ton this week with teaching people with addictions and baptizing. This work is the best work in the world and with my companion almost going home-it makes me realize going home is not gonna be fun but sad because I love what I am doing and always will. I love you all and you are always in my prayers.
Love ELDER DARBY