Reactivating the members

Querido familia,                 17 de Junio 2013

The Luke family that we  are teaching (Luke is their last name) has been progressing, but at the same time it's really interesting to hear what they have to say. Last Monday, we watched the Joseph Smith movie that is about an hour long and we talked with them for a bit about the Restoration. They say that they know that Joseph was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true (Daniel, the dad, even taught his friend that the Book of Mormon is true), but they say that they don't want to feel pressured into baptism. They told us that the last time the Elders came to teach them just felt like they were being pushed into the water. So now, Elder Reynolds and I are trying to figure out how to help them realize that they are already prepared enough to be baptized and they just need to take the step of faith to get over any fear that they're holding on to. It's one thing to tell them that they're ready, but it's another to help them feel like the Spirit tell them that it's time to get baptized. Right now, they're set for a baptismal date of July thirteenth. They really are a great family though; very industrious. Daniel has been building, by himself, two new houses behind his own so that he can rent them out. We offered to help with the project, so maybe one day soon we'll be mixing concrete to raise some walls. It's a good thing I got so much practice in with construction right before leaving by remodeling the kitchen.

Our focus though has been trying to find part-member families and help those who aren't members to get baptized. So in our efforts to find these people, we came across one member named Cesar Zorrilla who is a less active member that is currently living with his mom while he builds his own house. This Tuesday was the first chance that we've ever had to teach his mom, even though we've met her before; it went well though. His mom, I can't remember her first name, but that's alright because we just call everyone either "sister" or "brother" anyway. Her last name is Luke though (although not related to the aforementioned Luke family). Cesar told us that she was pretty closed off to the elders, but when we met her she was pleasant with us, but even then we didn't want to make her seem like we were closing in on her. So, we went to their house and talked with Cesar and told him that we had brought the Restoration movie with us and asked him if his mom would be interested in seeing it. As it turns out, she was and she came in and watched it with us. It was kind of funny during the movie because Cesar would frequently ask questions about what was happening and then his mom would answer them. So we know that she was paying attention. We didn't get to talk to her very well after the movie, but another day when we went by, Cesar said that his mom enjoyed the movie. So now at least she has a visual idea of what happened and that will make it easier for her to understand in the future. She did have a question, as well as Cesar, about the Priesthood and the healing power, so we're expecting to have a good lesson with her when we go back again.

On Thursday, we had a multi-zone conference with President and Sister Heyman; which is basically a mission conference, just with one third of the mission instead of the entire mission. Both of them chose to speak to us about love and charity. The thing that I thought was the most interesting was that President Heyman said that love is the most powerful force in the universe because it is the very force that compels God Himself to act.

I'm all out of time already for this week. Suffice it to say that we brought three less active members to church this week and one of them is a part member family, so we could see a baptize there in the future. Also, we had an investigator in the church this Sunday as well. His name is Lisandro. His brothers and sisters were going to come out this week too, but they left early in the morning to go to their grandma's house to prepare for their father's day activities.

os amo,

Elder Burt