Teaching Walter about Jesus

Querido Familia,

It was raining really bad today and we had to walk through it to get our groceries this morning. I took a couple pictures, but I forgot to bring my SD card to the cebaro. It's was really bad during the storm, turning the streets into rivers in no time.

The cebaro is the place where we do our emails here. It's really just a large room with rows of computers that you can use for ten pesos an hour. All the computers have tons of games on them and headsets that you can use, so there are lots of kids that come through to play games here.

We've been working a lot with Mirian and Diego this last week, almost every day, in order to get them married. Mirian does really well with all the reading assignments we give her to do between visits and she writes all the scriptures down that we read during lessons that she really likes.

At the end of last week, we got them all the papers they need in order to get married and set up their appointments to get everything taken care of.

One day while we were teaching them, this women walks into their house (who is the mom of one of their friends who was also present) and starts to throw things off track a bit. We gave their three year old son, Walter, a pass along card with a picture of the Savior on it and she came in and took it from him and then lectured us for five minutes for giving it to him, She said that little kids shouldn't have pictures of Jesus because they don't understand who He is and that little kids will just disrespect him by having it (She is Evangelist). Halfway through her speech, Elder Clark just said, "Well, we better teach Walter who Jesus is then." Then we sat there while she talked and then when she was done, we just continued the lesson like she didn't say anything. A few minutes later she apologized for what she said and then left.

Elder Clark was sick for a day, so I spent half of the day with Elder Garcia and the other half of the day with Elder Sparks and we rotated on who stayed home with Elder Clark. So Elder Garcia accompanied me to go teach Mirian and Diego and Elder Sparks went with me to teach Ivana Guzman.

The next time Elder Clark and I went to teach Diego and Mirian, Diego told us that he really likes Elder Garcia's Mexican accent and that he doesn't like the way Elder Clark and I sound when we talk.

The most recent visit we had with Mirian, she said that she felt like everything was getting rushed and wasn't sure if she was ready. Undoubtedly, the Evangelist lady has been talking to her about our church (The Evangelists preach anti-Mormon). So tonight we're going to teach her the Restoration of the Gospel again to make sure she understands that this is the only true church and that no other church will give her that eternal family that she wants. We're hoping that that Evangelist lady isn't there, but if she is we can easily show her (if she tries to argue or cause contention), using the Bible, that her church, and every other church, isn't true; ideally that won't be necessary.

So when Elder Clark got sick last week, he stood up from our table during our studies and just laid down on the floor and said that he didn't feel good at all. A few minutes later he decided that it was pretty serious pain, so Elder Sparks, the zone leader, took him to the hospital to get him checked out. They think it's something with his kidneys, but he goes in again tomorrow to get his analysis done. He's been doing well though since that day.

Ivana is kind of difficult to work with because of her childish attitude, bur her mom is great. She brings her to church every week and they went to conference together. Ivana also can't read, but that might be in our favor because her mom will always make sure that she does the assignments that we leave her because she reads them to her. Sister Guzman (Ivana's mom) runs a kiosco and usually sends us off with some candy and an alfajor or a drink. She has kind of a sarcastic and joking attitude, so we decided to get her a present to thank her for her kindness. We were going through the store tyring to find something we could give her when we found it. High School Musical place mats for her table featuring Troy. We havn't been back since we gave them to her, so we´re not sure if she is actually using them.

Everything is going well though. Right now we're looking to have about two or three baptisms this month on the twenty-seventh. There's also two more kids who can get baptized, but not until their mom gives them permission (they go to church with their grandma, but her mom isn't a member). So we could have four baptisms this month.

os amo,

Elder Burt

P.S.

We have an oven in our apartment with two burners, but the oven has a problem with the dial that makes it turn off unless you hold the dial in place, so we don't ever use it.

Also, candy corn pumpkins sound really good and they don't exist down here.

Whenever the next time you send something is, make sure to include a copy of my patiarchal blessing.