2 Months In!!

2 months in! 9ish weeks, why does it not break down evenly?? That's frustrating..

This week was great! I am beginning to see the Lord's hand in everything. He is leading and directing this work. I am so blessed to be His representative. 

We live in a crappy apartment. Like, I'm pretty sure our Zone Leader said it was one of the worst in the mission. Just Elder Guerrero and me, but it's home. haha, but don't sit on the couch. We fight roaches, and have 3 fans we have to turn on at night, No AC, but it's great. The shower head is mid chest level for me, so it's great. Really no complaints though haha. :)

As far as car and miles go, we have enough to get around. We don't have to stress and stress about going over, we have enough and we have a big area. We do go to Santa Monica, to the temple with investigators (Visitors Center), meetings with the President, etc. but for the most part we drive 4 or 5 miles to an area and stay for a couple hours, dinner, then drive to our appointments at night, so its good. 

Brenda and Daniela did not get confirmed... So Elder Guerrero and I have decided to turn them over to the Lord. Give them a little while on their own, and check up with them in a week. We don't want to force or push them to do it, or seem pushy, but we just want them to have the blessings so bad. It's ok though.

We found a family of 4. Parents speak Spanish and the kids learn better in English, so we are the perfect missionaries for that. Actually that is pretty typical around here, because all the kids have to know English for school so.. Yeah! They seemed really interested the first lesson, were disappointed that something came up for the return visit, but we have a lesson tonight with them! Wooo!

There is a recent convert, Adan, who is like a famous Latino singer or something. He gave us his CD and his home studio is pretty sweet, I kind of fan-girl-ed for a little bit, haha. We met with him on Tuesday, and after our lesson with him, his HUGE family came and we got to teach 10 or so people the Restoration! We got one solid baptism date out of it and we need to follow up with the rest of them, really there were so many and that lesson was awesome. 

This week was the week of the "Deep Doctrine Talks". We met a guy on the street, Al, who is 55 and is one who would stand up in church and tell it how it is. We talked for a good long while about the differences in Catholic (Al's take on it) and Mormon doctrine, and really there is a lot in common. It is just a testimony to me that, yes, people wanted to follow Christ after he was crucified, however, no one had the priesthood authority to lead His church.  Hence, the restoration. We also talked with a guy about theology and questions that made my head hurt. <Don't overshoot the mark>. 

This week all of our "high-priority" investigators had commitments or other stuff going on, so it was hard to meet with them...disappointing, but it gave us opportunities to find new people to teach and to simply share the gospel with everyone we came into contact with. Honestly, as long as we as missionaries, and children of God are doing all we can do, it is enough, and Christ will do the rest. We can't do it all ourselves, we need to put it in the Lord's hands. 

Last night, we went and contacted another big family. We taught them the restoration and the dad, uncle, (idk what he was), HE GOT THE WHOLE THING!!! LIKE PERFECTLY. Usually people, understand that someone needs to have authority and such and are timid about learning more, but this guy was all in. Crazy. Left with some solid commitments and high hopes for next visit. 

So with my Book of Mormon reading, I have been asked to look for commitments or things the Lord commands and the promised blessings, or consequences of the commandments. In such, I have found some pretty cool stuff, I would like to share about Nephi and the ship story. The Lord will always take care of us, He will provide, nourish, strengthen, and bless us as we keep His commandments. Construct a ship. "But a ship is huge", "why now?", "can I really?"..NO. Nephi didn't ask any of these things. HE KNEW that if he did as the Lord commanded him, He would be blessed. So Nephi asked first, "where do I go to start?" The Lord will be our light (1N17:13) and will always prepare a way. And as we do as we are told, with faith that we shall receive, we shall know that it is by Him, that all things are possible. We need to strive to keep the commandments, pray oft, study, feast upon the words of Christ, do those things that we KNOW will bring us closer to Christ. That's really all it is. Come closer unto Him. Come unto Me, and I will give thee rest. If we can only do one thing in this life, it should be to become closer to Him. Missionaries can hope for baptisms all they want, but the most important thing is to bring people unto Christ. If a person is Catholic and simply wants to come closer to Christ, and you help them start praying again, you did your job. Come unto Him, that's really all it is. If we can love the Savior enough to put Him before ourselves, and come unto Him, turn out and help others do the same, we will be blessed. He will provide, and we will be changed. He wants us to turn to Him, because He is the only way. He knows you and He loves you. Come unto Him. 

I love the mission! Thank you for everything! I love you guys! :)