Hello everyone!
Thus begins my third change in the field. This week has been really good. I think I already said that Elder Muñoz was changed to an area in Saltillo. It's a little weird to have a new companion because I'm still just a little baby missionary out here.
My new companion is Elder Gallegos. He has two more changes than I do here on the mission and he was already training the previous two changes. He's really good and he loves to contact and find new investigators. He's from Tabasco, Mexico and he's 22 years old. He was studying English in Arizona for six months before his mission so he speaks some but it's a lot easier to speak Spanish with him. During language study I help him to read my scriptures in English. It's pretty funny to see someone struggle to read the scriptures as much as I do with Spanish. "Ye", "yea", and all those other words are really confusing for him.
Elder Gallegos' desire to contact non stop is really what I needed because there are so many available investigators here that we need to find news and drop olds within days in order to find the chosen people. In Europe and the US the missionaries hold on to every investigator they can get. Here, everyone is willing to hear the word of God but we really need to weed out who actually wants to progress rather than just talk to us. The worst is when we do a first lesson with someone and then invite them to be baptized and they say that they've already been baptized. Then we need to teach the great apostasy and all in about five minutes so we can get to our next lesson in time. Even worse is when they say "It's all the same God" which, in a way it is, but the Bible (THE Bible that they all read) says that Christ was baptized by immersion and that that's how we should do it (Romans 6:3-5). Yeah, it's the same God but God still has rules and steps that we need to follow the way he told us. I'm always so relieved when we get a contact that doesn't say "it's all the same God" because it shows that they are willing to listen.
Well, enough of that nonsense. This week has been really fun. Partially because we're working hard and partially because I don't need to do 12 weeks anymore. We have had lots and lots of lessons and we even managed to get 4 people to come to church!
One was Gustavo, as usual. He is progressing really well and my worries about him flew out the window when we talked with him about the gift of the Holy Ghost. He really understands everything we've been teaching and he really wants to learn a lot more.
Another was Jesús. He is reading the Book of Mormon and he's already started sharing it with his friends and family after about a week with us. His mom was also interested in listening to us but she left to Saltillo to be with some family for about a month. When she returns we'll be able to teach her.
Noe also came to church and he knows Jesús. We didn't know this before but it was very convenient to have them at church together. I was a little bit doubtful about Noe when we started but he is progressing really well and his sister and mother are listening to us too.
Last of all Ernesto...Our eternal investigator. We would drop him (we only visit him about once a week) but his wife and his daughters are members. Awesome faithful members (that like to give us snacks). We're going to keep moving forward with him and see how it goes. It's kind of frustrating because he always goes to church (early too!) and he understands it all. We're going to keep visiting and see is anything changes.
Here are the birds!
Yellow-rumped Warbler -Chipe Rabadilla Amarilla
Ladder-backed Woodpecker -Carpintero Listado
Cooper's Hawk -Gavilán de Cooper
Tamaulipas Crow -Cuervo Tamaulipeco
Verdin -Baloncillo
That's about it for this week. ¡Les amo y extraño!
Gracias por todas sus oraciones y amor.
-Elder Steiner
PS We played basketball at the church this morning. I'm still not very good at basketball but it was still fun!
