April 28, 2010

 So Marcela, the lady that has a baptismal date, shes doing really good. We tried to set her boyfriend about two weeks ago and he said that he needed about a year to get baptized. Well he came to church on sunday and had to wait around for an extra hour for his ride to get out of a meeting. But we went over on Monday, and started talking about the Holy Ghost and repentance. He looks at us and Elder Zobrist goes "Isidro, are these blessings that you want?" And he looks and goes "I really liked church. I have never felt that good. I know I'm in the right path right now. You're going to have a new member of your church. And a new miembra. I know I said a year to get baptized. 2 months, 1 month, whatever it takes, I'm geting baptized. I want it!" Yeah, that's a direct quote! Not even kidding! It was SO amazing! I have never seen a conversion like that! I was just so blown away! And then Marcela told us that her fellowshippers had told them they were going to need to get married, and she was kind of nervous about that. First of all, she got married in Mexico in the Catholic church, but her husband left her with their 4 kids. Then secondly, she is nervous about marrying Isidro becasue he used to be a drug addict and alcoholic and used to beat her every day, so she doesnt' exactly trust him, but we told them we'd talk more about it the next time. So yesterday, Elder Gleave and Elder Wiles(his greenie) came down and Elder Zobrist and Elder WIles went to see them. They started talking about the marriage again and Marcela said she had a dream where she was back with her husband in Mexico and she's just really confused. Isidro said "I know she'll marry me eventually, but even if she doesn't, it'll really hurt me, but I'll move out if I have to so we can get baptized. Nothing will stop me from being baptized." How amazing is that? This guy has only been to church once and he is already more converted than me! hahaha I'm so excited for them. They're amazing and just seeing how much the Lord was preparing them to hear this message is just such a huge testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. It's funny how we found them too. The Lord really wanted us to find them. We were knocking in this trailer park, our first day
there, and we find this trailer with a mexican flag. We knock the door and nobody answers, so we leave a card, and as Elder Zobrist is coming down the stairs, he slips and goes flying into the house and almost knocks it down. Elder Zobrist doesn't just slip though. He's in really good shape and has really good balance, but his legs just went flying out from underneath him. After he almost took the trailer down, Marcela opens thedoor and we start  talking to her, and she was SUPER excited to get Finding Faith in Christ. So the Spirit even goes to desperate measures to make sure these people get found. So that's the big news for this week. I translated on Sunday again for Pres. Thomas and I was sweating bullets. He would say the sentence and I
would translate it afterwards, and he was saying sentences that were like 30 seconds long and using huge words and I'm just thinking "Are you kidding me?" I also got to drive a 2010 Subaru Impreza with Tiptronic shifting all day yesterday(the zone leaders have that car) so that was way fun. Didn't  have that much pick up, but it handled REAL nice :) Also, theres this family in the branch, the Carters. They're white and they were in Norfolk 1st but they transferred to the branch to help out because they both served spanish missions. They're amazing and everyone loves them. Well Sis. Carter was about to pop she was so pregnant, and she went into labor on Sunday. Well on Monday morning we received some bad news that the baby died in delivery. So if you could just keep them in your prayers, it would really help. They're wonderful people and they're really sacrificing to come down to the branch and help out. That's a lot of engagements and stuff going on this summer. Crazy how the world goes on when you're on a mission. So I just realized that this next week, I hit 6 months in Virginia Beach. So crazy to think that 1/4 of  my mission has been here. And I'm almost at the half way point! Can you believe it? 1 year is creeping up on me really fast! I've only got 10 more weeks until I hit a y ear! Oh man, thats' insane! But thats how it goes! The weather here has been alright, keeping just at the point where we have to keep our suits on instead of slacks, and the wool is killling me, but I'll manage. I'm going to try to send some stuff back, like my thermal garments, because they'll just take up space until next winter. But I do have a favor to ask. Don't know if it's possible, so if not don't worry about it. But if there's a way to get a new spanish Preach my Gospel and a nice spanish triple combination (the harder cover one) for relatively cheap,  that would be awesome :) If not, don't worry about it, I can last. Other han that, I think I"m good for right now. Hope everything is good on your end. Love ya all. Talk to you in a week and a half.