March 24, 2007

Dear family,
Things are going pretty good. There's a family that we met on the street on Tuesday, and then we said thatwe'd come on Wednesday (yesterday) to teach them, but we were in Las Vegas fixing our truck. The truck has actually been working for the last 4 days or so, but on Saturday, when we tried to start the car, nothing would happen. We knew it wasn't the battery because that got fixed on Friday when we took it to Big O's Tires. But then when we wait 5 or 10 minutes, the problem would be completely fixed and it would start working again. So we took the truck to Henderson yesterday and it'll probably be there for the next few days or so. So for right now, we have a minivan.

While we were in Las Vegas, our zone leaders went to teach the family and they are way cool. They taught the first discussion and the family said that they really liked it and that they want to be baptized. Max is still doing good. He still hasn't said anything about what he wants to do for his baptism yet, but he did come to church with his kids on Sunday. We taught Jose on Tuesday, but I don't think his kids were there because they were with the mom for that week (I think they're divorced). The 3 kids are aged 8, 12, and 13 and they said that they really liked church 2 Sundays ago.

I gave my first sacrament meeting talk on Sunday, and it was in Spanish. I talked about missionary work because I guess that's what the topic was for last week, and then a high councilman gave his talk in English, so Elder Alatorre translated with headphones for those that needed it. So now I guess if I ever need to give a talk on missionary work, I have one ready.

We had interviews with President Christensen last week and I thought it was cool because when he spake to the zone, he said that the season spring has a lot of spiritual significance. He mentioned that after the wintry season, the earth blooming and the flowers blossoming are a represntation of both the birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ because they both give hope and happinness to the world. The birth of Christ meaning that he would save us with his Atonement and the resurrection meaning that we can all live after this life and that it's not all for nothing.

There was a member that we ate dinner with this week that joined the church 6 years ago after investigating for 16 years. He was doing everything he was supposed to: going to church, reading, doing good things, doing service, but he just wasn't baptized. Then a missionary asked him "Do you love your family?", he said yes, and the missionary asked "Would you do anything for them?", he said yes, and then the missionary said that it's good that he's on the "straight and narrow path", but now he has to go up. And that's what the temples are for, and they can help families be sealed together forever, and the only way you can get to the temple is to be baptized, and so he was baptized. I thought that was really cool.

That's all I can think of for this week. Things are looking pretty good. We're really excited for the one family that we saw yesterday and also for Jose Flores; they're looking pretty good for baptism. I'll tell you if I need anything.

I love you!

Elder Meiners