April 28, 2011

Dear family,

This past week was really good. Everything went well with the baptism on Saturday and even Junior, one of our priests, got to baptize his grandma (Margarita), so that was really cool. He said it's the first baptism that he's done and what better than baptizing one of your own family members? The baptism was really long because some of the speakers were a little long, but the Spirit was really strong and we even had some investigators there. One of our investigators, Max, got up and bore his testimony about how he received his answer to the Church being true and he said that he wanted to be baptized tomorrow on Friday. So we're getting everything ready for another baptism this week.

After the baptism on Saturday, the Mikkelsens (the family that we live with), invited us to dye some Easter eggs, and it was interesting because for Elder Alatorre, it was the first time that he'd done it. I did get the package a day before Easter and then on Easter, the Mikkelsens gave my companion and I an Easter basket, so now I've got a ton of candy and stuff.

Junior actually got to come with us for our zone conference that we had on Monday. He got an excused absence from his school just so that he could spend half the day with a lot of missionaries. We went hiking up a mesa and had some pondering time to ourselves up on the mesa, so that was really cool. Then when we were all done, Junior asked our mission president if some time during the summer, he could do a "mini-mission" and be in a 3-pack with the missionaries for about a week, and Pres. Christensen said that he could try to plan it out. I think that's great that Junior is so excited to go on a mission.

We spent quite a bit of time washing and cleaning our truck for zone conference because they do inspections and if you don't pass, you can't use your vehicle for 4-7 days. Luckily, we passed ours, but there were some missionaries in our district that didn't pass, so that was really hard for them because they either had to go biking or have members give them rides.

We also had a district meeting where I had to give a training on setting people for baptism, but I didn't know what I was going to say because during the course of one week, the ZL's gave two trainings on setting people for baptism, and the AP's gave another training that was on the same topic at zone conference. So I didn't know what else I could say that hadn't been said and so when I went up to give my training and I didn't know exactly what I would do beforehand (1 Ne. 4:6). But as I got up I felt that I should have everybody list some scriptures that they've used before while setting people for baptism and invited everybody to use one of the scriptures on the chalkboard every time that they try to set people for baptism. So I guess that just goes to show that the Spirit will help you if you don't know what to do (most of the time).

So you guys have been married for 27 years; that's a long time. The good thing is that you guys didn't ever split up and that you relied on the Lord when you needed help.

I know that Mother's Day is coming soon, but I don't know exactly when I'll call just yet because we technically have church from 9-5 each Sunday and then we have dinner right after like at 5:30, so it would be like 6:30 when we get all done, and I don't think that you guys want a call at 9:30pm. So we'll probably think about it a little more and think about when we'll call during the day. It might be good if you guys also tell me when you have church so that I don't call during church, or tell me when would be good for you all.

That's pretty much it from me this week. I'll tell you if I need anything.



I love you!



Elder Meiners


P.S. So I finally got some pictures that I'm sending. A little bit of description:

1. The baptism from this past week with Jose Flores' family and Margarita

2. Our zone picture from last transfer

3. A rattlesnake that Bro. Mikkelsen killed and put in the trash. He said it was the first rattlesnake that he'd ever seen around his house and he's lived there for 18 years. It was the 3rd rattlesnake that he'd seen in 28 years.