May 19, 2011

Dear family and friends,

Things have been going really good. We got to teach Hugo a little bit this week and he seems really interested in everything that we teach. His wife was also there so we encouraged both of them to go to church because she's a little less-active, but when they're both invited each week to church they usually go. Dania came and she brought her 2 year old, but once again he was making all kinds of noises and crying really loudly, so she just went home again. She didn't even take him to the lobby or anything, she just went home. So we've already told her a number of times that he's just a kid and that she shouldn't let that persuade her to leave church each week. We're still teaching the Castaneda's and they're slowly progressing. I think that they now feel that baptism is what they should do, so we'll try and set a date for them this week or so.

Max is doing great and so is Margarita. They're both coming to church each week and we're trying to visit them every once in a while to see how they're doing. Jose Flores stopped coming to church for a little bit because someone asked him if he was paying tithing and he said no and he felt bad. So we tried to visit him and tell him a little bit about that, but I guess we'll see how that goes. His kids are doing good for the most part, too. We encouraged them to try and read from the Book of Mormon each day, so I guess they're doing that. Omar, the 13 year old, says that he wants to go on a mission when he gets older, so that's really cool.

We had a really cool fireside on Tuesday. Us missionaries were actually in charge of it because we wanted to strengthen the members of the branch and have them set their goal as having a ward. But we explained that in order to be a ward, there has to be a lot going on such as preaching the gospel, "opening your mouth", and the blessings from work. All in all, I think it went really well and they got a good grasp of what we were trying to get at.

It was kind of weird because Dad said that he was getting better from a cold that he had last week. I was like "How could you get a cold in May?" and then sure enough, I got a cold the next day and I've been sick ever since. But I feel a little better now and it's not as bad as it was on Sunday. It was also raining pretty hard yesterday for about an hour which is kind of weird because it hardly rains. It's also been kind of overcast and windy as of late, and I even had to wear my sweater yesterday, but today seems like it's back to normal. Sometimes the weather changes like 4 times in a day and sometimes it's just hot and sunny for a week. Kind of reminds me of Philmont.

Yesterday was also Elder Alatorre's birthday, so the Mikkelsen's got him some pan dulces (kind of like donuts, but it's sweet bread for those of you not familiar with Spanish culture), and also a really tall glass of chocolate milk and some balloons. He also got a lot of calls and texts saying Happy Birthday to him.

So transfers are coming up already and so this week, we'll see if I get transferred or if I get a new companion, or both, and so I'll let you know about it next week if anything changes. I hear that next transfer is going to be 7 weeks long because President Christensen is also going home after those 7 weeks, so we're going to get a new mission president in June or July.
Yeah, the best thing that you can do with less-actives and part member families is just to always visit them and try to grow a relationship wwith them. We've recently been trying to visit those kind of people in Bunkerville and Mesquite, so that we can also have people to teach. We're going to see one part member family on Sunday and see if the husband wants to take the lessons, and then Hugo is also a part member family, so that'll be good when he gets baptized.

I guess that's it from me this week. We're still trying to find more people to teach, whether it be people on the street, or part member families, or referrals from members. I'll tell you if I need anything.



I love you!



Elder Meiners