Hola familia y amigos,

 

How has everything been going in the lives of all those I love? I have thought a lot this week about the importance of families and that the relationships that we have made here will not end after we die. We will be brought back into the presence of that Being that gave us life among those that we fought for , cried with, loved, and laughed with in this mortal experience. It is such a blessing to have the knowledge that is given from the gospel. I would not be the person I am today or be here in Canada speaking Spanish if it was not for that.

 

It has been super hot these past couple of days. Yesterday it was about 25 celcius, so pretty warm. But it was nice to get out yesterday and go talk to people. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and we met a woman from  Portugal that talked our heads off . But that is what we love. She really admired us for how young we were and the things we were doing. We are excited to go back to see her and her family in about a week. It was kind of cool how much we understood of her. I think she could understand more of what we said, because she mentioned that Portugeuse was usually a little more fastly spoken. And above all she was making gallina and it smelled super delicious.

 

We have come to love tracting. We have come to learn that you have to be real with people. If you just walk up to someone and give them a memorized recitation, they are less likely to listen to you. But if you are able to observe what people need (The Spirit really helps with that), you can have a real conversation and tie in gospel truths to any situation. People want to know that what we have can really apply to their life. Also that is why using the Book of Mormon is so important. When people start to apply the stories and experiences to their own life, that is when the Spirit steps in and they are truly converted. Elder Crocco and I have also been starting to talk a lot about how we are ALL converts to the gospel. No matter who you are you have to gain a personal testimony of the Book of Mormon, and the Gospel for that matter. Without work and faith, you cannot have a solid testimony.

 

Man this week was "hard-to-meet-with-people" week. Ruben and Cindy canceled their appointment with us because they were sick with a cold. It was difficult to get in contact with any of our investigators. But we were able to meet with Mauricio with Hermano Mesen. The lesson went super well and we are excited to see if he will choose to be baptized. He has not been able to come to church, but we are meeting with him tommorow, so I sure that he will be coming on Sunday. A little miracle also happened on Sunday. We were sitting in our apartment on Sunday morning calling people to see if they were going to church, and nobody was coming and we were kind of getting a little frustrated. Right when were about to leave, we got a phone call. We have tracted into this woman about a week earlier and her name was Joy. She is native american and she was really interested in the Book of Mormon and bringing her children to a new church. So we talked to her and left her our phone number. So she called us and asked what time church started. We said we would meet her there. She came with her SEVEN children. She walked and had all her kids walk with her. It was a little crazy getting all her kids to the right Primary classes, but they seemed to really like it. So that was our little miracle for the week, a woman walking her seven children all under the age of 11 to church. The gospel is true.

 

We were also able to meet with some more less-active Spanish members and we are hoping that all these Spanish members can come out of their comfort zone and come to an English-speaking ward. Man, the aftermath of the old Spanish branch is crazy. If we reactivated all the less-actives, with the help of the wards, we would greatly increase the size of some of the wards in our two stakes. It's crazy to think how important home teaching and visiting teaching is. Oh man, I love all the Spanish members. It must be so hard to be in an English speaking country and still have the desire to go to church when you cannot understand much. Oh yeah, something funny happened when we were finishing up the Connie and Gerardo move on Tuesday. They made us quesadillas verdes (which were delicious) and Connie said, "You cannot leave this counrty until you baptize this man"(referring to Gerardo). It is so cool to see her determination and love for him. Just a reminder, Connie got baptized about a year ago, and Gerardo didn't go through with it. But Connie is leaving on Saturday to Mexico for about a month and so we think that we can go over there and talk to him without pressure. Oh yeah and Linda is back!!!  So more news to come.

 

Love you all, may the choicest blessings be yours. Remember if we do our part, the Lord will always do His.

 

Abrazos y Besos

 

Elder Kipp