September 5, 2011

¡¡¡Hola hola holaaaaaaaaa!!!

First let me try to answer all of your questions, there's a lot of information in there as well! Lot's to say this week! (It seems like September will be a really good month :)

How was your week!? Super Awesome, thanks for asking! How was yours?

How are you liking Faucett 1? I'm loving it! Way better then Faucett 2. That's why it's called Faucett 1.

Who are the other missionaries that you live with? Their names are Elder Sawyer (6 months)  and Elder Perez (2 months).

Where are they from? Elder Sawyer is from Arizona! And Elder Perez is from Costa Rica! OooOoo!

Do you ever go on splits with them? Yes!! As a DL I need to visit a different missionary every Tuesday. So this past Tuesday I was with Elder Sawyer for 24 hours. It went really well! Good missionary, hard worker :)

How is Elder Ochoa? He's doing great! He's definetely ahead of the game considering he only has 2 months in the mission. But we're enjoying our time together.

Are you in a branch still or a ward? I am now in a Ward! Only 2 areas in the mission are Districts still. But if you're in Lima, you'll be in a Stake, always!

Are your baptismal dates for the 10th still a-okay? So far so good! They're awesome :)

Did you get the other 3 to commit? We got 1 of the 3 to commit! She actually had her baptism this past Saturday. The problem was getting permission from her parents. Her name is Diana! But that's okay... because now we have 9 baptismal dates ahaha.

What is your ward like? It's great! We've got some really good and supportive members, and it's definetely a nice thing to have as a missionary :)

What sorts of challenges are you finding come with the responsibility of DL? For the most part it's fairly easy! I'd say the hardest part is looking at their numbers on a weekly basis, studying them out, then finding what I can teach them Tuesdays during our District Meeting to help them improve for the following week.

Conversely, what are some of your favourite parts of being DL? Umm... Basically whenever you advance in Leadership as a missionary, it's just added responsibility and less time to actually work ahaha. So I'd probably say my favourite part of being a DL is knowing that my President and the Lord trust in me enough to know that I'm capable of doing it.

Let me fill you in on our week! This Sunday we were able to have 7 Investigators come to church through our own efforts, which is the most Investigators in Sacrament Meeting I've had until now. We live in the 4th floor of the house of our Bishop. On the first floor live other two missionaries. And together we share a Ward and an area. Our Bishop is also like the official taxi driver for our mission, and 2 others. He's a great guy, he's only 26 and he's a returned missionary from Bolivia who just recently (a month ago) had his first baby.
Recently he's been working with us to help some children and youth who aren't registered in the system who have been baptized previously. So because of that mistake it's now our blessing and responsibility to teach all 10 of these kids and get them ready to be baptized the following Friday. We split the list 5 and 5 between us and the other Elders, and so, because of that, we were able to have another 5 counted as Investigators in the Sacrament Meeting. It was so great to see the church so filled, We had 12 Investigators there, the other missionaries 9, and together we had 21 Investigators at church... definetely an incredible blessing from the Lord no?

Thank you for filling me in about the family and everyone. It's great to hear of the successes, and struggles, that they all go through. Yesterday my companion and I were talking about
the whole death situation actually. We were talking about how sad it is to see how there are some religions who believe that if they aren't members of their congregation, they'll go straight to hell, or things like that. It makes me so happy to know that God has a much bigger plan for us then just Heaven, or Hell. He will reward each one of us according to our lives here in the earth. We know that our loved ones who passed away, although very sad, is a happy thing. They're in the Spirit World, a Paradise, waiting for us! They're free from pains, sacrifice, sickness. It's definetely a message of joy that we have to share, that's for sure.

I think our biggest struggle right now is to visit all the people who we need to and all the people who need us to visit them. Our biggest enemy right now is time, and there's been a lot of days when we've had to sacrifice eating to visit everyone (It's not easy, especially for me ahaha). But it's a joy to work and sacrifice, and I know the Lord blesses us for our diligence.
Anyway, I love you lot's! For whatever thing I'm always here! Every single Monday, ahaha. Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. They help more then you know.

Sincerely,
Elder Hatt