Abel. He's the investigator that teaches himself, invited himself to be baptized, and is kind of just the perfect investigator every missionary hopes for. He actually reads the pamphlets before the lessons (Who would do such a thing?!), doesn't require any prodding to get him to church (Now where's the fun in that?), and after we taught him the Word of Wisdom this week, gave up coffee without complaining. The only reason he hasn't already gotten baptized is because he lives an hour away from Jardín and every time we would go to his house, he would not be there. But now we got the scheduling conflicts worked out an he's set to be baptized in 2 WEEKS!
Sometimes I experience what I like to call innocent racism. It's when I'm speaking Spanish with a half decent accent, but all the person I'm talking to can think is, "This white dude is trying to talk to me but I don't speak English." It happens. It's part of why we have so many non-white, American missionaries in this mission. Well we were teaching a man named Jorge the Restoration, and it came time to relate the story of the First Vision. As I started to quote the words of José Smith, the room got silent and the Spirit filled the room. I related the story and Jorge understood me perfectly. Just a testimony to me that as I allow the Spirit to work through me, I can do more than I could ever try to do on my own.
We have some other investigators, José Guadalupe and his wife Juana. They're old. But they were always kind of the black sheep in their family because their whole family is Catholic and they haven't attended the Catholic church in years. They've attended church a few times, and we were finally able to get a lesson with them and we felt we needed to go the Plan of Salvation route instead of the Restoration. We got done and Juana says, with tears in her eyes, "What happens to the spirits of people who die as children?" We opened the Book of Mormon to Moroni 8, which explains that little children are perfect and are incapable of committing sin, which means they have no need for baptism, and upon their death, they return directly to the presence of God.
She explained to us that 30 years ago, their 18 month old son woke up feeling sick, so she took him to the doctor. The doctors told Juana that her son was terminally ill, and their 18 month old son passed away that day. The family of Jose and Juana told them that their son was in hell, and they were going there too because they didn't have him baptized. Juana continued to tell us that she has read the bible almost every day since, and the God she has come to know would never condemn a child who only brought joy into her life, to eternal suffering, and that this message is what she has been searching for for 30 years. Juana now knows where her son is.
Vianey was a reference from above. And by above, I mean from up in Cuernavaca from the Asistants. Vianey received the lesson very well and has invited us to come back, but the climax of the lesson was when her 8 year old son runs straight up to me, grabs my face, and begins to move it from side to side yelling, "GÜERO! GÜERO!" Homeboy had never seen a white dude before. It happens.
I also made a new friend yesterday. Her name is Alison. She's 8 years old and she just moved to Acapulco from Temecula, California last month. Elder Cerda and I ate with her aunt and uncle, and she was very excited to speak English again. She did most of the talking. She loves YouTube and Minecraft and Disney Channel. She misses her friends and going to Target. We became pretty tight in those 30 minutes we were talking.
PICTURES
1) THUG LIFE.
2&3) Valeria stole our hats.
4) Mi México.
I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC week! I love all y'all!
-Elder Aldrich
