Here we go again!

Yo. We just had 9 investigators at church yesterday. The most I have
ever had in my whole mission. That, my friends, is what happens when
the church is in the middle of town and the members are willing to
invite and fellowship people.  I fetching love it. The Espinal family,
or the Dominican family that we met recently, came. Maira, the mom,
Genesis, her 15 year old niece, and Suhayley, the 10 year old daughter
came. They really enjoyed church. They didn't realize how long it was,
so they only stayed for the first hour because they were super
hungry... They said they would stay next week. Right after sacrament
meeting the members went right over and fellowshipped them. That's the
way it should be!! Good stuff.

I actually spoke yesterday in sacrament meeting. I spoke on missionary
work. Wow as a youth I was worried about speaking for 3-5 minutes.
Today I was given a slot of 20 minutes to speak. I was grateful that I
wrote a long talk, like 3 pages, but even still I added some stories
that I hadn't planned to add in. It was good. The Spirit was there and
I rebuked those people with so much love about their missionary
duties. This ward is actually very good at their missionary work.
Members do their part in inviting and fellowshipping. I love this
ward. Kind of a bummer that I will only be here for a transfer but I
sure am grateful for the time I have been allotted here.


On Thursday we had a solid district meeting topped off by a good
weekly planning session. Haha during weekly planning, apparently Elder
King and I both fell asleep. We are not sure exactly how it happened,
but I woke up and said, "Elder King!!! Get up! We gotta finish!!" Haha
we were asleep for about 15 minutes. It made for a good laugh. We
finished up planning and went on our way. We had planned to stop by
several people, but we were a little short on time, but The Lord has
got our back and is watching out for us, and he placed us on the exact
same bus as one of the investigators we were planning to stop by. We
were able to see how she was doing, and set up an appointment. The
Lord is in the details of our lives. He cares about the little things
because we care about the little things. Highlight of the day was our
lesson with Marco, and a new investigator, Gamaliel. Ok, so both of
these investigators are friends with a member, Rigoberto. We had met
Gamaliel twice before today. The only difference was that those two
times before, he was completely drunk. Like this guy was plastered.
I'm surprised he remembered us haha. But we left an impression on him
to some measure that now he wants to meet with us. During the lesson,
we reviewed the restoration and taught the word of wisdom. We
basically used Marco like a member in the lesson. He shared his
testimony about how he knows that the Gospel is true and about how he
is progressing towards baptism. Gamaliel is gonna progress a lot. I'm
grateful for member participation here in this ward. There isn't a
better way to do it!

Here's what happened Friday. So first off, we go to the bus station to
catch our bus. There are three buses that we can take to go to the
church, which is where we were going. As we walk into the station, we
see one pulling out of the station. Elder King takes off after it. I
thought it was too far gone, but I gotta follow the guy. We end up not
catching it at all... So we go back into the bus station, and as we
stand there waiting this guy calls over, "Hey where's the church?" I
go over and talk to him. Turns out he is a member that was baptized
when he was 8, fell away when he was a teenager, got involved in drugs
and all that stuff, spent a fair amount of time in prison, but a
couple months ago was released and now is working two jobs full time
and is putting his life back together. We had a solid conversation
with him and things are looking good for the guy. And that's why the
Lord made me a little lazy for running after buses today.

Next cool thing. We met with that Dominican family again. When we got
there, there were a ton of people outside. It's kind of funny. Every
time we go, the men are outside talking to us until we start sharing a
message. It's apparently their cue to go inside. We'll get them
eventually. We went and taught the plan of salvation. It really
intrigued them. They were all super attentive, especially when we
talked about the atonement and what happens after this life. They
committed to come to church. We are so excited for them. We teach them
directly and clearly so that they not only understand, but so they
cannot misunderstand.

We took brother Bruno out with us on Saturday. He is a member who was
baptized a year and a half ago and loves going out with the
missionaries. He is from another ward, doesn't speak Spanish, but is
our main guy if we need a male present. He's a funny guy. Kinda sucked
because tons of the people that we stopped by weren't there, but we
finished off by having a super good lesson with Gerardo and his mom.
Gerardo is a kid my age who has recently come back into activity
because he wants to serve a mission. He feels the need to serve The
Lord as a missionary and is being true to those promptings of the
Spirit that he is receiving. We went in and talked about their own
conversion stories. Brother Bruno shared his first, then Gerardo's
mom, then Gerardo. The Spirit was super strong in the room. The mom
hasn't been to church in a while but committed to come. The Spirit has
a way of touching people's hearts and making them so what God wants
them to do. We talked about recognizing our privileges as members of
the restored church of Jesus Christ and how we can live up to those
privileges and thereby receive the greatest blessings. God has given
us so much if we will just go and get it. We just gotta keep His
commandments and He promises us all things in return. What in this
world could ever be worth more than "all the Father hath?" Then why do
we let things of this world take our eyes off the prize?

All in all it was a swell week. We got some super good people
progressing with a baptismal date. We are going to have 2 baptisms on
August 10, Marco and Claribel. It is going to be awesome. This work is
true. You've probably heard my testimony like 482,483,650 times by now
but that's because it's all true. Love you all!


Elder Dial

Our church. It is really just a converted building. There is an H&R
Block to the left of us.

The second picture is of  Bishop Coyotl, the Bishop of Camden New Jersey Spanish ward.