Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there! My time is short this week so it's time to type like the wind!
It has been a long time since I have received mail from anyone, but last Wednesday the Zone Leaders brought the mail to our area, and I was overwhelmed with such a large amount of mail that I was bamboozled! My heart was filled with joy and I was glad to be able to receive such a great amount of love from family and friends. I was so excited after reading all of it, that I had trouble falling asleep that night, I think I fell asleep around 11 instead of 10:30 (and trust me, a half hour is a LOT of sacred time lost haha), but I'm doing fine now! Thank you so much everyone that sent me letters and pictures, Especially the Simpson Family for the Oreo's!
Anyways, this week has been a week of good experiences for me and I feel truly edified as I remember each and every one of them while typing. On Tuesday I once again had the opportunity to go on interchanges with the greenie missionary Elder Menendez, but this time I went to his area, Zorzales. Our experience was....a little bit difficult but overall edifying. The afternoon highlights in Zorzales included... nearly being utterly destroyed by a 60 pound Rottweiler (seemed to be that big), being approached by drunks claiming to be Joseph Smith and walking up and down stairs. We spent most of the day looking for Former Investigators but didn't have much luck. The success finally came in the evening when we went to visit one of the investigators named Ever. Ever is a cousin of an investigator that they have who lives about 1 hour outside of the city, but is visiting for about 2 months here in Zorzales. He had been attending church over there (in a city called Talanga, where, wouldn't you know it, is working my son Elder Hansack), and said that he like it a lot. We were able to have a spiritual lesson and talked about the blessings of baptism. At the start of the lesson, he told us he wanted to be baptized, but next year! Well little by little we talked him out of it, and resulted that he asked us during the lesson, "What do I need to do to be baptized?" To my knowledge, the elders of Zorzales have a baptismal date set for him.
On a side note, in the tiny little piece of spare time that I have during the week, I have begun to study Italian. I really like the Italian language and would love to be able to speak it well some day. Interesting how your interests change so much in the mission!
This week has been a long week of fasting and prayer for Elder Maldonado and I. I have learned the true meaning of goal setting and working to accomplish my goals this week. Before, I would always think that goal setting was only for Pharisees who wanted "numbers! numbers! numbers!" But truly I have changed my opinion. Our baptismal goal for Pedregal in the month of August is 3, and beforehand I'm positive that I did not have sufficient faith to be able to complete that goal. But I changed my mindset and began to pray, and fast, and pray, and fast, and the miracles of the Lord are beginning to take its place. Let me explain.
The most positive investigators we have right now are Ingrid and Paola. They have really taken a turn for the better this week, since we were about to drop them due to lack of progress. Last Saturday, we had a special lesson about prayer and how it helps us in our lives. I asked them if they had sincerely prayed and asked the Lord if the things were true that we were teaching. To my surprise, they told me that yes they had, and were working hard on changing their lives in order to put them in harmony with the Lord's gospel. Ingrid's less active alcohol prone husband is also making a great change. He has been fighting his temptations to drink, and the Lord has also answered the prayers of this family so that they can come to church together. Ingrid's husband, Leonardo, drives a taxi, and he could not get work off on Sundays to come to church. This week he spent a lot of time praying, and miraculously he found someone to take the car for him on Sundays so that he can come to church. Ingrid and Paola will be expecting a baptismal date soon.
Seydy has stopped progressing for the moment. She could not come to church due to her injury, and also is not taking well the Word of Wisdom, she does not want to drop the coffee. So that leaves us with only 2 baptisms for the month of August....
But miracles do occur. This Sunday in church, a returned missionary showed up and told us that he is new in Pedregal. He had been lost in the world for a little bit, and has decided to come back to church. His wife isn't a member, and he wants us to teach her so that she can be baptized. She already had been going to church in the other neighborhood they lived in. Our first appointment with her is tonight....and we are going to invite her to be baptized this very Saturday if the Spirit indicates it.
I love this gospel, it's incredible how miracles happen when we have the sufficient faith to let them happen, and are diligent in our work. I bear my testimony that miracles exist.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
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