Hello once again to all of my family and friends out there in the modern world. News tells me that you've had snow (well most of you), and I am extremely jealous.... going 2 1/2 years without seeing snow really traumatizes a guy. Good news over here is that I saw a cloud in the sky yesterday! First time in awhile for me. Anyways enough blabbering...lets get going on the week that I had.
I'm proud to say that Elder Ortiz and I have had visual success for probably the first time since Ive been in Comayaguela. We brought investigators to church (Hooray...the crowd goes wild!) AND have baptismal dates! 2 of the 3 baptismal dates that we have are the kids of a family that we found last week. They are the Cerrato family, a very large less active family. The whole family was baptized about 18 years ago, but they haven't gone to church for about 10 years. The mom of the children, Yeni, left to work in Mexico, and "didn't find" a church to attend there. They are a lot more positive than the majority of the less actives we find, and always give thanks that we came over in the closing prayer (very special). The 2 children are Karla and Carlos (Charles) Darwin....ironically I'm going to baptize the founder of Evolutionism! They are both very smart children. Only Karla and her mom Yeni came to church, but Karla had a good experience. They don't know anything about the Mormon church and so it was very important that they enjoy themselves. We were very happy to see people at church.
The other baptismal date that we have right now is Gabriela, the niece of a really cool family that are members of the ward. Gabriela is 16 and....well....is the typical 16 year old girl. The good thing is that she has an incredible support system in her aunt and uncle. If everything goes well she should be baptized this Saturday. She came to church yesterday, and also said that she had a good time.
In my tour of interchanges, this time I went to the area of the zone called La Pradera. I worked with Elder Passey from Draper Utah. He went to Alta High School (boo), but it doesn't really show because he is really humble (haha sorry Alta fans). I really enjoyed working with him because we have very similar personalities and had a great time chatting, but more importantly we put 2 baptismal dates! The work that we did in La Pradera really helped me out to have the energy to work in my own area so that we can get the train rolling!
I heard a great story the other day that I will try to always remember. Let's see if I can paraphrase it for you. Two best friends were walking together in a desert area. One day, one of the friends got a little bit mad, and slapped his friend in the face. The victim of the slap knelt down and wrote in the sand, "my best friend slapped me in the face," and they continued on. Later that day, after finding water, he knelt down to drink and fell in the water. He was about to drown, but his friend dove in and pulled him out. His best friend had saved his life. A few minutes later he wrote on a rock, "My best friend saved my life." The other friend asked him...Why did you write once in the sand and the other in a rock? He said..."when you write in the sand....the winds are forgiving and erases the error, and when you write in the rock, it is always remembered."
Let us always find ways to do good deeds to others, so that they will always remember them. And if our friends do us harm, let us write it in the sand.
I love you all and wish you a wonderful week.
Vaya Pues!
Elder Tinkham
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