this week (6.20.11)

This week went flying by. We had one investigator, Oscar, good to go for baptism this next 25th but unfortunatley he didnt go to church yesterday so he cant get baptized that day. (An investigator has to attend church atleast three times before his baptism.) But, we are going to see if he can get baptized the 26th after church. Soledad, Felipe´s mom, wont be getting baptized anytime soon probably. After having an intense lesson a week and a half ago we have just been going over a few times but not too much. We went over last night and I asked her what she thinks of getting baptized this Sunday. She said no. I asked her what she would do if the way her family feels about the church never changes. She said that she would get baptized anyway so I asked her why not this next Sunday! She said no. So, that pretty much sealed the deal with Soledad, atleast for when Im here because Im probably headed out of Los Volcanes in a week. But, an investigator named Pamela went to church for the second time in a row. She is really good but the only thing is that she goes to a house that she is building in the country on weekends sometimes. She didnt go yesterday to that house because it was raining really hard so that was a blessing!

We have been teaching a family of five and they know an amazing family in the ward, familia Orellana. We had a family home evening last Monday night with both the families and it went really good. Richie Orellana, a returned misisonary, teaches extremely well and so he taught the lesson and it was really good. He basically taught the Restoration of the Gospel and of the importance of a prophet, twelve apostles, and the priesthood. We gave each of them a Book of Mormon and they were really grateful for that.

Ill be giving a talk next Sunday about retention and Im pretty excited about it. Actually, my companion was assigned the talk but he talked to the councelor and he passed it to me. I think Elder Jack wants to see me drop some hammers before I leave! Of course I will do it with love but I really want to say some things that I have seen over the seven months that I have been in the ward here. At night before I go to sleep, I like to read church books that wouldnt necessarily be books that I would read during my studies but still help a lot. Ive been reading the teachings of the Prophet Brigham Young and a qoute just jumped out at me. It basically says that one of the first steps down to apostasy for a member is when they critisize their Bishop. That is honestly a huge problem here. The Bishop really does what he can but members go inactive for what their leaders do a lot of times. In the end, they wont have that excuse at judgement day! But anyway, Im going to talk about some things like that and do it with love because this is an amazing ward. Ive grown a lot here. I still dont know if I am headed out next week but its really likely. Ill know next Monday.

I really am grateful to be a missionary. In my letters I try to show how it is in the mission field as much as I can. Its not all flowers and butterflies! But, it really is an amazing experience. As we always teach in our lessons, if we dont have opposition, how are we supossed to grow? I thank the Lord for the blessings as well as the opposition. To say that these are the best two years of my life would probably be a little inacurate, but to say that these two years are the hardest and most rewarding two years of my life would be the truth.

Love yall!
Elder Gregory