Semana Cincuenta y Nueve (Week 59)

I'm glad you have both been able to do so many fun things! Happy anniversary as well! 31 years ago was probably my happiest time in the preexistance seeing you two get sealed. I'm really glad that you two were able to have fun on your anniversary. I'm also glad the family reunion was good overall, and that you've both seen some good miracles! I'm happy that it sounds like things are still crazy, but all is well.

This week was amazing out here. Tuedsay I was able to have an exchange with Elder Whatcott, my old companion who I love. He and I just understand each other, and it's always a pleasure to be with him. Nothing much happened that day, but we were able to talk about a lot of really good things. It's good to see how he's progressed and how I've progressed as well. I also made fresas con crema [strawberries with cream] the way Alma taught me. It wasn't as good as hers, but my ingredients were lower quality I think haha. Lately I'm better at cooking, and I want to keep improving. Time is the issue there though.

Wednesday we had some good experiences following promptings. We almost got stuck in a sticky situation, and we got out of there. We aren't sure how bad it would have been, or if it would have been bad, but we both felt weird about it so we left. We also ended up at a 4th of July party with a less active family! It was a good day I think.

Thursday was mostly planning and some other things that went along with it. Our car was in the shop Monday-Thursday morning, so there were some fun things with that, and there is still more to worry about, but hopefully it won't be too bad. But we had a good appointment with Alma and even though the day was crazy it was good overall. 

Friday we basically were out until 1 and then we had interviews, which they tried doing a different way and it took forever. But that's OK, we still had an amazing lesson afterwards where Elder Hayes and I learned a ton about how to teach better. 

Saturday we had a good lesson with S____ where she asked about polygamy. We read some scriptures and talked about it, and she seemed fairly OK with our explanation, but we also told her that in the end, she has to pray to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. If she does, she will find out and she will have peace. If she doesn't pray, then we can't really do much to help. We can only invite. After, we ate lunch with a member who is a good friend of the Spanish missionaries, and we had a great talk about how even if we're righteous, we can't say that we're better than anyone. We need to be loving, and helping people come to Christ, not judging them and telling them what to do, but following D&C 121. It was a great talk. We also had 2 other great visits that night, one of which resulted from a prompting. One was a less active member who opened up to us about some of his doubts. It was really good to start helping him through it. It's a similar problem to S____, if he reads and prays then he will be fine, but if not we can't help.

Sunday was awesome. We had a ton of Hispanic people, enough for our own Sunday School class finally! A family moved in and they are 100% Hondureñan, and they brought another member who we know, Gustavo, with them! It was super cool to have them all there, the group here is really going to start growing. There is also a Puerto Rican family moving in, so even more will come! So now we have (not yet all at once, but most of them at once) Socorro, la familia Zelaya, Alma y sus hijas, la familia Borjas (Hondureños), Gustavo, y la familia Colato (they speak English but I'm sure they will be willing to help). That doesn't even include our investigators! So it's really flourished this past bit. My work here is starting to give some good fruit! We also got a new ward mission leader, and the bishop wants to call new ward missionaries and one of them to specifically work on getting us into member homes and getting us meals, which in the past has lacked here due to it being on a volunteer basis, and a lot of them don't volunteer. It's going to be so good, the work is going to explode here I think!!

But then there's the catch. I'm being transferred! I'll be back in the Miami River Branch, but this time in the Westchester area. I'll really miss this area, and I'm sad to leave it at this time, but I think it will be good to give it a break from my weaknesses, and give another area my strengths. There will be some interesting challenges that I'm excited to face, and I felt a prompting that if I really work hard that I will find, teach, and baptize. I am excited to have a new area to love. I'll also be sad to leave Elder Hayes. We've done really well together, and though we've made mistakes, these past few days especially we've been pretty united in what we need to do. We want to be more focused, talking less about things of the world, work on our teaching abilities, especially in asking questions to help understanding, and then just making sure that whatever we do is fitting with our calling. I don't like doing something and feeling like I have to hide it. It's a good sign that it isn't a good thing. Except surprise parties.

Well, that's what's going on here I guess. Our mission is officially changed, we don't have any stakes in Indiana, and we have Dayton East. It's going to be an interesting transition, and I think things are going to just keep getting better from here. I'm excited for what the future holds. I'm pleased with my growth, and I'm striving to be the missionary that my Heavenly Father wants me to be.

Love, 

Elder Liddle