The good- The missionaries have been working since March with Guadalupe. Most of her family got baptized a while ago. For some reason she wasn´t baptized with them. She knows it´s the right thing to do, but wont commit to a date. Elder Hatch and I decided we needed to try one last time to see what´s up with her. We sat down to talk, and like how it has been usually, we get nowhere with her and she keeps saying the same stuff. Elder Hatch tries to get the member to talk and help, and as good of a job he does, still nothing. I just kept thinking, I need to say something but I kept pushing it off. Right before Elder Hatch was going to tell her thank you and goodbye, I started talking. Honestly I don´t know 100% of what I said. I just started saying Spanish without even thinking or translating. I was on such a roll and I felt the Spirit so strong and working through me. At the end I was a little emotional and so was Guadalupe. After a few seconds of calm silence she looks up and asks ´´When am I getting baptized?´´ We put a date for November 8. It´s kind of far, but it gives her time to work out her last few problems and be ready. Elder Hatch really wanted to push her date up, becuase November is a long ways away, so the next day we were going to go back and talk to her again. I was so stressed about what to say because I didn´t want to lose her. We walked in and I had the feeling to tell her about Dad and my life. It wasn´t as poweful as the day before but the Spirit was really there and she is really thinking about having it earlier. I gave my first 15 minute talk in Spanish on Sunday about missionary work. It was fun to prepare. At the end I taught them all ´´Clear Eyes. Full Hearts. Can´t Lose´´ from Friday Night Lights.
The bad- First of all, still no gas in our apartment but anyway, for the past 2 weeks we have been running into an old investigator of Elder Hatch more and more. It was to the point of where we knew it was not a coincidence. One day she asked us why we are happy and always say hi to people. We started talking to her more and she told us she had a testimony of Joseph Smith and felt really good about the gospel. We have been working with her this past week prepping her for her baptism next Saturday and everything was going good. She is such an example of faith. But, yesterday right before her interview, she told us she wanted to review the questions again. As soon as she said that I knew we had a problem, and when we sat down I knew exactly the problem she was about to tell us. After a little bit of talking she admitted her problem and my worries were confirmed. It killed me and Elder Hatch. We told her that she wouldn't be able to have the interview so then she got up and left. We both felt like we left it wrong with her and needed to talk to her again. Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope and change, and those are the 2 things she needs in her life right now. We went back and bore testimony to her. She didn't make any promises, but she says she is willing to try to change.
The crazy- On Thursday we had to go to the villa to get a member. We were crossing the street when a lady called out to us. She had a bike, 2 pots full of food, and a broken bag. She asked if we were the boys who were always nice to people. I was thinking, hey we have a miracle because last time someone asked us this, they got a baptismal date. So we talked and it turns out she has some family who are members. We offered help and decided we were going to teach her a short lesson on the way to her house. But she just kept talking about the most random things. She kept telling us just 2 more blocks. just 2 more blocks´´ after 5 blocks, she hopped on her bike and DISAPPEARED! She just rode off leaving us confused carrying pots of food. To make things worse, one of the pots was really full and spilled down the pants of Elder Hatch. We didn't know what to do. We kept walking trying to find her, and eventually we found her. She was at some sort of outside party with a ton of loud music, beer, and weed. We gave her her pots and got out of there. We then laughed for 5 minutes trying to understand what just happened.
-Elder Steele
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