5-16-11

So this week for me was pretty good! Nothing really that great or exciting happened, so thats why this email maybe a little bit shorter than normal! So I have been in this area for about 4 months now! The area is called La Joya, which translates to the jewel! Some say its the jewel of the mission! But I am ready to leave, I have been her for awhile, I have made a lot of friends and have had the great opportunity to have a lot of success here as a missionary! The people the I have been able to baptize are very special and close to me! Its an amazing experience to be able to see the changes that the gospel can make in peoples lives! I have seen people with absolutely nothing, temporally nor spiritually, become people who see a purpose in their lives, who now see life differently, who now have goals, personal and as a family! I know that this gospel is true because I have seen first hand the miracles and happiness it brings to the lives of its followers!

So things for me are going pretty good, my companion right now Elder Garcia is kinda weird, but I'm use to weird companions! Just have to accept him for who he is, and see his strengths rather than his weaknesses! He has more time than me in the mission, but I am senior companion so that kind of bothers him! We have only baptized one person this month but we have another family that we are looking to baptize in 2 weeks, but they are kinda progressing a little bit slow and i think I will be leaving this area on the 30th of may, but I guess I dont really know for sure! I have already been here for awhile!

Well let me tell you about my week!

Tuesday,In the morning the mission president and his wife came over and checked out our house to see if it was clean( luckily it was) and they also said we needed to paint the inside and get some sinks fixed! After that we went and visited a few investigators that we have and we taught a few lessons! And there was some mothers day activity, because in mexico mothers day is always on the 10th of may! So we just started talking to all the families that were there at the little activity, and we found like 5 more families that we are now teaching!

Wed- we had to go to the central, because my companion had to go see some special skin doctor because he has acne. So we wasted a lot of time doing that, but I guess the good thing that came out of it was that we were able to go and eat at burgerking, because the members that were suppose to feed us, were out of town so they gave us some money to go eat! After we finally go back from the central, (which is like an hour away by bus) we went and visited a few people and had some appointments! Just a regular night!

Thursday- Was a pretty hard day, when we were at an appointment with Isabel, one of my recent converts,and while we were there we got a call from some members in our ward, they asked if we could come and give their grandma a blessing. So we ran over there and we entered the room and everyone was crying because there grandma was really sick, she found out 3 weeks ago that she has cancer. So I gave her the blessing, and it was really hard to say the things that the spirit was telling me to say, because it was evident that the spirit was telling me that she was going to die, so when I felt I needed to say certain things, I felt like I needed to speak in English so that the family wouldn't understand. It was a very powerful moment, it was probably the longest blessing I had ever given and everyone in the room said they spirit very strong. She later died. But the whole family although sad, accepted it how it was, and the family all had a very strong testimony in the gospel and the plan that our heavenly father has for us!

Friday- Nothing really that exciting happened, in the morning we got invited to go eat breakfast with some members! That was good! Then later we had a few good lessons. Then later in the evening we went to an activity that another ward was having, because they asked my companion to play the violin! Then after that some members invited to go eat hamburgers with them and then after they drove us home! Which was nice because we live like 3 miles away from our area!

Saturday- In the morning some repair guy came and fixed a bunch of stuff but we had to sit and wait around the house until he left! So we didn't get to go out and work until like 2-3 pm! Oh well, after that we went and taught a lot of good lessons! It rained the the afternoon, just like it does everyday here!

Sunday- We went to church and after we went and ate then we went and gave the sacrament to all the sick members that werent able to go to church! Then we had a few other appointments and then we headed home! Pretty boring day!


Well that was my week! I hope that you and the kids have a great week!

con amor,

Elder Stradling