2-21-11

I got the package you and mel sent! Thanks a ton! I love all of it! The candy is great! Its like christmas!! haha


This week was pretty good, it went by really fast though, this whole transfer has actually gone by really fast! There are only like 2 weeks left! I have really enjoyed it though, thats probably why it has gone by so fast! We have just been so busy so I dont really have time to think about the time or anything so everyday just seems to go by so fast! We had two baptisms this week, the services went pretty well! We baptized 2 sisters of Alberto who we just baptized about 2 weeks ago! Ones name is Marisol, she is 15 years old and already has a 2 year old son! She is a cool girl though, then we also baptized her little sister Dalia who is 8 years old, even though she looks like she is 5 haha! Well let me give you the play by play of my week! Even though I cant really remember much that happened!

Tuesday, we had a zone conference, it was really good and the president gave a very good training about prayer and how we should utilize it with our investigators! It last pretty long though so like the last hour seemed like it lasted forever! It started at 8am and we got done at like 4pm. They gave us like a 40 min snack break, which consisted of yogurt ( oh yeah, I like yogurt now, I use to hate the stuff before my mission but now I eat it like every day!, oh and mustard as well, I use to hate that stuff even more than yogurt, but now I eat it! weird huh) and a banana! Right after we left the conference there was a huge riot in the central, of Oaxaca because the president of mexico came into town and the teachers here dont like him so they all went crazy haha. We didnt get to see any of it though! After the conference we were really hungry, but we didn't have time to eat because we were already late for an appointment, so we just went out and worked then at about 8 we decided we would go get some free tacos from a members taco stand! They were good, I dont know if you know what tacos al pastor are, but they are amazing, you should google it! haha

Wed was a pretty basic day as a missionary, when we first left we headed to the bank because my comp was out of money! Then after that we headed to an appointment and put 3 baptismal dates with a family, they will be baptized this Friday, or Sunday! We aren't sure yet! Then after that we taught a few more lessons then went to lunch with a member, she is a teacher, and for some reason here the teachers are weird and are always complaining about stuff so they have little marches and riots like the one that happened on Tuesday. She said she was there at the riot and she said she went to a march that morning. Pretty much a march here is all the teachers just dont go to work and they park their cars in the middle of streets and they just stand there yelling so it meses up everyone else's schedule, I really dont get it, because it just screws over the kids, because teh teachers dont show up to school haha and this happens once a week minimum! So while we were eating with the sister who goes to these marches, I kinda chewed her out and made her feel dumb for marching haha, and I showed her the light haha! My comp was just busting up laughing the whole time I was talking to her. Later we went and taught the family that we just baptized yesterday! Then we taught a few more lessons and went home.

Thursday was another really fast and normal day, we taught alot of lessons and found a few more investigators. At night we taught my fav family of investigators, and that lesson went really well! They love us and Hopefully they will get married and baptized in the next couple weeks!

Friday, was kinda a bad day! It started out really good but ended bad. We had a another person we were suppose to baptize on Saturday but while we were walking to another appointment we ran into him and his family, and he said that he didn't want to get baptized yet, but he wanted to wait till he was 18 years old. So we said how about we go to your house and talk about it! So we went there and it turns out that his grandparents who are catholic told him a ton of lies and stuff to scare him about baptism and also that if he got baptized they would never talk to him again! So he didnt get baptized on Saturday which was pretty disappointing, but oh well, maybe in a week or two, we just need to work on him a little bit more!

Saturday, we didnt really have anything planned for this day because we were suppose to have a baptism, so we pretty much just spent the day going around and telling all the people that we invited to the baptism that it was cancelled, then after that we just went and filled the font and got things ready for the baptism that we were going to have the next day! After that we went and taught a few lessons and then had to fill out the baptism forms and had to go and search for white clothes for the girls we baptized, because those white overall things that we have are all huge and the people we baptized are small! haha So we had to run around and do that, then at 8 we had another really good appointment! Then we went home!

Sunday, we left early to pass by for all our investigators so that they would go to church! We had 10 investigators at church and they all seemed to like it alot! We had the baptism at 2pm right after the last hour of church so we had lots of members there for support! We also had lots of investigators there to watch as well! One of them named Marco who has been kinda scared to get baptized told us after the baptismal services that he wanted to be baptized the next Saturday! So that was really cool! Also the family of 7 that we are teaching was there watching and they said they want to know what they need to do in order to be baptized! It was pretty cool! Thats why I love for investigators to see baptisms! It gets them all excited! Our ward is like all impressed with us and they always say we are the best missionaries they have ever had in their ward haha! We just laugh when they tell us that! After the services we went and ate pizza at the bishops house haha, its really funny here people just dont care if they buy stuff on Sundays haha including the bishop who bought a ton of pizza for us!


well I hope that your doing great and that you have a great week!
Te amo
Elder Stradling