Lluvia

Hola!
Can't believe it's been another week here in the great state of Texas! We've had a few rainy days which has been a wonderful break from the heat.

This week we've been focusing a lot on inactive members of the church.  We were able to get a ward list and so have been visiting everybody that we don't know and such.  We've found and talked to quite a few people with all sorts of experiences and reasons for not going to church.  We had a couple back at church yesterday which was great.  It's a different kind of success.  As missionaries we of course want a lot of baptisms, but I've learned a lot about the importance of "enduring to the end."  Many people are converted to the Gospel, but aren't truly converted.  We're trying to help them reach the point of true conversion where people don't have to worry about them anymore.  Where they'll come to church without us calling them on saturday and pick up their Book of Mormon and starting reading without us committing them to do so.  It's difficult because people are so comfortable with the way their lives are, but this is the only kind of conversion that brings true happiness.

We also have a few investigators that are progressing really well.  We have a few baptismal dates set up for August 3rd, so we're working to make sure those go through.  We have one family in specific who was a little iffy on the church idea and so we brought some members to meet them and so they came to church! It was perfect because they had automatic friends at church and were able to see that not all members of the church are weird girls walking around in skirts all day that never watch tv or listen to music haha.

So we have this investigator name Josefina.  She's a sweet old lady from Mexico.  My companions found her before I came here, and so she's been taught for about 6 weeks by now.  We've taught her all the lessons and she accepts everything, but she refuses to get baptized! She literally said, "I will do anything in your church except get baptized." (In spanish, of course.)  She comes to church every week and all the activities and loves them but she won't commit to a date and won't get baptized.  We've been trying so hard to figure out what is stopping her.  It's definitley a little frustrating, so we're continuing to work with her and see how we can help her.  She's going to look great in white!

We also have another investigator named Jose who, with his family, has come to church two weeks in a row which is great! (The hardest thing is getting people to actually come to church.) Anyway, he has had some drinking problems and really wants to change.  He tells us that "espierta mi deseo para cambiar" or something like that which means we woke up his desire to change. Or something.  That's what i'm picking up in my Spanish knowledge. He loves our church and how it makes him feel but he isn't too sure about the Book of Mormon and he doesn't want to be "cien por ciento" (100%) in our religion.  So we're going to continue to work with him and help him get to that point.

It gets a little easier every day to speak and understand, so life is good. 

La Iglesia is verdadero.

Thanks for everything, love you all!
Hermana Jones