¡Me Gusto!

Dear family,

Wow, this past week was a good one. Baptismal dates, sicknesses, spiritual experiences, and fun. First off, we called Ivan and Susana the other day to see how they were doing and Ivan told us that he and his mom had been reading together and that he gave himself the goal of reading until the book of Alma during his vacation. It sounds like they are doing pretty well. Please pray for them.

The highlight of the week was that on Friday a family fed us day-old chinese food. All four of us had food poisoning that next day. We spent the entire day fighting over the bathroom. For some reason it hit me the worst though. It was not a fun experience...

Oh, I also received my "trunky papers" this week. I had to fill out my information about home and where I would be flying in to so that the church could prepare my flight plans. I´m trying to not get too trunky now...

We also shared with a kid in his twenties named Sebastian Machuca. We had found him about three weeks ago and I felt the impression to hop off our bikes and go teach him. We taught him twice and then weren't able to find him or contact him since. It turns out he lost his phone and had been working a lot. We talked about 3 Nefi 11 with him and talked about the three keys of baptism; 1) Authority 2) Age/personal decision 3) By immersion. He was the joven who used to be a Catholic missionary. We invited him to get baptized on February 6th and he said he'd love to, but couldn't because he was going on vacation for about a week and a half, then another vacation for two weeks. He asked us if he could get baptized afterwards. We were like hmmmm.... we´ll have to think about it. Haha no, we told him of course. He officially has a date to be baptized the 20th of March.

The most incredible experience we had all started on New Year´s day. After having so much success on New Year´s eve we returned to that same neighborhood to knock doors. We didn't get into a single house, but we did contact a lady named Gloria. We talked to her outside and she told us her son had a Book of Mormon. She asked us for our number and said she´d call us on Friday. Of course, she never called though. The next week we saw her on the bus and I started talking to her. She felt bad cuz she had forgotten to call us and said she´d call that week after talking to her son. The call never came. Finally this past week we passed by their house again and they let us in right away. We sat down and shared a message with Gloria and her 17 year old son Carlos. We tried explaining the restoration, but they had so many questions about tenants and deep doctrine that it didn't go anywhere. We asked Carlos to give the closing prayer and he started crying right in the middle and never explained why. We went back later that week and they let us in again and Carlos was way excited to see us. Gloria told us that she wanted us to focus on her son more, but we made her stay and listen ;) We talked about 3 Nefi 11 and baptism. They immediately accepted baptismal dates. We invited them to come to church and only Carlos showed up. He payed attention in Sacrament meeting, the classes, everything. Everyone was really nice to him and made him feel welcome. It was a great Sunday. He went home and told his mom all about how he loved church. We went to visit them that same night and Gloria said she is for sure going next week. Then Gloria told us that Carlos had a question for us. Carlos explained that when he entered into the chapel he felt a strange feeling. He put his hand up to his heart and said I felt a burning in my chest. He said he had also felt it the last time we visited them. We then opened up to D&C 8 and read the scripture about a burning in your bosom. He smiled and his eyes filled up with tears. He, his mom, and his step-dad were all impressed. They currently have a baptismal date for February 13th. Carlos and Gloria are amazing though. Carlos is one of the most spiritually sensitive kids I have ever met.

As you can tell we have been having some success and we have been pretty excited. Knocking doors and contacting hundreds of people has been paying off. And with all five people who have accepted baptismal dates we have had to be pretty persistent in finding them again. All is going well at the moment.

Thank you for your emails and stories though. I loved them this week. It feels great to have such loving parents and sisters who are always writing me and supporting me. You are the best and I love you all very much.

Love,
Elder Mooney