Monday, February 1, 2016

Missionary Changes (I'm out), Updates

Hello Family,

Another week has passed and Elder Reinoso is all better and working full-time again! The ward has really picked up the pace and are starting to update their members list (they have 900 members in the ward but only 131 came to church this Sunday). I'm really sad about this because we were going to be doing a workshop to teach all about home teaching, organization, and teaching skills. It was going to be fantastic and they will still be doing it but I won't be here. I got a message for the changes and I'm off to Danlí again. I'm going to the neighboring area from where I was before in La Concepción. Fun fun fun... ... ... ... not... I just keep singing, "A donde me mandes iré!" with a big smile on my face. That's how life goes though. I'm out!

I was sooooo excited to help the ward get organized. I could and can feel the energy building as we start to accomplish the goals that we've set. Yesterday, the bishop, Bishop Salinas, invited us over to eat lunch with him because he has appreciated the work we are doing. We have been super organized with all the mission correlations and with our records. I was so proud of our Area Book that I challenged the rest of the areas to follow our example and keep an organized and updated area book. We also invited them to review our Area Book to just see what it should look like (people/ missionaries can be really disorganized or lazy with paperwork sometimes but it's growing on me and I'm starting to like it).

Two months in La Travesía wasn't enough for me but I guess it'll have to be sufficient.

Mom, the money never came to my account. I've been checking this whole week and it hasn't been there. I checked this afternoon and it still hasn't arrived. I don't know if it takes super-forever but I thought you deposited money a week or two ago... just checking.

Today, we visited Victoria Gonzalez from Los Quebrachitos. She and her husband were my investigators in El Sitio and got baptized. She is still going to church but Santos (the husband) stopped going a month ago. One of the boys got baptized as well. I never knew him. Another one of the little boys turned 8 and will be getting baptized soon (I hope). They've had a lot of progress. I left a new shirt and tie for Santos to help him get motivated to go to church. :D I hope he does.

Have fun with your 8" of snow and I'll enjoy the 88° heat for now :D. I'd love to go to Oregon though, Mom. I just can't imagine what kind of entertainment is better than reading the scriptures. Seriously, I hope I never change my way of thinking when I get back. Smart phones are only useful for the LDS apps and indexing for me now. hahaha I'm good with whatever you guys want to do. I just want to be able to say hello to my friends in their homecoming talks.

Lourdes and Jaime are still doing awesome. It's hard to explain the differences between the Bible to and the Book of Mormon to Jaime. He thinks that we just copied a lot of the Bible and made the Book of Mormon up, but he's at least reading a little. Lourdes understands because she's read a lot. Ana has read more than Karla and loves it. She's reading along with the cartoon book of the Book of Mormon because she understands the plot better that way. I think Jaime should read the cartoon book so he can feel and see the difference but that's entirely up to Elder Reinoso now. I'm super excited for them. Lourdes is out doing visiting teaching already and she loves working in the Library. The library is quite the project because it's a little unorganized. It's improving little by little.

Dad, Franklin and Claudia disappeared. I think it has to do with Mercedes, Franklin's dad, going to work selling clothing in another pueblito. We'll keep trying (Elder Reinoso will. I keep forgetting that I won't be here anymore!)

Interesting thought about ministering and administering. I believe that ministering of angels refers to missionary work. John the Baptist held the keys to cry repentance and to baptize all people. I think the power to call others to repentance and to convert people is the ministering power of the preparatory priesthood. All the Aaronic priesthood administers (or proportions) is the physical and basic ordinances or principles of the Gospel.

We've been contacting more lately in the mornings. I'm really happy with that. Today we've had 5 Open the Mouth opportunities already and it's P-day, so we've started off well.

Have fun with the Family Night and give my fellow missionaries a greeting from their distant fellow-laborer in the vineyard. I've learned that if I don't talk as much the Spirit speaks more. Just a thought. I don't know how you've been with your discussions, but I'm "getting out of the way" so the Spirit can talk and converse more with the heart of investigators. Elder Bednar shared that thought a little while ago, and then again, recently in the missionary broadcast.

Is Kyle doing alright? I went to the temple this past week. That was incredible. I didn't have questions, I didn't have anything to pray about. I just was grateful. I just sat and enjoyed the peace. Peace and stress-free. A lot of people have their watches on while they are in the temple but I took mine off. I don't want to feel stress in heaven. Oh, right, I mentioned Kyle because I was thinking about people to put in the prayer-roll and I just thought "Kyle." So I put his name on. I could've put any other name on but he was who I just kept thinking about.

Keep in there family! Five more months of the hardest and best work!
Love,
Elder Tuft

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