Javier Member Referral 12-21-2011

Hola Familia!

     

       This week was awesome! We were able to find 4 new investigators 3 of them all on Sunday! One of them was the son of a couple we'd been teaching, 2 we found knocking several months ago and went back to stop by, and 1 was a member referral! I was really excited about the member referral because we hardly ever get them. His name is Javier and he was actually a referral that a member received from a non-member friend who thought he could use some help. We had a lesson with him on Sunday and he's really willing to read and progress so we're excited to keep teaching him. We're struggling the most right now with getting people to church which consequently is making it hard to set people on date. We're teaching a lot of people right now who say they want to come to church, say they will, and then something comes up last minute or we mysteriously can't get a hold of them Saturday or Sunday mornings to confirm or they disappear temporarily off the face of the earth. So that's been our biggest challenge lately. Some of them say they want to get baptized but want to go to church before setting a date (they make a valid point) but we can't get them there. We'll be brainstorming ideas during planning tomorrow.        We've been having a lot of luck finding new people lately from going back to the potential investigators that I found earlier in my time here (the people that said we could come back "another day" or made an appointment with but they we're there). This is good because I think at this point I've knocked the majority of Marengo, Harvard, and Woodstock (at least all the Hispanic areas) and now going back through the second time with the lists of potentials is really working out great.       Jose has now been to church 11 times without missing one. I think pretty soon I'm going to start losing track of the number. We found out his doubt and it's a really hard one - His family. He's really sad that no one else in his family is willing to listen with him or be religious in any sort of way. He says no one in his house listens to him and his wife mocks him when he reads and prays. It's been really hard on him. We haven't had much luck with his wife either...she seems mad all the time and says "NO" when we invite her to listen. So we're hoping he will find more strength as we finish up the missionary lessons. We just recently though gave one of his daughters as referral to the Elgin Spanish missionaries so hopefully she will start listening and it will give Jose a little more "animo" (I can't think of a good word in English...encouragement probably).      For Christmas we were able to find someone for video chat! They have Skype on a computer and an iPhone. So I'll probably try the iphone to see if it will work out better than the last time haha. As for a time, I can call in the morning at 10:00 my time (8:00 your time). I'm assuming you'll all have been awake for at least 2 hours :) . If by chance it doesn't work out to call at 10 I can probably call at 4:00 my time (2 your time) so as not to conflict with church or BMW calling.      Oh also starting the next transfer (by the second week of January) my preparation day will be changing to Monday. So I will be e-mailing on Mondays (unless there's a holiday and the libraries close then they'll let us do it on Tuesday). They are also changing transfer day so that means I will be coming home a day earlier (Weds the 28th of March). Luckily that's still a REALLY long ways away, but just to let you know :).     Well I look forward to talking with you all in a few days! Hope all your Christmas plans are working out awesomely! Also I think I forgot to say "Happy Birthday Mom!" last week so..."Happy Birthday Mom!". And also Happy Birthday Megan! (save until Monday).I love you all!

Hermana West