Parable of the sower

Buenos Tardes todos!

Oh man another week of crazy activity as a missionary here in Good ol' Salem, Oregon. I'm trying to think about all that happened this week... in all honesty, it was just a good hard week of work. Waking up, studying til 11, eating lunch, then baptizing the crap out of the world! haha jk but not really.
Oh! There were two sad things that happened this week.... as I wrote previously, we had three baptisms lined up for the 30th of this month: Silvia and Guadalupe Martinez (the ladies Smithee and I knocked into), and Dana Aguayo (a 14 year old girl from the previous missionaries). The sad thing is that the grandmother of Dana, who is her guardian as well as an inactive member of the church, doesn't want her to get baptized because she says that she isn't ready. When we asked why she thought so, she gave us such idiotic reasons that I wanted to beat her with a Book of Mormon! She says that Dana isn't ready because she doesn't pick up her clothes when she's supposed to, because she fights with her siblings sometimes, she has been disrespectful to her grandma, and because she kisses boys.... So from what I gather, this lady thinks that you have to NOT be HUMAN to get baptized. My question would be what kid at the age of 14 hasn't done ALL of the above? I don't really understand why she is acting so retarded. We explained to her as simply as possible that all you need to do is have faith in Jesus Christ, repent of any MAJOR sins you've commited in your past, and be willing to live the commandments. She kept coming back to the fact that Dana hasn't changed and yadda yadda AAAHAAHHAHAH!!!!!@!*#%!*@!_(@#*@(*$%@_#(*@ I hate stubborn old people. She told us that Dana needs to set a better example to her siblings before she gets baptized. I told her that as a member of the church, maybe she should set the example for Dana by living up to the covenants that she has already made and isn't keeping. ( yeah I almost got kicked out of the house for that comment haha). But hopefully with time, her grandma can soften that rock that she calls her heart and let Dana get baptized soon. If not, well then in four years when Dana turns 18 she can get baptized.

Okay enough ranting about that. Another sad note. We had to drop another investigator along with her two younger sisters. Her name is Gracie Baragan. This sweet 18 year old girl with a baby, who is the legal guardian along with her twin sister, of all her younger siblings because her parents got deported to Mexico. We picked her up from the last missionaries that were here, and had her scheduled for baptism the first week of February, but something happened. Her family found out she was going to be baptized, and basically destroyed her faith. It broke my heart because she knew it was true. She was loving and embracing everything we were teaching her, but then her family just trucked her, and then she stopped keeping commitments, wasn't praying, stopped coming to church, etc., and it was just sad! I was reading in Matthew 13 yesterday and I came across a passaged that describes it perfectly. It's just like the parable of the sower who sows seeds and some fall upon stony ground

20 But he that received the seed into astony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

In all seriousness, this is exactly what happened with her. She didn't have much depth in the gospel and as soon as her family jumped all over her, she just shut down on the gospel. Hopefully she'll see how it feels not to have the spirit striving with her and make a change of heart.

Aside from that, Silvia and Guadalupe are way excited for their baptisms and everything is rolling along according to plan.... *knock on wood*. Today is Smithee's 21's birthday, so we're gonna go party. Time seems to fly out here. I still feel like I just got here, and I've been out nearly four months! Gosh being on a mission is sweet.

Aside from that.... Gosh I can't think of anything else exciting that's been going on with us. We still have four elders in our apartment, I'm still getting my butt kicked by Spanish, and I love it here.

I love you guys, have a great week okay?

Con amor siempre para ustedes,

-Elder Moonshine