Large and small plates

July 5, 2010
Dear Mom and Dad,
Okay, so this week has blown by, and there have been some pretty sweet things happen! We've been teaching a ton, and now I'm trying to gather my thoughts so I can try to spit it all out in this email. I guess we'll start with our investigators.
First up, we have Juan Velasquez. He's the husband of a member, and we've been working with him the whole time I've been here, and like I said previously, we have a date set with him... he's the man I love him. We're finishing up teaching the commandments this week, and then he'll be set. There's one hitch though... he wants to get baptized on his birthday, which is in September on the 22nd! AAAAH I don't want to wait! Oh well... good things come to those who wait, right?
Then there's Patricia... Oh Pattie. She's a total mess! She was progressing really well until her daughter-in-law moved in with her, and now we hardly have time to teach her because she's "gone" or "busy". In my honest, blunt opinion, I think now that she has money coming in from her daughter-in-law, she doesn't feel as obligated to the church as before, so we'll see what happens with her... she hasn't been coming to church though, so we might drop her.
Aside from Patricia, we have a new investigator with a baptismal date whose name is Flor. She's the sister of a member here, and actually lives with her and her sister, who are taking care of her dad because he's old and pretty sick. We were actually planning on teaching a lesson to Luz, her sister, but instead of finding her there, we met her sister, who just returned from Arkansas not too long ago. We ended up teaching her about the power of prayer, and set up another appointment. We checked her teaching record from before, and she'd never been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, so we decided to teach her that... Long story short, she has a baptismal date :-). We're gonna keep working with her, stopping by at least twice a week to finish off teaching what she needs to know, and get her ready to get in the water on the 25th.
Speaking of the 25th, we also have another baptismal date for that day. There is a recent convert who just moved up here from California to be with her "husband" We went over and visited her to invite her out to church and let her meet Pres. Pister along with some other people, and the hubby was there. We got talking to him,and it turns out they're not married, but they want to do it right away so that they're not breaking the law of chastity so he can get baptized....sweet! He's a super humble guy, and really willing to learn, so we talked about settting up a wedding for the 24th and a baptism the 25th...SI!
Aside from those, we're working with a few other families, but nothing too terribly exciting yet, so I'll keep ya posted on the rest if something happens.
I feel like I'm taking a Nephi approach to this where I have my big and small plates. I just gave you the spiritual record, now let me give you the secular record. First of all, I am so stoked on this greenie that I have. He's the man! He isn't afraid to teach, he's not bashful when we knock doors, he's learning to love the members already, and I don't have to teach him spanish. I love it haha. We're working really hard together, but also finding opportunities to have fun.
For example: This last friday, we had three or four appointments fixed, and they ALL canceled on us! Ever one of them! That's okay though, because we usually ahve backup plans. We went to visit a list of potentials that I had noted, and of those that we visited, NONE of them were there! Ah I was so frustrated! Even if they were there, they'd look through the curtains really quick, and then we could hear the click as they locked the door haha. We finally got tired of it and decided to knock a little bit of a complex we've been looking at. When we arrived, we were spotted by a family through their window. As soon as they saw us, WOOSH the curtains went closed and the door locked, so elder Rivera and I decided to run up and knock their door first just for kicks and giggles haha it was entertaining. Although they didn't open up the door to us, an ice cream truck drove through, and she was hispanic, so we decided to get an ice cream and talk to her. Turns out, she's one of the sweetest people ever, and now we can say we ITL'd a paletera (ice cream truck driver).
Oh another sweet thing we did this week was take a little trip out to St. Paul for a 4th of july rodeo celebration (it was approved, don't freak out), and it was sweet! The show was an absolute blast, and it turns out there is an act that they do with a rodeo clown who is actually from Utah and is a member of the church. He always makes it a point to talk about the church while he's out doing his act, and I just thought that was really cool. The day of the 4th, we had church, a few lessons, and then we went to a dinner with President Pister and his family. Afterwards, we headed back to his house and had angel foodcake with raspberries and whipped cream, and then watched their neighbors shoot off a whole bunch of illegal fireworks haha. It really made me stop and think how fast this last year went though... kind of freaks me out! I remember exactly what we did last 4th, like minute for minute, and it seems like it just happened yesterday!
Anywho, we're about to head out and go on a little excursion with our district to silver falls to show our greenies whats up, and yeah... I'm running out of stuff to talk about aside from the fact that I love you guys and I miss you. I'll talk to you next week, and I hope you're having a great time celebrating the 4th! I love you!
Love,
Elder Kurt Kay Mooney