#68 [Ponce - 5] June 30th, 2014

Hi, Family!!

I love you! Thanks for writing to me this week! I loved hearing about everything you're all up to.

This week was great. We had the Ward Rescue activity and had a great turnout. Me and Sister Leonardo went with the R__ family to an inactive's house. (Mom, just fyi, Sister R__ has tried adding you or Dad on Facebook. Her name is S__ R__, or something like that, so if you saw that name pop up on your "friend request" list, that's why. She had tagged some pics of me or something that she wanted you to see). Anyway, the activity was great. We taught him about the priesthood. He'd gone inactive before receiving it, and his kids have never been baptized. So we're going to try working with him. The thing is, though, he works on Sundays, so he can't really come back to Church. We didn't see him again, though. His name is J__. He's living at his parent's house because he and his wife are separated as of right now. So you can pray for him and his kids and his wife, too. Hopefully they'll get back together. He's receptive, though, and just really confused because he's gone to lots of different Churches.
 

M__ and her son L__ have progressed this week. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and is marking it up and using the footnotes and everything! We taught them the Plan of Salvation yesterday and it was great! Her husband, H__, doesn't really like us coming over because they're "Catholic" but she doesn't seem to mind, and they feel the Spirit, too. We gave L__ a Book of Mormon of his own, too. He's a barber, and she's a hairdresser, too. So it's fun to talk with them.

We went to another inactive members' house and ended up teaching her aunt. Apparently, this lady met with the missionaries like 30 years ago, but remembered a lot of the things they'd taught her and had only recently given the Book of Mormon away to someone else. But it was cool because we were there with the Bishop and his wife and they taught with us. We answered a lot of her questions and gave her another Book of Mormon. She thought that the Mormon religion had practiced witchcraft back in the day, or something. So that was kind of funny. Man, some people read so much weird stuff about us online! But hopefully she'll give us a call, because she really is looking for the truth. She lives outside our area and wouldn't let us take down her address.

N__ and her twin boys were planning to come to the Father's Day activity on Friday, but then they couldn't because she works at night. She couldn't come to Church either because she works until 7 a.m., so pray so that she can come, too. She really wants to come and see how it is and she's anxious to learn about the scriptures because she has no idea what the Bible teaches. We took a member with us, the primary president, and they actually already knew each other! So it was cool, too, because the Primary President could explain what goes on in Primary and what they teach the kids. She's excited to come to Church as soon as she has a Sunday off. And we left her a reading assignment in the Book of Mormon, too.

I got fried this week. The sun is so hot here in Ponce! We were contacting in a different part of our area and found some women cleaning out the front part of their house so we decided to help them. The ladies were drunk and asked us for money in the end, but it felt good to help them. We didn't even ask, really, we just kinda took a rake and started. They appreciated it. But man, I got fried in the process. :)

This week we've been going around and taping paper hearts to the members' doors. Giving them a "Heart Attack from the missionaries" They LOVED it. We also had a ward activity on Friday for Father's Day and we played a game with all the members and they liked that, too. I feel like we're gaining their confidence and they're excited about doing missionary work and working with us. We're coming up with an activity to do in the next month, a MINI MTC for members, where we'll teach them what to teach in a lesson with us and what NOT to teach. Sometimes the members who have been a part of the Church for a long time like to delve into deep doctrines with the investigators, like baptisms for the dead, etc., and so it just causes a lot of confusion and arguments. So we're going to do some workshops with them and it'll be great. The four of us came up with the idea last night and can't wait to meet with the Ward Mission Leader to discuss and plan it.

As for me and Sister L__, we're doing great. Getting along just fine. We're trying to teach her English, and we sing Hymn #52, The Day Dawn Is Breaking, almost every day and she's trying to memorize the lyrics. It's really funny, though, because she can't hold a tune to save her life. But she's getting it, the pronunciation of the words, and what not. She goes home the transfer after me and so she invites us to her house when we go. :) She reminds me so much of Madeline, her personality, it's really great. Speaking of Madeline, how's she doing? The baby? *WHO ARE THESE CHILDREN COMING DOWN!?!* Hahaha. I'll bet Sister Ashcraft is excited to be a grandma! What about Maddie? (I dunno her last name). Man, all these new babies! So exciting!

No news about the new Mission President. We have a Zone Conference tomorrow, so if he's there, we'll meet him and his wife. We're excited. Sister L__ says she's tired of having so many meetings. She said she's had one about every week now for the past 7 weeks. Haha and now we're having another one. She's so funny.

Well, I've gotta go now. Bye! I love you and pray for you all! Have a great week!

-Sister Erickson