2008_11_17 Week 4 Balzar Mom

Mom Emailed Curtis on Sunday night.
Curtis emailed Monday, 11/17/2008 9:30 AM
Subject: Week 4 in Balzar

Hi Curtis,
I hope you have had a great week. Tell us all about it. I will ask less questions this time. Answer them and then tell us more about what you have been doing, please.
Did your baptism go okay on Saturday? Tell us about it.

The baptism went well I was the one who performed the baptism and then yesterday we had the confirmation in relicario. it was good antonia is her name she is 54 years old I think. On the 29th of this month we are having another baptism for antonias mom her name is Jesus she is 82 years old.

How are Sonia, Fernando and Cattie coming along?

Sonia has stopped progressing we are having a hard time catching her at home now. Fernando we are having a hard time catching at home as well. Cattie is still progressing but it is hard to teach her for very long because she has a baby girl about 6 months old that needs attention.

Do you have new investigators?

We have many new investigators but it is the investigators that are progressing that are the ones you are wondering about. we have a few but they aren´t really progressing all that well right now

Did anyone come to church this week?

One of our investigators his name is carlos de barco he has been investigating for a while and he wants to be baptised but he doesn´t have a lot of time because he studies during the week in guayaquil so he is only here in balzar some weekends but we set a date for the first saturday in december for the baptism so we will see what happens

What do you do on your Pdays?

study in the mornings email about 11 buy stuff for lunch after and cook lunch in our house then we write letters and do other things that we need to around the house or go to any stores that we need to and then about 5 we take our laundry to the momita to be washed and at six we start prosolyting

Have you done any service? Tell us about it.

yeah this friday we had to have the district leader interview antonia for the baptism during the interview the other 3 elders me my companion and the companion of the district leader helped Fernando the son of antonia to move dirt into the foundation of the house he is building it took about a half hour to move all of the dirt

How is your small branch doing this week?

They are doing good much of the people were there this week and it was good I gave two talks this week one in Balzar and then the same talk again in Relicario on Prayer it was good.

Can you get microwave popcorn, fruit loops, peanut butter, Oreo Cookies, and jerkey at the store?

I haven´t looked for microwave popcorn but probably not but we can get dried corn and pop it on our stove though. No peanut butter we can get much of the same cereal as in the states or cereal similar to it. they do have oreos here but no jerky that I have seen.

Are you healthy, strong and happy?

Yes mom I am healthy strong and happy.

How is your Spanish coming?

it is coming as the people say here poco a poco or a little at a time

I love you lots.
Love, Mom

Hi Curtis,
Thanks for answering my questions again. Tell me more about what you have been doing. How come you quit emailing so abruptly last week? You didn't even say good bye.

I ran out of time and was being obedient that is all. It is going good here what exactly do you want to know about what I have been doing?

I thought you didn't want me to ask so many questions! Congratulations on your baptism. That is neat and really cool that you will have another one. I knew you would be successful with the elderly people. You have always had such a great love for them. Tell me about your very best experiences this week teaching people.

this experience was kinda awkward but it was good. we have been teaching a man that is living with a woman they aren´t married but the man is married to another woman he would get baptised but he needs to get a divorce first from his wife they have been separated for ten years I think once the divorce is final then he should be able to be baptised. the other day we taught them the ten commandments the lady is a catholic but she has been listening to our lessons and seems really interested well we taught the ten commandments and then when we got to the commandment to not commit adultery we changed and taught the law of chastitiy and then went back and finished the ten commandments the law of chastity was hard to teach not only because it was awkward but also because I haven´t studied the words for that lesson very well but I was surprised that I was able to explain what the law of chastity was in my own words without help from my companion of course after I explained it my companion went back through it to make sure that they understood it but still I am coming along in the language

That is awesome. I am sure Heavenly Father was blessing you with the gift of tongues to be able to communicate with the people so they would understand the message. That would be a hard lesson to teach even in English. Have you learned many of the other lessons yet? Is that what you are working on in your daily study sessions?

Yeah we have six pamphlets that we use during teaching I´m sure you can find them in english fairly easy they are the restoration the plan of salvation the gospel of jesus christ the law of chastity the law of tithing and the word of wisdom in preach my gospel in chapter three there are all of the lessons that we have to teach and I have pretty much taught them all now.

Good. I am sure you will get better and better at teaching them as you study and get more practice at it. What seems to be the hardest part of the gospel for the people to accept?

I don´t know for most people they are catholic and they have already been baptised probably for them to accept that their baptism isn´t valid that it is incorrect

That would be hard to change what you had believed all your life. Do many of the people drink alcohol and smoke?

a lot of people drink but not a lot of people smoke which is good

Yeah. Good for you, too, that you don't have to breathe it in as you teach and leave smelling like smoke. Have you done any activities with your district, gone site seeing, or had any district or zone conferences?

we have district meeting every week in quevedo on wednesdays tomorrow we have a zone conference in quevedo so we will be in quevedo twice this week well my time is up I gotta go I love you all a lot and miss you too Elder Goode

We love you, too. Have a really great week!
Love,
Mom