New Companion, New Updates, New Pictures

Elder Hoots is back with a letter this week and some new stories.  He is working hard and has really made some waves in an area that is historically tough for missionaries.  We are proud of his hard work.

This week also brings us some new pictures!  The Picture Page is updated so you can check them all out.

Read his letter below...

This week was a great week to say the least. It was the last week of the change and so we had a lot of things that we needed to do. First of all. We still can't work our butts off everyday cause of my ankle. But, we worked with what we had and did some good things.

We worked with this girl named Karla, she is awesome. She is 16 and has a baby.  She is very cool though, even though she is kind of crazy.  She has been talking to the missionaries for a long time, but has never really been very interested in the church. Then, once we got here, we started visiting her and talking to her and now she has come to sacrament meeting for the past 4 weeks.  It has been a small victory and we were just excited to see her at church.  Then on Sunday as we were leaving she said she wants to talk with us.  So we went to her house and talked with her a little bit.  She told us that she knows the church is true because she can feel it and she can't wait to start reading the Book of Mormon to learn more.  We are working on getting her baptized, but she smokes, so it may be a little bit of a process.  But at least she is on the right track and her heart is in the right place.  We will keep working.

This week we also met a man named David Ibañez.  He too has talked to the missionaries before and had heard pretty much all the lessons.  He has started to come around, in the past week he has told us that he knows the church is true, he knows the Book of Mormon is true and he wants to start living his life the way he should.  He told us that he is so glad that God has led him on this path in his life and that we were brought into his life.  He committed to quitting drinking so that he can get baptized, and he has a date for the 26th.

When I said this week was good, I specifically meant the weekend. The four niños, Stefani, Dana, Alejandro and Cristian all got baptized.  Their Dad who is a member, but hasn't been to church for 15 years, has now gone to church four Sundays in a row and thanked us just today for helping him get back to church.  I am glad that we helped him and his kids. I love that family so much and those kids are so awesome.

The other baptism this weekend was a 16 year old named Francisco. He is a funny kid. We could say that since he started growing his stache he hasn't shaved.  He looks how I did like before my mission when I didn't shave my dirt lip for two months.  That thing was nasty.  But he is a cool kid and we gotten to know him pretty good these past couples weeks and he has opened up a lot.  he has grown up a lot and matured through the baptism process, but he is still a 16 year old kid, so he is fun.  He is so awesome and a special kid.

I get a new companion tomorrow.  Elder Valenzuela.  He is a tall, skinny, shy kid and doesn't talk at all.  So thats cool that we are alike....haha. We should get along.  But I am ready to work with him and do more baptisms.  We have been doing great in an area with a bad reputation, so I'm proud of our work and I plan to continue it with Elder Valenzuela. 

Have a good week everyone.  I love you all and miss America.

Love,

Hoots