Where in the World is Elder San Diego?: Happy Halloween!

Wow. One month in the field already and it still feels like I arrived earlier this week. Crazy!

Last Tuesday we had a great day teaching people and meeting with some of our contacts. Jonathan is doing great with cutting back on his drinking and is almost completely off of it. I know that as he keeps relying on the Lord, he will have the power to resist evil and temptations like never before. We also met with a really cool girl of about 28 years of age whose name is Karina. She has cousins and an uncle and aunt who are all members so she knew a little bit and that her cousins all served missions, but nothing more than that. We taught her and the Spirit was really strong, so we set her for a baptismal date on November 12 and she accepted! We also met with a real cool family Gilberto, his wife Natalia, and their son (one of three kids) named Christian. They are awesome and love hearing what we have to offer, so we will extend a baptismal date soon to them. The cool thing is that Gilberto and Christian are learning English so it is fun talking with them in both languages.

Wednesday started off with us going to the immigration office for me to sign some papers. We moved Jonathan`s baptismal date to the 5th of November to give him a little more time to prepare. We also taught Karina the commandments and she accepted to live all of them, which she had no problem doing before, which is great! Later, Josè Manuel and Andrea had their baptismal interviews, but they aren`t prepared. Elder Valdovinos and I have done almost all we can to teach Josè Manuel that it is important to be baptized in the correct form like Jesus Christ, but he doesn`t want to accept it even though he knows perfectly that he should. Andrea wants to be baptized, but doesn`t want to keep a certain commandment. We are going back to them to teach a little more and extend the offer to live all the commandments and be baptized. If they don`t accept, we are just going to have to move on and visit them only like once a month just to see how they are and if they want to make that covenant with God. That`s the thing, too. We can`t pick and choose which commandments work for us and which don`t. God doesn`t work that way. We need to obey all of His commandments for Him to be able to bless us.

Thursday, we knocked a bunch and made a bunch of return appointments that we hope go well. On Friday, we had a lot of success! We knocked and taught a bunch of lessons and have a bunch of new investigators now! I am excited to return to them all because they can really feel the Spirit, which is the most important part in conversion! We talked to Jonathan tonight and it was amazing. He said that although he has been off of drugs for two years now, he has never been able to quit drinking cerveza until he met us and started talking with us! He had tried everything in the book to try quitting, but it wasn`t until he started relying on God that he has been able to stop. Wow. He said we were like angels to him and that he is so grateful for us bringing this into his life. Wow x2. It is truly amazing having a front row seat in seeing God work miracles in His children`s lives.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much the same, a lot of knocking and contacting with a little success. Crazy thing is that Elder Valdovinos and I have almost knocked our entire area, so we will finish in the next few weeks and start round 2 of knocking again!

Today has been a relaxing p-day. We played some soccer this morning and are going to finish our day with washing clothes and having our district meeting. Whew! What a week!

We have a bunch of people who are in line to be baptized, so hopefully November will be really successful!

Take care and love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego