Well, it was short sleeve weather all week but today has been a little cooler and everyone is saying that its going to start getting pretty chilly but who knows. Everyone here starts putting on big coats and earmuffs when it drops to 50 or 60. Its kinda funny.
Everyone is starting to put up Christmas trees and lights here. In Mexico the 6th of January is a bigger holiday than Christmas. It's when they get all their presents. It's when they say that the three kings came but from what they have told me, here in Monterrey Christmas is bigger because we are so close to the border and it has all been Americanized. The area I am in is a little richer than most areas so everyone can afford trees and the lights.
We had another baptism this last week. I have really felt like these last baptisms we have had I haven't really done much. The Lord just is giving them to us ready to be dunked. It's been cool. I hope we can keep it going. We now have 3 weeks in a row baptizing.
I also put a picture of my zone because we have transfers tomorrow so a lot of them will be changed.
I am glad you got the hand written letter. I had given up hope on that letter. I wrote it in June but hey 6 months later is better than never I guess.
Well, we are entering into one of the hardest months for baptisms. last year in the zone they only baptized 9 this month but we already have 4 and I say we can hit 20 in the month. It doesn't help us much that Christmas day and NewYyears day fall on Sundays but we will do.
This week we went to a store that's called Guadalajara (Mexican Walgreens). We were printing some pics of the baptisms we have had when one of the workers came up to us and ask us ¿Son mormones Usteds? Translation: Are you guys Mormons? We said yes but to be honest I was thinking... Oh great here it comes, no we dont have 7 wifes, Jonas smith was not a God and his name is Joseph Smith and we don't know where the gold plates are. The usual answers we have to give, but I was wrong. He explained to us that he had moved to Monterrey from Mexico City about six months ago and that he hadn't been going to any church for years. He said he got baptized in the Catholic church as a baby and asked us, "Does that realy count? Because I dont think it does." As my mouth drops open he adds, "Do you guys teach about baptism and stuff like that?"... haha well yes we do. We explained a little of what we do and put an appointment for later that day when he got off work.
Later that day as we headed to his house we were feeling good. To help us find his house easier he told us he rented a room behind a green house. He told us the name of the guy that lives in the house because everyone knows him, so with that we found the house in no time but then we knocked.... Out came the owner of the house. Without even giving us a chance to talk he started yelling, "I am Christian, I am Christian!" and slammed the door shut. Talk about going from a super high to a super low. We tried talking to neighbors but no one had heard of the guy we were looking for. So we left sadly with no hope.
The next day we were leaving the house in the morning to go to an appointment when they called us to cancel, talk about salt on an open wond. So we started to walk to go contacting. As I walked sadly I was thinking of who we could visit, out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy walking with some bags in his hand and the thought came 'Oh hey look its the guy from the Guadalajara......Wait a second the guy from the Guadalajara!' He saw us and came over the greet us and get mad that we didn't come yesterday. We explained what happened so he said, "Well come right now then." To put things simply, we taught him and he accepted to get baptized. Story to be continued...
Well, that's it for the week. Love you guys. Hope all is well.
Elder K
Having technical difficulties--zone picture coming soon...
