Hola de Hermana, 5/3/12

Hola mi familia fantastica!  

I´m so grateful for your emails and to know you´re continuing to bless so many lives and learn so much!  And thank you for including news from the ward and what you´ve learned about the gospel.  That meant so much to me!  

We´re continuing to work hard.  Sometimes I feel frustrated because I know there is a TON of potential here (two companionships in a TINY area), but that we´re not realizing that potential in baptisms.  It has been easy to let myself feel down and wonder what and how I need to change.  I’m grateful for Hma M and that she is so good at staying positive and helping me to not stress.  

So we´re continuing to try new things, This last week we started doing a spin off of the ¨service scavenger hunts¨ which seem to be a fairly common campus activity in Utah.  Only here, we typed up a list of things we can do to serve people, and have asked people what we could do to serve them, then also who else they know that we could serve (a pretty awesome way to get to know new people without the `people stressing about ¨missionaries¨.  Another great idea of Hma M.  :)  And tomorrow we´re having a devotional in the chapel about the Restauration.  I thought our chapel is in such a visible area and people here are actually looking for truth but don´t know where to find it, why not adverstise a devotional welcoming everybody?  We´ll see how it goes.  We´re asking members to do most of the teaching, and I´m hoping that way they´ll bring their neighbors.  

We´ve been teaching 20yr old Lui for about two weeks, and have a baptismal feche for the 17th, but will probably move it to the 16th because apparently the 17th is a big birthday for Relief Society...  Lui soaks in all the lessons like a sponge.  When we taught him the first few lessons he would ask tons of questions but also explain what he understood so clearly, without having been taught before, that blew me away.  I started telling him, ¨Sabe todo, Lui!¨ The problem of the past few days is that we´haven´t explained our ¨no touching rule¨between us and guys, and he has been getting more and more touchy friendly...  We´re grateful a RM in the ward has been sitting with him and offered to explain the ¨rules¨¨.  We also arranged for five members of the consejo de barrio to agree to call Lui one weeknight each to verify that Lui read his assignment in the Book of Mormon and answer any of his questions.  Lui´s father is a widower, and Lui has four brothers.  They live with their tio and abuelos, and we´re praying that their hearts will be opened that we can enter their house.  Lui still hasn´t told his dad he is going to be baptized.  His family is very Catholic.  

We taught a lesson with 21 people on Jueves.  :)  A grandmother who converted from Evangelism about 5 years ago invited us to have a family night with all her daughters and their kids.  We taught the Restoration.  It was cool, but parts of it reminded me of a salesman-like pitch.  Probably because we hadn´t planned on how or if we would extend commitment invitations, and I didn´t feel like it was as powerful as it could have been.  Another problem was that not one of the spouses of all those women were there...  

I testify that Jesus Christ lives and He is our Savior and Redeemer!  Through the power of His Atonement we can change.  When we want to change, He will help us through the power of the Holy Ghost.  And we have the right and power to rise above darkness, and it is our choice to do so.  In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.

--I love you LOTS!

Hermana Ivy [-]