April 6, 2015

this week was pretty swell. on my birthday i was on divisions with one of the zone leaders in the morning, and i made brownies. we ended the divisions and went to our lunch appointment (with some brownies, as it was the investigators birthday too). he had forgotten that he had invited us over (he's a bit older) so we just left him the brownies and went and made tacos. a photo of my birthday dinner is attached.

Natanael got baptized on sunday, and everything went fine. the water was a bit cold but it was chill. he got baptized in the conference with 5 other people in the zone.

also this week we got to start using the video Because He Lives for proselyting! it's pretty great, and can invite the Spirit a ton. we saw it with a lady (María) that we contacted and when we asked her how she liked it, she said that it was super powerful. we taught about baptism and she accepted super eagerly, and accepted all the commitments we gave her without any problems. she couldnt go to the conference cus there was a bit of bad weather but has already read quite a bit in the Book of Mormon

we were able to find the Villalba family on thursday, and had a pretty incredible lesson. we saw the video, then taught very thoroughly about repentance and then the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, the law of tithing, and the sabbath day. as we taught each commandment we would hit a few speed bumps, but at the end they accepted them. with the word of wisdom they didnt want to stop drinking coffee (and alcohol a little bit too) but at the end they ended up giving us a jar of coffee powder that was almost full, to take so that they wouldnt be tempted. with tithing and the sabbath day they put a few objections but as we explained more fully they committed to living all of them. we then invited them to be go to the conference on saturday and sunday and be baptized on sunday and they accepted! Esteban had never before even accepted a baptismal date and then they all accepted to prepare for baptism in three days. but then they didnt end up going to the conference either day, and it was a bit tough to get in contact with them, so now we're not sure what's gonna happen. this week was the perfect opportunity to be able to finish teaching them and help them be baptized, as they stopped working on wednesday, and i dont know if we'll have an opportunity like that again, so it'll be a bit tougher from here on out. honestly, we had studied on saturday in the morning how we could have the faith to be able to have that miracle occur, and we read a quote that said that if we can convince the Lord that we are willing to pay any price to help people be baptized, that he will bless us with miracles. on saturday, when we were on the bus to the conference, God gave me an opportunity to convince him, and i didnt take it, and now i feel like i failed the Lord, and the Villalba family, and my companion. it doesnt feel very good, so now i plan to always try harder to have the courage to follow the impressions of the Spirit to be able to ''bring thousands of souls to repentance'' (Alma 26:22) in the short time that i have left.

the general conference was pretty great

Elder Woodfield

photos:

birthday dinner (with a candle)

baptism