Email 6/13/11

We had a really good week:) "G" got baptized! She is going to an English-speaking ward because her husband speaks English but we helped teach her!

Also "B" IS GETTING BAPTIZED on the 25^th and it was a MIRACLE! It was so cool. We went over to teach him and the actual lesson was kind of horrible. He was really tired and wasn't paying attention, he hadn't read his "homework", or prayed about baptism, and he was giving one word answers for everything. We were discouraged, but after the lesson was over we were joking around with him and his wife and something came up about music and he was asking about one of the hymns. We bribed him that Sister Hansen would sing a solo of any song he wanted if he just chose a stinking date. We were half kidding, but not. Then we sat there for 15 minutes trying to find the song that he was looking for and all of us were singing him different songs from the hymn book. Then we had 3 songs that he liked so it started to turn into a baptismal program, but he wasn't realizing this. But after singing the spirit finally was there. We made him go and get his little calendar and I said kind of joking but more serious “Beto we aren't leaving without a date!" So he said "Okay, okay I will pray about it this week for sure. I just want to be sure because this isn't something to play around with and I haven't really gotten a strong answer yet." He says that every week!! So I said “Okay, lets go in the family room, kneel and you can pray about the 25th to see if that is the date Heavenly Father would have you be baptized and we promise that you will receive an answer, but we know if you don't pray with us you aren't going to do it". To my surprise he agreed!

So "C" (the wife) went and got the kids because she knew what was about to happen and we all went in the family room and knelt down. Each one of us bore our testimony to him, it was so cool, and we explained again what he was going to ask in the prayer. HE SAID THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PRAYER EVER. He was so sincere and humble and he started to cry, he was talking to Heavenly Father as his father for the first time and pleading to know. He told Heavenly Father he wanted to follow the commandments and do his will, he wanted to be with his family forever and asked if the 25th was right. The spirit was so incredibly strong - one of the strongest times I’ve ever felt it after he asked. He paused and cried. So COOL! When he finished the prayer we all looked up and all of us were crying. His 11 year old daughter jumped on him and told him how proud she was of him and he gave his wife a hug and then looked at us and said "Sign me up for the 25th!" I seriously thought it was a dream. This man is so stubborn and has had 8 different missionaries over the last year and a half! I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to hug him. He thanked us many times for what we do as missionaries and how he knows we are doing the Lord's work and told us how much he respects us and he bore his testimony of how he knew the church was true to us and thank you for being patient with him. SOO EXCITING! The whole ward was in shock with they announced it yesterday! We went to the visitor’s center with him last night and his family, and he was so much more humble then when we first met him. His son is going on a mission in a year and a half and now the whole family can go through the temple and be sealed before he leaves. It was a really incredible experience that I can't explain well enough but I’ll always remember how it felt as he prayed.

Also we had a funny experience. We have been stopping by this family - "J" and "M" and EVERY TIME we go over there we can't get a word in because they talk a lot! They just have story after story AND they always make us eat! :( We have to eat a full dinner every time we go over there and this is usually the appt after we have already eaten dinner. My eyes water every time we have an appt with them and it smells like food because I know I’m about to be forced to eat again. This week before we went into the lesson I said a prayer in the car and asked that we could finally teach and get through to them! SOOO we got in their house…and 1) there was no food!!!!! it was a MIRACLE 2) They had watched the video we gave them and they said “We were talking and we feel really bad because we realized that when you guys are here we just keep talking and never give you a chance to share your message, so tonight we aren't going to talk” and THEY TURNED OFF THE TV which was some important soccer game/cup thing… and they sat and listened and participated as we taught the restoration and it was an awesome lesson and they want to read the Book of Mormon. Heavenly Father answers prayers and has a sense of humor. It really was a miracle.

We had an incredible lesson with "L" as well. She is the one who is pregnant and her husband was killed. We brought over 2 really sweet grandma-type women because she mentioned that she missed being able to talk to her mom when she had her other children so we brought her the moms of the ward. They were perfect. We had told them about her at church and they agreed to come and when they showed up they had bags of stuff for her baby with clothes and diapers. She really needs it because she has nothing. They were perfect for her and just kept hugging her and telling her it was going to be okay. Both of them had lost their husbands too, so they shared their testimonies of how the gospel had helped them and their kids. (One of them her husband died of a brain aneurysm.) "L" was so happy and told us about how she had been praying for help the night that she met us and how she's been looking for a church and pleading that God will show her the way. She says that every time she is having a bad day she has prayed that "Las Hermanas" would come and every time we have randomly showed up. So she knows we are sent to her and she says there is a light about us. It was a really good lesson. They explained how we could have one of the men from the ward come and give her a blessing because she was starting to have contractions and she said she would like one but by the time the guy got off work she was already in the hospital having the baby. So we are excited to see what happens with her. The relief society is going to bring her and her family dinner for the next few weeks.

Okay I’m out of time! I love you:)