Little league, exchanges, baptism, visa?

Hola Todos!

Esta Semana Era buena!

A lot happened this week.

The little league baseball fields. Pretty cool place!

We had exchanges this Wednesday, where the leader of the missionaries in the district trades with a different missionary. Last week I traded with him, but this week, he traded with my companion, and I got to be in charge of the area for a day. It was very stressful because my companion Elder Madsen is so good at talking to people, and I felt like I had to fill that role. I did a pretty good job according to the district leader. It stretched me a lot, but I felt really accomplished at the end of the day.

On our way back, we took a few minutes to check out the little league world series baseball fields. My companion was two games away from being able to come to the fields when he was in little league, so it was a dream come true for him to be able to see them. It was pretty cool, and I don't yet have a great souvenir from Pennsylvania, so I may buy a hoodie from the shop there, because I didn't pack any kind of informal jacket.

Yesterday, we had a 2 hour long discussion a guy named Lucas about discernment. He was really worried that what we had to offer him was from a deceiving spirit and not the spirit of God. He may still read the book of Mormon, but it will take a bit to help him get over his fears. 

We have also been having great discussions with a lady named Virginia and her mother Linda. They are already very strong Christians, and have been meeting with us so far to understand us Mormons better. I think they are going to be baptized if they continue to read from the book of Mormon. 

Some of our other investigators are not keeping commitments, and it has been hard to help them grow. With some we may have to drop them if they can't understand the importance of the message we share. It will be very sad to do that. 

A member ordered pizza for us. Yay!

Holly was baptized this weekend! It was such a wonderful experience. She was so ready for it. She bore a strong testimony at the end of the service of how she new that this was the right choice for her. The next Sunday (yesterday) she was conformed. That morning she couldn't find her car keys anywhere so a member of the church had to pick her up and bring her to the church. She is planning on attending the temple in a few weeks also. I'm sure she will get her patriarchal blessing soon. I'm so happy for her. She is in such a great place right now

Nicolas who has been investigating the church for a while came to church yesterday! It was wonderful to see him there. He really has a hard time understanding the English church services, so this week we are going to teach him to understand the spirit of the meeting and understand the importance of the sacrament. When we taught him a lesson on Saturday, we told him that we wanted to help him be baptized after his two week planned trip to Peru. He is planning to go to Peru for two weeks and we plan to help him prepare to be baptized after his trip. He wondered why it had to be after, and we told him how Satan tries really hard to stop people from continuing in the church in the first 2 weeks after their baptism. 

He said. "Oh, I have something for satanás (Satan in spanish)"

And he proceeded to pull a Argentinian Mauser rifle out of his closet. 

Elder Madsen and I laughed a lot about that, but it proved to make a great rest of the lesson, because the stronger our faith in Jesus Christ, the better we can fend off the attacks of the devil in our lives. I told him that to prepare for his baptism we were going to help change his faith from a pistol to a rifle or maybe even a cannon! I think he was very excited about that, and will continue to progress well in preparation for his baptism.

More on my Visa in my next post.

This mission has been so incredible, and it has only started. I love you all, and wish you all the best! Till next time, maybe in Ecuador!

Elder Cloward