A Week of Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to a great friend!

Mi familia!! HEY!! How’s it going this week?? I was super thrilled to get your emails! It’s sad though my emails get less and less each week :( you all must have forgotten about me. Ha-ha jk. But yeah it was so good to go back to Ximeno last week! That area and the people I met, and taught there, will always have a huge impact on my life. I thank God every day for the relationships that have developed by my decision to serve him.

Elder B's Birthday Breakfast

Okay well this past week was a pretty good one! It was Elder B** bday on Wednesday so I treated him to a wonderful breakfast of pancakes (my favorite food) ha-ha that's all I had... but it was good! But as for this week it wasn't as successful and fun as the previous week but there was a lot of good and not so good moments. To begin we had to pass off our miracle find "G**" because he doesn't really speak or understand Spanish sadly... so we had to pass him off to the Single’s ward again. He WILL be baptized in the month of July for sure.  I have never seen someone with such desires to put away bad habits and to be born again through God.  We’re just here to do the work so in the end it doesn't really matter who does the baptizing just as long as they come unto Christ.

The crew!

Elder B**and I had another good week with finding more new investigators! We found V** by trying to visit a LA named C** who actually lives in our apartment complex. As we knocked on the door she assumed that is was her roommate and opened the door, but to her surprise it was two big white guys standing at her door.  She was shocked, but turned out to be very interested and allowed us to teach her. She brought up the BofM as one of her main questions and desired to know why we have it and what it is.  That's what we based our lesson on was the BofM and it went great! She really did seem interested and especially since C** her roommate was an ex missionary.  She also helped us teach, and even had a super bomb prayer at the end for us! Talk about miracles! We can get two birds with one stone.  Now we can reactivate a less active and hopefully convert her best friend, how sweet!

We found and taught J** last night (Sunday). She is a 25 year old woman that we found by knocking doors. She wasn't thrilled to see us, but she said that she won’t turn down anybody that comes by her door trying to do good so she would hear us out. We decided to just spend the majority of the lesson explaining how God is her father and he loves her and how she has been searching for signs to find God and we are here to answer her prayer. She explained how she has no idea who God is and if he really exists and really doesn't care too much about it. We were trying to dig deeper and deeper as to why she feels this way, and sure enough we found the problem. She has given up on prayer a long time ago because "God never responded back to her". Perfect! That was the window we were looking for! We had a great heart to heart for about 10-20 minutes on why we came out to serve God and on how we know he exists. I could tell this really struck home with her because she sort of sat there quietly and then said, "I will try the prayer thing again tonight, I promise!" WHOO!! You best believe I have been praying for God to answer her before our next visit on Wednesday. But both news we found are bomb!

Happy Birthday!

Okay now for some crazy things and funny moments of the week.  I want to share an experience we had with an investigator while we were teaching the first lesson.  So we taught this 18 year old girl outside on her porch since we couldn't go inside since there wasn't a man home.  After we explained the first vision and how God appeared to Joseph Smith, I could tell there was a spirit with us because I felt super good and so I decided to ask her how she felt.   I said, "How do you feel in this exact moment??" She paused and looked up at us and only said, "Well... my feet are cold!" .......clearly not the answer we were looking for, but it was super funny!  You had to of been there to think it was funny!!

Another crazy moment we had was when we had gotten home around 9 pm and we’re waiting by the elevator to go upstairs and this Middle Eastern man comes behind us and says hello and follows us in the elevator. He then asks, "Are you Mormons?” and we respond "yup". At that moment we get to the level we want to exit and he closes the door and stands in front of the door blocking us from leaving. We were both like.. are you kidding?? Then he just starts grilling us with "anti" material and how we are all wrong and going to hell, etc.  He told us that he has died "seven" times and has had Jesus tell him that what we teach is false and that there is no such thing as prophets and revelation. By this time honestly, I am pissed! I am tired and have been walking all day and the last thing I need is to get yelled at in a small elevator by some tiny little man that reeks like beer. So we are all, “Sir, please move we don't want to argue with you at this moment” and he doesn't move.  I am just boiling inside and am all okay well you don't believe that Christ’s church has apostles or prophets? Go right now and look up Amos 3: 7 and Ephesians 2: 19-20 for me and then we’ll talk at a more convenient and professional time. Then we walked out. Ha-ha.

The service master!

But I am doing great overall, the work is moving along and I am learning more each passing week! I also got a car today since my back has just been getting more and more severe each week so no more 40 minute walks home for us.  Whoo!! I love and miss you all so much! Thanks again for all you do and have done for me! Hope you have an amazing week full of many blessings and success!!

Hasta luego y recuerda que nunca te des por vencido!!

Elder Woffinden