Dear Mom and Dad and Friends and Family
This week was super amazing!!!!
We started out like any other week. Walking, contacting,
sweating...having the time of our lives. Then on Tuesday morning we went to
several appointments that we had set up the week before, and all of them fell
through. We had two hours before lunch, and had no one to visit!! So...we said a prayer that we could find a new
investigator in our contact. Meaning
that we could contact and teach someone in the same moment.
I don't know why, but that morning was a lot harder than
normal to contact. Normally we can do five effective contacts in 20 min.
(Effective contact: Get the person's name, address, phone number, an appointment,
and ask them for references). Everyone
was telling us no!! After contacting for
about 45min, without any success we passed this little wooden house, and felt
that we needed to contact it. We called
from the gate, and nobody came. (Here you have to yell from the door, or gate).
We called again, and again...waiting for
someone to come out, but no-one came. We were a little confused because we had
both received the prompting to contact that house. We waited for like 10 min
and no-one came. So...we headed out a little disappointed. We walked like two
streets, and I felt like we needed to go back. I looked at Elder Reyes, and he
had the same feeling. We went back, and
called at the house again. Still no
answer. By now we were super confused,
but we waited at the house. After a
couple more minutes, a very old man came out....super happy, and welcomed us in
to talk to him. We taught him and invited him to be baptized. He accepted and
is now preparing for the 17th of Oct. And
he came to conference!!!!
On Thursday we were visiting some investigators, having a
blast with William. One of our
appointments fell through, and we decided to look for a reference that William
had for us. As we were walking, I was on
the phone with Elder Wenzel (zone leader) talking about the details for this
weekend. We passed a young woman sitting on a bench outside of her house. We
passed her, and William asked us why we didn't contact her. I was on the phone,
but I told them that I would wait while they contacted her. She went inside and
got her Dad. He came out and invited us into his house. We taught his family
lesson 1, and invited them to be baptized. They accepted a baptismal date for
the 17th of Oct. They are a family of 5. Javier and Ruth (Mom and Dad), and their 3
daughters. Heavenly Father put them in our path. They came to conference too!!!! It was so awesome. That first night we ate dinner with them. Sunday night they invited us as well, and this
morning we went and ate breakfast with them. They are so kind, and are always inviting us
to eat!!! Free food is the best by the
way!!!
On Friday we had interviews with President. We had a really
awesome class about rededicating ourselves to the Lord. I guess that this past month was the worst month
that the mission has had with President Morales as President. It was kind of
sad because in August we were visited by an area 70, and Elder Christopherson.
They praised us in how well we were doing as a mission. I guess we let our
pride get ahead of ourselves and we needed to be humbled. I shared in the class about my decision to
rededicate myself to the work and to be focused, and the blessings that I have
received in just a few short weeks. President was a little sad/angry because we
were the best mission in Mexico ,
until the last month. Anyways...this
month is going to be awesome for the whole mission. We are all rededicating
ourselves to the work and should have some awesome results. We are staring a
week by week program to get to the point of baptizing every week. If we do everything right, it is supposed to
work.
Sister Morales gave us a pep talk about how we should be as
missionaries. Super enthusiastic about the work. Full of energy and happy. She also shared with
us that we need to be proactive as missionaries. She planched everyone very
hard because she sent invitations of Conference to all of us, and no one
printed them out. Then she congratulated
my companion and I because we made our own invitations a few weeks ago and had
been inviting tons of people. She encouraged us to think outside of the box for
ways to teach and contact. Elder Reyes and I are trying to come up with some
interesting ways to do it. Let me know
if you have any ideas.
For the interviews with President we had to bring a list of
every single one of our investigators, their needs, and baptismal dates if they
have them. President was super happy when I brought him our list with 17
baptismal dates in October!!!! We are working super hard to make all of them
happen. We had a nice talk, and he gave me some advice to become a powerful
missionary.
After the interviews, we went to the doctor to check out
Elder Reyes' knee. One of his legs is longer then the other!!!! We have to go back next week for an x-ray.
That is exciting. After the doctor
appointment we didn't have change for a taxi, so we walked all the way to the
bus station. It took us 45min. but it
was cool to see a bit of Villahermosa .
Conference was super amazing!!! I didn't get to see it in English, but that's
okay. I still got a lot out of it. I Loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk Saturday
Morning. It was super awesome. As members of the Church, we all need to make an
effort to devote our time and energy to things that truly matter, uplifting
others, and building up the Kingdom
of God
I also loved Elder Holland’s talk about mothers. Mothers
really are devoted...and are willing to sacrifice and suffer in order to help
their children. Mom, I want to
personally thank you for everything you have done for me. You will always have
a special place in my heart.
President Thomas S. Monson said something that all of us
should take to heart. ''As we make Christ the center of our lives, our fears
will be replaced by the courage of our convictions.'' I encourage all of you to think about that.
With this courage, you will be an example and a light to everyone. You won't be
scared to invite or share your beliefs. Have the courage to be an example and a
light.
There were a thousand more things that I learned and loved
about conference. Today I downloaded a bunch of the talks in English and I will
be listening to them all week!!!
We had a grand total of 8 investigators that came to the
Conference. That puts us at 11 that we can baptize this month. (Every
investigator has to come to church before they can be baptized). We are working
with a bunch of others to get more people prepared for this month.
Mariana is supposed to get baptized this Saturday. We are
going to visit with her tonight to figure out the little details!!!!
Here in the mission, we memorize a scripture every
week...assigned by Pres...but I am also going to start doing my own. The
difference is that they will all be in Spanish:) Mine this week is D&C
101:38.
Hey....our mission has a Facebook page. You should look for
it because they upload baptism pictures every week.
I am going to miss Thanksgiving...they don't have it here,
but there is Dia de los Muertos. It starts November 2nd and goes for like all
of November.
Good luck at yet another Homecoming!!!! Jenna...you are
super popular!!! I like both of the dresses. Elder Reyes and William say the
sparkly one:) You are super beautiful
Jenna. Have Fun!!!!
As for Christmas....Things I would like: Rubiks Cube,
Yo-yo (the one that you sent before broke), sour gummy worms, and an American
Flag.
Things I need: A new backpack. One like the one I
have. One with a shoulder strap and a waist strap. The one I have is falling
apart. It will last me until Christmas, but I will need another.
If I think of anything else...I'll let you know.
Thanks again for everything!!!! I Love You so much.
Love,
Elder Cavenee
P.S. Today we rented the Go-Karts in Centro!!!
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