Cardenas Week 2

Hey Guys,  (Note from Mary:  This is from Monday, Mar. 14th)

I'm sorry that this is going to be a little shorter that last week because I don't have as much time, but I'll get in all the detail that I can.

First of all, I am so happy to hear how you are all doing. It seems like you are all keeping very busy back at home. I can't believe that we are already halfway through March. Time is just flying by.

This week was just as crazy as last week. On Monday, we had giant Nerf war in the church for like three hours. It was awesome!!!

Tuesday was the only day that I was able to work in my area with my companion. Like always, we worked really hard. We found this couple, Andres and Martha. They are golden investigators. The only problem with them is that they are not married. We cannot baptize them until they are married. So...we looked up all of the information and helped them find all of their papers. Then we found out that Andres was married before. He separated from his wife, but never got divorced. That was three years ago, so now we are trying to help him get his divorce papers from her, so that he can get married to Martha. That process takes like a month, so we have to wait for all of that to go through. Andres and Martha want to be baptized so bad. They come to church every week and are doing everything that they can to complete with that goal. they are awesome.

At 8:00 our lesson fell through, so we went contacting. I contacted this house, and a drunk guy answered the door. We asked if anyone else was there, and he was with his 8year old daughter. Realizing that he was the only adult home, and that he was drunk, we told them that we would come back later. This guy got a little mad and told us to come in. We told him we would come back another day, but he insisted that we come in and teach him. He finally threatened us that if we didn't come in, he would shoot us with his pistol. That scared us and we didn't know what to do, so we went in. We sat down and he offered us food. We told him we were okay, and he threatened us again. He told us if we didn't eat, he would shoot us with his pistol. He sent his daughter in the kitchen to prepare the food. He then told us to go help her. So, we went into the kitchen and started helping Miriam. She told us not to worry because her dad didn't have a gun. She told us that she lived there with her dad and her 12 year old brother. We asked if her dad drank a lot, and she told us that sometimes he does. She was very sweet. We packaged the food up, and were getting ready leave when the dad asked us to give his children blessings. We gave them blessings. It was a Spirit filled moment. At the end, I was crying, my companion was crying and the dad was crying. He promised that he was going to stop drinking and that he would try to be a better dad. We set up an appointment with him for Friday. It was an awesome experience.

Wednesday we went to district class in Cárdenas to visit the other district. Elder Enriquez (my second companion) is district leader there. He gave a really good district class and we introduced the new video from the church for Easter. It's called ''Hallelujah'' https://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_SU_3-13-2016_dMIS_fSPC_xLIDyL1-A_. It is really good. Post it on facebook and share it with everyone. We are using it here now to find new investigators. It is really good. After district class, Elder de los Cobos stayed in Cardenas, and I went back to my area with Elder Antauywa. I spent the day working with him. It was super fun. I taught him how to be more effective in his lessons, and to be able to invite to baptism without fear. He gets very nervous when it comes to inviting to baptism, so we taught a lot of lesson 1 inviting them all to baptism. He got a lot better by the end of the day, and we some improvement in their area in the rest of the week.

On Thursday, Elder Antauywa went back to his area with his companion, and I went to Petrolera to do interviews for the sisters. My companion was in Cunduacan in other divisions, so I took Elder Dimas with me. It was really fun. We went out to a little pueblo and met Sister Longi and Sister Freire to do their interviews. I interviewed a 12 year old boy named Jonathan. He was super cool, and was super ready for his baptism. His mom gave us pozol (corn dough blended with water) with peanuts. It was super good. I'm pretty sure that none of you would like it, but it is delicious.  

Afterwards, we went outside and took pictures in the field that was right outside of his house. Then we headed into Cardenas to meet with another investigator of the sisters. I spent almost two hours talking with this mom and her son. They had decided that they wanted to wait longer to get baptized. I talked with them for two hours about the Holy Ghost and influence that it has in our lives. We talked about the blessings that come from obedience, and the blessings that come from having the Holy Ghost in your life forever. With the help of the Spirit, they let go of their fears, and decided to be baptized this week. After we finished the interviews, we went out and ate tacos. Tacos al pastor. They are seriously the best tacos I have ever eaten in my life, and they do not exist in the United States. That night we stayed with Elder Chavesta and Elder Barajas.

Friday morning we headed back to Comalcalco, and Elder Dimas stayed with me working in our area. Elder de los Cobos was with Elder Alejandro (president's secratary) visiting other areas and trying to save baptismal dates. We found some really cool people. We went and visited Miriam, and her dad again. This time he wasn't drunk. We taught them lesson 1 and they accepted baptism for this Saturday. We are going to visit them again tomorrow.

Sorry, I don't have much time left.

Saturday was a normal working day.

Sunday I gave a talk in church about missionary work between members and missionaries. We had three investigators at church....130 members. At night we had ward choir practice. It was great.

This week was crazy, but it feels so good to work so hard. I hardly have time to think about myself, or be with my companion.

I Love you all so much!!!

Love,

Elder Cavenee

Baptismal interviews

Random Picture I found on my camera