The week I turned into a "real" missionary in Mexico

Dear All,

Anyway this week. Well that family of 7 told us they don´t want to get baptized anytime soon, so that kinda sucks, but I´ll just leave it at that. As one door closes, (or 7) others open. We left the house of that ¨chosen¨ family and found some truly prepared people that actually want to progress. Even one guy who wants to quit his job just so that he can come to church with us next week. So that is super cool.

Also this week, I turned into a real missionary in Mexico. That´s right ladies and gents I got bit by my first dog. And it hurt like nothing else.

So we went to do service for this guy cause we were talking and it came up that before the mission I learned carpentry and how to work with power tools and stuff. So we went to go help him build a shed and fence and stuff and his dog was back where we were going to work, so he grabbed it to take it out, and as it passed us, it pulled him just enough to reach me and BAM right on the bottom of my leg. I was just lucky that I had my trusty boots, cause like half of his mouth got my boot and the other half got my leg, so it barely broke skin, but it bruised and swole up pretty good. But yeah. Now I´m a real missionary.

So that´s that.

We also had some cool lessons this week. One is a guy whose whole family recently got baptized, but he never really listened to the missionaries, but one day, Elder Vega and I had an appointment that fell through, and we both felt like we needed to go visit that guy. So we did, and all of the sudden he let us into his house. And we taught him. And it was super cool. But that was back near my birthday. And then he went off to work for like a month and so we didn´t see him for that whole time. But then he came back, and on Monday we had a FHE with their family and the Bishop, and we watched The Testaments, which made everyone, including him, cry. On Wednesday, two members of the ward went to visit him, kind of a like a home teaching thing, and they left and called us and told us to get over there as soon as possible cause he was super excited to get baptized. So we went on Thursday, and really we just talked, but we threw in scriptures and guided the topic carefully, and at the end he accepted a baptismal date. So here´s the lesson. Never give up on partial member families, and two, having members in the lessons or even members who can give lessons by themselves is incredibly powerful. So everyone who is reading this, go get a Preach my Gospel and study chapter 3. The missionaries wherever you are at will be so thankful it´s not even funny.

We also had some cool experiences with Erika, the wife of Hulk. In fact, I don´t know if my last letter seemed kind of short, it´s cause I had to cut it off short because something came up with her. But she is progressing really well, and also has plans to get baptized. So that´s awesome.

And then today we had a pretty dope day. We went to this place called Holdman Studios, the company that makes the glass for the temples. And so we got to see them making the stained glass for the Tijuana, Paris, and another temple in Peru. And it was way cool. I wish I could send all the pictures I took, but they told us that we can´t until after the temples are dedicated, for privacy reasons. But it was way cool.

Anyway, that was my week. Not super exciting, not super boring, but definitely had it´s moments.

Les quiero mucho,

Elder Rawlings