Luis's Baptism and other happenings

Hello Family,



Anyway, this past week has been an amazing week because Luis is the man. He is super cool and I love to go over and teach him just because we are super tight and we get along really well. It is amazing how much he loves every little aspect about the gospel. For example, we were heading over to a member's house for dinner last week and he called to ask who the three nephites were, if we were them, or if it is actually real. He thought it was so cooled that they were still on the earth and he was really excited. On Saturday morning at about 11:00 AM he finished the Book of Mormon and at 2:00 PM he was baptized. It was the coolest day. I had previously bought a triple combination and an extra LDS bible and we wrote our testimonies in them and gave them to him on the day of his baptism and he was super excited.

So anyway, Luis' baptism was one of the most amazing baptisms that I have ever seen. There were more people than I have ever seen at a baptism. The room was overflowing and we had to have the doors open. Luis said that he would not choose between he should perform the baptism because he felt bad and I know that Elder Esplin really wanted to do it and so I told him to do it since he doesn't have very good spanish and I would perform the confirmation in church. It worked out very well and I actually ended up perform the baptism for one of the sisters investigators named Josue Garza at the same service. The spirit was very strong in the service and in the dressing room Luis was in tears and was very thankful. They both shared their testimonies after. It was very touching and Luis knows without doubt that this gospel is true.

One of the coolest things about it is that Luis' mom came and we had taught her the first lesson the day before so she came looking for an answer to know if the gospel was true. She is very smart and intellectual but a little lacking in faith however I know that she will get her answer soon. We all feel it. Now she says that she has seen miracles in Luis' life and he has changed a ton, and she likes the church and believes it is good for him but she doesn't know it for herself. However, she is reading the Book of Mormon, one chapter per day, and I know that she will get the answer that it is true. Luis is already planning on doing her baptism and we have a tentative baptismal date for her, provided that she gets the answer, scheduled for the 7th of August. Her and I are very close because Luis mostly speaks English and so does Elder Esplin but she and I always speak in spanish and we always are talking together. I love her to death and I am so looking forward to the day in the future that she gets baptized. I hope it is soon because Luis will be leaving on a mission in one year but if not now I know at least during that time God will do some kind of miracle so that she accepts the gospel.

Guess what, Luis wants to come out as a missionary with us now but he doesn't have a car or a bike. Well anyway, he found a kids bike with training wheels way back in his garage and he is going to take them off and ride it with us to our appointments. He is a really small skinny kid so it might work out but it will still look a little ridiculous.

Oh they are doing a whole lot of worldwide missionary work changes. They are going to be changing the MTC cirriculum and with that they are changing a whole lot of policies. Tracy, it is not just you that will be having zone conferences only once every two transfers, it is worldwide and same with the new teaching programs.

I love my mission. It is fun and good. I testify that that is true.




Meanwhile, Luis is going crazy with the missionary zeal. He is sharing the gospel with everyone and we have two lessons today that he set up for his friends. He talks to everyone on the street and everybody he knows about the gospel. I think that he is beating us at our own game but that is alright, anything to get the gospel out. He is finding so much joy in spreading the gospel. He called us up on the phone last night and left a message that was him screaming "Call me back,Call me back,Call me back,Call me back,Call me back,Call me back,Call me back, hey this Luis!" We called him thinking that maybe his mom had died or something. Nope, he was just excited to tell us about all the people with which he was sharing the gospel. He was saying, " the people don't get it, they are all good with Christ and all, but they don't realize that they don't have the full truth!" Needless to say, Amazing! He received the Aaronic priesthood yesterday and he is super excited. Their is another sister in the ward name Amelia Contreras that we baptized at the beginning of this last transfer, She is in her fifties and she has a very strong testimony and is always sharing the gospel too. Her testimony at the day of her baptism is one of the things that helped Luis convert. She loves just Christ but struggles to understand the doctrines of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She is Luis' hero and so he decided that he is going to go over to her house everyday to study the Book of Mormon with her and to help her continue reading and understanding. He said "I will teach her the Book of Mormon, and she can teach me how to be a good person!" He cannot wait to home teach, he says that it will be his opportunity to be a missionary specifically assigned to certain families and he said that he can't wait. He is incredible. One year and he will be able to serve his own mission. Every time I am at his house I leave praying constantly in my mind thanking God for this tender mercy to have found Luis. He was so prepared. I know that he will be a leader in God's Kingdom and I am just so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to be a part of his conversion. This experience alone has made my mission. It has changed my life dramatically. Luis and I will be friends eternally and I know that he will be the means of bringing thousands of souls unto Jesus Christ. I know also that in time his whole family will convert. They will follow his example and find the truth. Just this sunday his step brother came to church for the first time and his mom came for the second time.

Oh yeah, and other news... At Luis' house yesterday we had sopa de mariscos, seafood soup. Mom will be so proud of me, I ate it all and I even liked it relatively well. My least favorite foods, soup and seafood. In it contained full shrimp, the kind where you have to rip of the heads and pull out the tails, crab, various other unidentifieable fish, and octopus. Octopus was actually really good except the outer skin. That stuff is like pure fat. Please be proud.

Our district is on fire. We are having baptisms every single week and we have at least one scheduled every week for the next 4. We have so many good potentials. I have never seen anything like this. Maybe it is to make up for the dryspell we had in baytown. Whatever it is, I feel like we are seeing miracles daily and I have so much desire to work. I love the gospel. I would do anything to find another person like Luis, or even better, a whole family. I know that we are finding more and God is granting us so much success and it is not because of our own merits. You can't merit success, God only gives success. That is something that I have learned because I worked very hard with Elder Jex but we did not have baptisms. They come as a gift from God. I am so thankful to him right now.