This week was kind of hard for us in San Fran. Just so you all know, San Francisco is a really famous market place, and people come over here to work and buy all the time. The hardest thing about this pueblo is that a lot of people come here to work and sell during the week, but they don´t even live here, so it´s hard to find people to teach that actually live here. So that´s been a challenge for us here.
We are working really hard with Paloma. She was supposed to be baptized last Saturday, but when she went to her sister to ask for permission (She´s 17 and her sister is her guardian), the sister took her to go talk with a pastor... Great. So she backed off for this Saturday. We were really bummed when that happened. So we went to go talk to her to see what happened.
She basically told us that she wasn´t so sure about being baptized, because she wasn´t sure that she had recieved an answer. (Just so you know, she comes to church every week, goes to early-morning seminary, and is even doing her personal progress. She´s that pilas.) But we talked to her about her answer, and how the Holy Ghost answers our prayers. Well, she has told us that she feels great talking to us, and knows that she needs to be baptized. And when she talked with her sister, she felt doubt, confusion, and such. So I asked her, "Where do those feelings of happiness and joy come from?" She said God. Then I asked her, "Where do feelings of doubt and confusion come from?" She said from the devil. I then asked her, "Now, Paloma, what does that tell you?" She just sat there and smiled. She told us that she was going to talk to her sister and tell her for sure that she has recieved an answer, and that she wants to be baptized. That was quite the exerience for me. Words just came out without even thinking about them, and I know that the Spirit helped me with her. So now we just need to wait how she feels, but it´s very probable that she will be baptized this Saturday.
We´ve found a new investigator this week named Alejandrina. She works her in San Fran, but lives in an aldea about 40 minutes away called Tierra Colorada. The good thing is that it is still part of our area! Jaja we taught her the restoration, and she loved it! She understood everything, and more importantly, she understood what it means for her. She even came to church this week! We have really high hopes for her, so we just need to keep teaching her.
I´ve learned something really important about teaching here in San Francisco. A lot of the people here can´t read (which happens a lot in this mission...), so we need to find the best way to teach those people. And something that we do wrong sometimes is giving them all the answers. In all teaching situations, we need to let people figure it out for themselves, or they will never really retain anything. So many times we go visit someone, and they say, "I don´t really remember what you guys taught me last time..." And that just shows us that we need to really focus on not just teaching the lesson, but making sure that they really understand it.
I´m learning so much here, and with so little time left, I really need to make sure that I am doing all that I can to take advantage of the time that I have left. I that´s what I´m going to do! Until next time!
- Elder Stuart
P.S. Jacob 7:5
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