Hey everyone!
It's definitely Wednesday... this is litterally the first chance I've had to write on a computer since Sunday. Don't worry, I didn't forget about you!! So here I am writing you again after another week of pure Oaxaca magic. This week went by pretty fast. First we had ZL conference, thenthe day after we had our zone meeting. Between these two activitiesthe week was pretty much eaten up. It's all good though because theyboth turned out good.The first conference was loooong. Usually we have a break after the first two or three hours where we eat a little somthin' before heading into the long section but this time we did thebreak right as we got there... So basically we were sitting in the same spot with no breaks for over 6 hours. It goes by quick but towards the end we were starting to get pretty antsy. After that we usually go to the temple but because of the new way the pres is doing things our zone goes on the first Wednesday of each month. Since we had already gone this month we weren't able to go. We did, however,get to go storm a mini restaurant! After the conference was over and before the temple session the pres and the assistants took us all to a mini restaurant of some members where we flooded in like the sardines flood the krusty krab on Sponge Bob.
Zone meeting was fun. We had some training and passed down the info we got in our conference and then had a little cheezy nacho refreshment.
Photo attached
Another thing that I'm very excited about that I did this week is I bought a little white board for the house! The leaders' houses in this mission lack just about everything you need to be productive, so instead of buying poster after poster to keep zone information easily in sight and in mind by putting it visibly on the wall (which is also a huge hassle if you need to update information which happens about every week...) I decided to pick up this bad boy! (see the pic) It's been super sweet to have. Even more helpful than I thought it would be. We can now easily keep track of the progress of each area in the zone and have it be something we view several times a day keeping us very well informed. I think it should be a standard tool in the house of every pair of ZLs.
Also another cool purchase I made this week was a MINI-PAN!!! booyah. pic attaced. Perfect for makin' Eggs and pancakes.
I don't know if I commented to you all about an experience I had a few weeks back. I showed up to do a baptismal interview with an investigator girl form the ward "Fortín." When I got there all ready for action turns out the first thing she says to me is that she wasn't ready to be baptized. I told her not to worry but that I would still like to talk to her to see if I could help. We talked for the better part of an hour where she expressed some very vague concerns and I did my best to figure out what the problem was while teaching her the Doctrine of Christ. (Repentance, Baptisim)
I said everything the spirit helped me to feel that I needed to tell her and bore my testimony as sincerely as I know how and told her that God loves her.I challenged her to pray about it and ask God if it was something she needed to do and that when she got her answer we would be right there to help her do it. She said she would. So that's how that played out. I had faith that someday she would get baptized but wasn't sure if I'd get to be there.
So this week I get a call on Tuesday that Fortín needed another interview and that it was the same Cecilia that I had interviewed before. That she was now ready to be baptized! This thrilled me for obvious reasons. So Friday after helping a member move a fridge and zipping through the centro in the back of an El Camino style car which made us super dizzy, we arrived at the church! I sat down with her and the first thing I asked was what had changed and how she had gotten her answer. She said that she knew all along that it was something that she needed to do but was afraid of the change, but through prayer, reading scriptures, and talking with us she has overcome the fear and it has turned into excitement :D I congratulated her and then continued with the interview. She was super ready.
The coolest part is this: at the end of every interview the last question is always "Who do you want to baptize you?" well, after trying to convince her to decide between Elder Jimenez and Elder Habecker or some other guy from the ward, she responded, "es que... me gustaría que usted me bautizara." Translation, "Well um... I'd like it if you baptized me." I was like...ME??? kinda caught me off guard so after stumbling over my words just a little and recollecting my cool a bit I said "of course!" "I'd love to!"
Long story short, I showed up the next day and had the privilege to baptize Cecilia. It was sweet :)
oh one more thing... I DROVE A MOTOTAXI TODAY!!!! I just took it up and down a little backstreet but ya. Pretty much accomplished a life goal there. SCORE!!! :D
The owner is a less active recent convert that we just started working with. After driving the little bugger we had a super pilas lesson with him right there in the mototaxi :) He then drove us here. So now you are officially updated to the minute! Don't get much better than that y'all. Also one more thing. I have my official itinerary for when I fly home! Yes, that means I know what planes I'll be taking, which airports I'll stop in, and most importantly the time of day when I get back home!!! I will forward you the exact email they sent me :)
See you in 5 weeks!
Love,
E. Spencer Henze
