I have to say, it is discouraging to type this
letter to you right now, knowing that you are in Goblin Valley right now
probably having a blast ;) . Did you take the Dune Buggys and 4 wheelers? I had
always wanted to go there with you guys! I hope that we can when I get back.
Glad to hear that all the girls are
excited for school to get out. It will be fun for them to have a break :) I
know that ShayLynn will enjoy summer even more now that she can drive :)
Since you will probably get this
after you get back, I hope that you were able to have a super fun time together
as a family :) you were all in need of a good break :)
Last Monday for P day we went Ice
Skating again as a Zone :) It was fun, it was just that it cost 100 pesos, for
1 hour, which is a lot for a missionary :) I had to hold myself back buying
groceries today :) We ended up getting back kinda late to our areas though, but
it was fun. I didn’t fall! Elder Harper didn’t skate though, just me and those
with the Zone.
On Tuesday I had a companion
exchange with our district leader, Elder Ereckson. It was just as hard as all
the other days in finding people to teach. We did find two new investigators
though, One is Martin, who has an Arabic symbol of some sort tattooed on his
forehead and who hates the corruption of the government, and his niece AnahÃ.
The lesson went awesomely and at the end said a kneeling prayer and then while
still on our knees asked them how they felt, and they gave various responses
that we confirmed were the Holy Ghost. they seemed really excited to come to
church, but didn’t show up this week...we´ll see if we can find them to teach
them again,
That day we also taught the Word of
Wisdom to Bety and Valente. We already knew that they drank coffee and had an
alcohol rack. The lesson went really well, and Bety has completely stopped,
while Valente, her husband, is little by little. And they all came to church
Sunday too! It was Ward Conference, so it was a really great Sunday for them to
come, with really good talks and a choir and everything. I think they really
liked it. I did :) we went to Visit them last night, but the lesson didn’t go
too well... we let them chit chat for too long, and while trying to give the
lesson, Valente kept bringing up different movies about religions and priests
and the bible and stuff, that are not true (for example, the Debtor of Sins and
The Fifth Gospel). He has a lot of ideas swimming around in his head, and we
are trying to help him little by little straighten them out. Bety most of the
time would just smile and shake her head when he brought them up, and try to
help us out by saying that movies are from someone's imagination, not fact.
They are progressing splendidly though, especially Betty. She is so
awesome!!!!!!!
We have found a few non active
members this week. Not taught them, but found them. We went looking for one of
them in their house (Patricia DeLeon), but didn’t want us to come in because
she was busy, but then chatted with us for 20 minutes on her doorstep, talking
about how she loved the church in her childhood and all those good memories. It
was hard for me to understand why she wasn’t active when she had such a
testimony! She said that her house was our house and invited us to eat a free
ice cream and some chicken if we stopped by her business sometime, but frankly
told us that she didn’t have time to go to church.... And another lady randomly
came up to us as we were standing there in the street studying our planners,
and invited us to eat dinner for free in her restaurant. We tried to go and teach
her (Olga, a non active member) a lesson, but she was running around the whole
time working, so, our hope of getting a lesson with her failed... but the
burrito was fantastic! It just makes me sad... they know that the church is
true, but they just don’t go or live it!
We finally had a decent day on
Friday, with 5 lessons! the rest of the week was like one or two a day. I was
sitting there banging my head on the table during companionship study trying to
think what we could do to teach more lessons. I just wanted to teach so bad but
we couldn’t find anyone! That day turned out to be a pretty good one though,
luckily :) I am realizing that I need to have more faith in our investigators
and the people we contact. So many people let us down when they say they will
do something but don’t do it, but I can’t let my faith waiver because of that.
Faith Faith Faith! And even if we don’t have any more success, we still have
Bety and Valente who are super awesome, and if we have to trudge through just
for them, it is totally worth it!
Yep. The old ladies like the two
nice white young men. Lupita, our 66 year old investigator, treats us like her
grandsons, and...... on occasions gives us a hug... which we cannot do as
missionaries.... it is super awkward, and she gets offended so easily.... we´ll
see if we can help her understand what’s up. And then I got my first kiss on
the mission too.... but not like that! it was an old woman we contacted. as we
said goodbye and shook her hand, she went up to kiss our cheeks! That was even
weirder.... the thing is, is that is acceptable here. to greet someone, you
shake their hand and give them a kiss on the cheek. We just can’t do that as
missionaries, and on occasions the people don’t understand that.
On Saturday the Sister Missionaries
had a baptism! They baptized Narciso, a youth of 17 years old who is good
friends with a family in ward. We has been going to church since I got here,
but it was hard for him to say yes to being baptized and picking a date,
because he is the only one in his family to be a member. but he finally chose
to go through with it this Saturday! While they were changing their clothes
after the ordinance, Elder Harper and I got up and taught the First Vision, and
then we sang a musical number with all the missionaries. It was much less stressful
than conducting the meeting like the last baptism I participated in :)
Well, I hope that everything is
going awesomely back at home! Thank you so much for your prayers and your
support. I really appreciate it.
I love You!
Love Elder Hayden Redford
P.S. Yes, I took out the 50 dollars, and no, I still haven’t
received the package!
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