Dear Family,
I and Hna Duarte… are having emotional breakdowns left and right out here. Well, not so much anymore, but really… one of us was crying like every few days in the last four weeks, but we’ve finally settled down a little and there hasn’t been any crying or angriness for a while. I think it’s just because we are both so stressed. Hna Duarte about learning English, and me about having so many investigators. And President keeps using us as a good example for all the other missionaries because we’ve had so many investigators in church the last few weeks. That stresses me a lot more. One of the reasons I didn’t want to come to Belize is because… there are only about 26 missionaries here, we just kind of get more attention because there’s less of us, and I don’t know… I don’t know why we have so many investigators progressing and going to church all of a sudden. I’ve never had more than 5 or 6 at the most investigators at church at one time, and all of a sudden we have 11 at church… and some of the few people we’ve contacted just showed up to church… It’s crazy.
The Lord really knows where his chosen are, and I know that I am not necessarily working better than I was before. I actually feel like I’ve been working worse, because our area is big and me and Hna Duarte teach a lot less lessons than I was teaching in El Salvador, and… I don’t know why all of the sudden I have the chance to teach lots of people when before the most successful month in my mission we baptized three people. (We’re expected to baptize at least two people every month in this mission).
Jerry and his son Jerry and the Martinez family (Felix and Teresa) are on date to be baptized this Saturday. We also visited an eternal investigator yesterday to try and put a baptismal date with him–we found him once before he went to church the next day (he’s been going to church for years because his daughter and granddaughters and great-granddaughters are members) and he wasn’t very positive–he said he wouldn’t be baptized because he was already baptized. The next time we came he said he would pray, and we were like… Whaaaat?? Really!?? And he prayed specifically, so we had more hope for him, but the problem is that he stays way out in a farm far away so we weren’t able to visit him again until the Zone Leaders called us yesterday.
The elders have been pressuring us a little, because we haven’t taught a lot of lessons these days and although we’ve had so many different investigators in church, we only have 4 baptismal dates… so they’ve challenged us to put 8 baptismal dates by yesterday and today…
So we asked good old faithful Brother Bonilla to take us out to the farm so that we could see if old Brother Fermin (the eternal investigator) had prayed and was ready to be baptized.
So we went out, and we taught an awful lesson practically in the dark, and I felt like we were failing and wasting our time, when I invited Brother Fermin to baptism.
And he said yes.
What?
I repeated the question because I was pretty sure he hadn’t understood (he doesn’t hear very well, he’s in his 60’s) and he said that yes he would try to be ready to be baptized by Saturday.
I didn’t believe him.
But Sister Duarte does. But I often don’t believe that people are serious when they say yes… and often times my companion convinces me afterwards… and Brother Bonilla too, because Brother Bonilla said, “Yes, he’ll get baptized. I’ve been visiting him with years and the missionaries have been trying to put dates with him for years, and he’s always said. NO. When he says yes, he means YES.”
So we’ll… see what happens.
Please pray for Jerry and his sons, Tamara and Terik, Aldo, Felix and Teresa, Martinez Family, Fermin Menjivar, and Fam Briceno (the family that was painting our house… the dad and son went to church this Sunday 🙂 )
Well, I really need to write President. I’ve been doing really good. I’ve been drinking way to much “dalla juice” and eating too many fried Tajadas (green bananas) and Sweet and Sour Chicken. Me and Sis Duarte haven’t even strayed from Sweet and Sour and Chicken Chow Mein because we like them so much… haven’t tried nuthin else.
Love,
Bek
p.s. thank you for praying for my toenails. They’ve miraculously been healing. I think cutting the v’s in them finally payed off and having my feet look like I have frankenstein’s nails… will hopefully end someday soon…