Mateo in MEXICO: Finding the elect, "how can we start over?", the work moves forward.

This week was extremely long, but awesome and super fantastic.

We started out with changes. Haha - IT KILLED ME. I saw the C. Family (one of his favs) and a bunch of missionaries that I love. It was a true treat. I helped the assistants train the new missionaries. It was super fun. I met an Elder C. and he is apparently the cousin of Emma Fletchers’ husband... and he dated Austin Turley’s cousin... haha. So that was a fun conversation. It was a super successful training because the missionaries’ didn’t fall asleep! Apparently they always tend to fall asleep... I mean, they are just brand new here in Mexico and dying from all the craziness, so that is great that they were attentive and learning.

Other things that happened this week... Well we had lots of time to work in our area. I LOVED IT. Finally taught 30 lessons in a week and we had 11 INVESTIGATORS in church. We are moving forward with lots of progress. We taught so many great lessons. Elder R. and I teach super well together. We are in sync with one another and know how to keep whatever situation afloat.

All of our investigators are progressing. I don’t even know if I have time to talk about them all because they are so many.

M. A. is supposed to get baptized this Saturday but we are not sure about anything because he needs a special interview with the President because 9 months ago he wasn’t able to pass the first interview with the Pres. We have faith that he has made sufficient changes in his life to get baptized now. We love him so much and love that he is progressing. We want to avoid him not passing the interview again because it could be devastating. But we are going to do it and move forward.

We also have 2 other maybes that are going to get baptized this Saturday. It is a mother and daughter! They are super fantastic and have progressed so much. They have attended 5 times at church. They have testimonies of the restored gospel. They have defended their beliefs in school, at home, and at work. They are true disciples of Christ. Their countenance has changed and they have such a light about themselves. One is a young woman and the other young women in the ward are already her best friends. Honestly. God’s hand has been so evident in their progress. But its is super weird and annoying that for medical, health, or I don’t know what you call it, reasons... but they are hesitant to get baptized.... I will say nothing more than this... It is that time of the month. So my comp and I are at a loss. Haha. We told them to pray super hard and that we believe in miracles. lol. Hopefully on Saturday everything is great and perfect, because if they don’t get baptized this week they will have to wait two more weeks for General Conference. We would rather not do that. Pray for O. and M. We need a medical miracle.

Another nine year old named K. was going to get baptized this week..... But her mom was like “NO don’t you think you are all going a little bit too fast for this...¡¡?¡?¡?” and I was like “WHAT? Are you crazy?”, but I didn’t say that. She wanted us to teach her daughter in 2 weeks everything she needed to know so she could get baptized with her uncle. But we were like... “NO, we can’t do that”. So we decided to visit her often and to baptize her in like a month... and we have been. But, now the mom went and changed the baptismal date on us. She is going to wait to get baptized with her aunt... another investigator... in 3 weeks. So that gives us more time to teach the lessons.

Her aunt is M. de J. She is one of the elect. So chosen. So prepared. And we love teaching her because she always reads her homework. So great. She is loving the lessons and has come to church 2 times. 3 more weeks and she is getting baptized.

C. is the mother of a recent convert. Then her daughter, E., started going to church and got baptized... C. went awol on her and hated her. Everyone thought she was a lost sheep. Maybe she was, but now she is back on track and has been to church 3 times.... LOVES CHURCH, and she is going to get baptized on October 18th. She is so fantastic. She started reading the Book of Mormon and balled her eyes out when she read Lehi’s dream because apparently she has lived it.. I don’t really know in what aspect, but it is super close to her heart and she already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the restoration. She keeps asking us... “so when are you going to prepare me to get baptized?”... and we are like... “well, we alreadys started”.... Good stuff..

Another new investigator we started teaching is the daughter of the chosen G. I have talked about. A week ago she was in a motorbike accident and her boyfriend died. He was driving her. She was in so much pain and grief and she asked us... “How can I start over?” We taught her the Plan of Salvation and testified that death has been swallowed in Christ. It was a great testimony builder to be able to testify that her friend is okay. We taught her the plan and she came with us to church the next day. She liked it a lot and was super happy. Her name is D.

So many other amazing things happened this week. We had a leadership training. We are getting the Zone so much more excited to work and so much happier. Everything is great. We see miracles everyday. I know that our Savior lives and that He loves us. He has a plan so much better that we could ever imagine for us. He has compassion and mercy for us because he truly KNOWS what it’s like. This gospel is true. Keep sharing this gospel as member missionaries.

CON AMOR,

ELDER MACDONALD