Week 64

Alright! Another week, and another step closer to Christmas.

This week was interesting! I got a little sick during the week so our work for the week kind of went down but we still had good experiences.

I had to stay in the house on Wednesday to get better and we had a massive activity on Thursday that took up the whole day and that left us with two days less in the week.

I’ll tell you about the highlights and the updates from the week.

First: the activity:

We had an awesome activity on Thursday using ''He is the Gift''. Our zone got together and we were able to get a hold of 3 TVs, a huge speaker system, tables, and all the missionary hand outs and copies of the Book of Mormon that were available. We went to a plaza Downtown and set up a big area where we showed Because of Him and He is the Gift where people passing by could see it. It was AWESOME. We stopped hundreds of people and were able to tell many about the true meaning of Christmas. It was awesome to see how many people stopped to see the video. It sure brought the feeling and spirit of Christmas to all of us. It was a sure success. We gave out a huge box of copies of the Book of Mormon and President Arrington, his wife, and the assistants even showed up.

Second: We finished up the service project from painting the old house of Rosita Castillo. We had a good time while painting the house.

Third: We had interviews with President this week. And for a special twist he made us teach him for 5 minutes about the Atonement. It was a bit intimidating but it went really well. The interview helped me a ton. It is always good to talk to president.

We found a way cool guy this week who has been sharing with the missionaries and had almost gotten baptized. His name is Ramón and he is 103 YEARS OLD. He’s really old and about the nicest little old man you could ever imagine. Apparently he was actually 100% ready to be baptized, and got to the week of his baptism and his highly Evangelical family came and talked him out of it. Now he is under restraints to leave his house from his family and everything, but it was good visiting him. We don't see it as very possible that he could get baptized but we at least want to prepare him well for when he passes on.

We are focusing on two investigators at the moment. All the rest have faded away.

First, Francisco. We weren't able to find him this week because he was busy with family commitments and he also got confirmed in the Catholic church. We aren't too worried because recently he has had some serious doubts about what people have been doing in their church and from some scriptures he had found that were contrary to some doctrine, so we are working with that! He didn't make it to church this week but we are looking forward to this weekend.

Second, Macarena. She is the girlfriend of a less active boy that has been out of the church for quite some time. She is 15 and pregnant and the less active is named Hanz and is 17 years old. She has been super interested in the church and has had the desire to attend on Sundays and everything. We are working with her a bit slower because President doesn't wanting us baptizing her too fast to make sure that she is committed and has a support system before all of that.

It’s a short letter but that's all I’ve got! Thanks for everything guys! I love you so much. I love hearing from you and what's going on in your lives.

Thanks for all the work you have done to print off all the pictures I lost. Thanks for the sacrifice!

I miss you guys tons especially during this Christmas season. I wish I could be there with you enjoying the possibly white lawn with the hot chocolate and the Christmas tree and all that comes with it! Just enjoy it all for me. I love all of you so much! Until next week!

Elder Ethan Haws