Week 55 (1/17/11) Email to Mom

So last week Elder Coats, my district leader came here to Jagüel with Bryce and said he was going to find out if Guillermo is married or not. When you ask if people are married you kind of have to dig to find out because if you just ask a simple how long have you been married, they'll tell you how long they've been together. Coats told me that yes they are married. So this last week we were at Guillermo's house and I felt like I needed to be sure about the marriage thing so I pulled out my arsenal of seemingly innocent marriage probe questions. Turns out they aren't married. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE JUST GET MARRIED?! I'm so tired of the whole marriage problem. Guillermo is progressing great and was supposed to be getting baptized this coming Saturday but now he's going to have to wait til they get married which I don't know how long that will be. He seemed to take it well when I told him he has to get married before he gets baptized but he seemed a bit taken aback, kind of discouraged. The next time he and his wife were there and they seemed fine with it, even made a couple jokes about how they've been dating for 23 years, but still he seems a tiny bit not as committed or excited or I don't know. He didn't come to church and wasn't there for the last appointment we had with him. I think everything is fine, its just a small setback, and he will continue moving forward; I expect to see him in the water before I leave.

     I kind of feel like I'm missing some kind of the formula to getting people baptized. It has now been 7 months since I have helped someone make the covenant of baptism and that is a long time in this mission. I am finding people and setting goals with them to help them reach baptism, but somewhere along the line something happens and they drop off. I couldn't help but feel a little discouraged last night as my 5th dry transfer in a row came to an end-I'm trying and working hard, but it made me reflect and think about what I need to change, what I need to sacrifice to take my effort to the next level to find the people that are looking for the truth. Elder Bryce and I talked about it last night and set some goals for the transfer to come to be more obedient, to sacrifice more to be more diligent so that we can prove to the Lord and the Spirit that they can trust us and show us where to find the people that are waiting. I read a good talk by Elder Scott from the Ensign with King Benjamin on the front about recieving personal inspiration from the Holy Ghost. That is something that I feel like I really need to learn out here on the mission. President Eyring said somewhere-I'm not really sure when or where-that he doesn't understand why sometimes some of us have to try so hard and sacrifice so much-more than other people- to prove to the Holy Ghost that he can depend on us and show us where the prepared people are at. I feel like the Lord wants me to learn this process before he shows me where they're at. It's a trial for me to learn from. To show that I really want it. I really want to learn to work with the Spirit. To be able to discern what He is trying to tell me. My patriarchal blessing talks about working with the Spirit on my mission to have success and I don't feel like I have been giving my all. I have been working hard but I haven't given my all. I want to be able to say I gave my all when my work here is done. We're going to take it to that next level this transfer. The Lord needs valiant servants and I hope that I can show the Lord that He can depend on me. Thanks for everything Mom. I love you!

Love, Matt