6 Months!

August 1, 2016

Jeffrey served with us this week.

I can't believe I've already been out 6 months. We had a mini-missionary with us this week named Jeffrey and he's been a lot of fun to have around. And, since he's a native Hispanic, he's been able to teach Elder Curtis and me lots of Spanish. He's 21 and currently attending college here in Texas and his family is from Guatemala. Coming into the week he wasn't really sure if he wanted to serve a mission, but he was willing to give it a try and see how he felt about it. He's had a good attitude, even when it's hot out knocking doors and no one seems to want to listen. By the end of the week he decided that he will serve a mission after the school year next spring. He will be the first missionary to serve in his family because his parents are converts. 

Jeffrey discovered that missionary work never stops...

...and wears you out.

But we had a great time!

Anyway, this week was pretty rough. We spent a lot of time knocking doors and asking members for referrals to seemingly no avail. However, on Thursday we received a member referral, and the family we visited was a part member family that just arrived from Venezuela. The mom was baptized when she was 15, but has been inactive for awhile. We didn't have a ton of time with them, but we invited them to church and they came and really liked it. We are going to have a family home evening with them tonight and talk about eternal families. We are pretty excited for them. 

On Sunday we had 5 investigators come to church, which made it nice to see some of the fruits of our hard work. Later on Sunday, one of our buddies named Benito from English Class called us up and wanted to play soccer because he was bored. We told him we can't play soccer on Sunday, but that we could teach him about what we do as missionaries. He agreed, and we ended up teaching him the restoration, and it was a super good lesson. He teared up a little bit at the end because he felt the spirit really strongly. I guess the elders have been trying to teach him for a few months but now he's finally willing to give the Gospel a try. 

It's been a very uplifting end to the week. It is amazing to see the desires people have to change their lives according to the will of God. I was reading in the Book of Alma chapter 42 this week and came across something that stuck out to me:

30 O my son, I desire that ye should deny the justice of God no more. Do not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point because of your sins, by denying the justice of God; but do you let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full sway in your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility.

As we accept our faults rather than justify them, we allow God to come into our lives and change our nature, rather than just our behavior. As we let Him in, He is able to show us how we can improve in order to be happy and feel peace.

The whole Santizo family

Look at these great soccer jerseys we found at the flea market!