Hey Family!
First off, I got the package! It was awesome to get and be able to read the cards from everybody. It was nice of Todd and Shawna to send one, and Geoff. And now I have the Alphasmart, which is exactly what I wanted, so thank you for getting me one so quickly. Dad, I liked the note to you typed on the file for me.
We had some more new investigators this week. A couple of them honestly seem like they were just saying the right answers so we would leave. But one of the other one’s name is Angel, he is the son of a member and his wife is a member. I think he wants to be baptized, but is not really sure that he does yet. The other one’s name is Ancel, he is really awesome. We have actually been able to teach him once or twice, but he works so much that it makes is a little hard to be able to catch him while he is at home. But he has attended church once and was at the Sunday morning session of conference.
We have Marcos and Bryan that have baptismal dates for the 28 of April. Bryan is the son of the Valensuela family, which we are working with to reactivate. It is kinda tough with him because he is younger and I wonder how much is understanding and how much he is just kinda smiling and nodding to. Marcos is doing really well. He and his girlfriend have a kid, so obviously he needs to get married before he can be baptized, but they have a date to be married the same day as the baptism. He is reading and seems to be progressing well. It helps that his girlfriend, who was less active, is now active so she can help him remember to read and attend church.
One of our other investigators, Marta Gomez, is doing well also. She is super Pilas. Or in English, super awesome. She seems to be one of the few people who actually reads and is not afraid to ask questions, and not questions that are contentious is anyway, but that she actually wants an answer to. Did you guys experience much on your mission that when you were saying the prayer your investigator would also be saying a prayer out loud at the same time? That was unexpected the first time that happened. It was one of my first weeks out, I had to really focus on what I was trying to say. Overall, investigators are going well and we have high hopes for the end of April and for May. In the month of March the mission goal was to baptize on 100 people and we got 102, our goal this month is 110. It is going to be a stretch but I think we can get it.
The language is doing a little better everyday. It is nice that we have time in the morning that is just for studying the language. Elder Corrales helps me learn Spanish and I am able to help him learn some English at the same time, so that works out well.
We dedicated a home this last week. What are your thoughts on dedicating homes? I thought it was kinda cool.
It sounds like the changes that were made in the ward are going to be very good ones. All of those people know how to serve.
The food here is actually fairly good. Nothing to weird, lots of chicken, rice, beans, eggs, and tortillas with every meal. The hard thing are these tiendas everywhere. They are little store areas where you can buy chips, drinks, and all sorts of other snacks. They are hard, but I do good at not piggin out too much. We walk so much it is easy to justify.
The Yoda thing made me laugh, every time I talk in Spanish I feel like Yoda. It is not, “oh how is Markos head?” but “How is the head of Marcos?”
I love you all so much and am so grateful for your continued love and support!
Love Your son and brother,
Elder Marks
P.S. Dad, you could find the video clip you have of me crying and screaming my head off when I was little and just have that playing on loop really loud in the shop. We sure did have some fun times working together in the shop. And I am sure that we will have even more when I am home.