Hola mi familia!
I hope this email finds everyone doing great! Including Buddy and the cats. I hope that this last week was a good solid week.
This week we also have changes so next week I will be writing you from somewhere also and giving you the run down on the new companion. Hopefully he is not a dweeb. :) Dad, last week you asked about the missionaries here in the mission. Overall, this in one of the more obedient missions in Guatemala. There is always disobedience but nothing too huge. There are lots of great missionaries, especially the ones from Idaho. However, there are also lots of really white ones from Utah. :) Overall the Latinos are great. With Elder Rodriguez, he really wants to know things that he can do to be a better missionary.
With investigators the biggest news is with the Gonzales family. The mom still does not want to progress, though everybody else in the family has desires to progress and get baptized. However, according to the rules, if somebody is younger than 15 and they are not being baptized at the same time as a parent, they need three months of assistance. The only one in the house who is older than 15 is Jenny. In one of our lessons this last week we went around the room, and one by one they shared their thoughts and desires about baptism. All four of the kids and the dad expressed great interest and desires to be baptized. The mom also did, but only so-so. When it was Jenny’s turn she said that she wants to be baptized and that she now does not have any fear or doubt about the step of baptism.
All of this happened last Friday and she accepted to be baptized this Saturday. However, when we went to visit them on Tuesday, there was a change in her firmness to be baptized. After talking for awhile we found out it was because of the mom! The mom is letting her own doubts and memories of baptisms in the Catholic church that happened when they were babies, change her mind. She had talked to Jenny and put more doubts and fears in her mind. Like what happens if you mess up after your baptism. At the end of the lesson we took some time to talk to just the parents, we were very clear and direct on a few things. We talked about the importance of supporting their daughter and reminding that in the Bible people were baptized more than once, and that Jenny had received her own answer and how this is something that she wants to do. We agreed that at least for last night and today that they would give her some space and not really talk about the baptism thing with her. Both my companion and I feel a mixed range of emotions: sadness, frustration, and also kinda mad, but with the realization that everybody can make their own decisions. We will be visiting them again tomorrow to see what’s up.
When Elder Rodriguez and I got back to the house we were feeling a little bit like, “what the flip Kip” because of some of the other things that also happened during the day. We remembered an awesome video so we watched it and felt a little better. :) This video is talking to mission presidents and missionaries but applies to all of us in this life. It is a little over eight minutes long, but it is worth the time. You should watch it as a family tonight.
I love you all so much! I pray for every one of you daily. Make this week a good week, if every week we are a little better than last week, we will eventually be perfect.
Love, your brother and son,
Elder Marks
Video: The Atonement and Missionary Work
I hope this email finds everyone doing great! Including Buddy and the cats. I hope that this last week was a good solid week.
This week we also have changes so next week I will be writing you from somewhere also and giving you the run down on the new companion. Hopefully he is not a dweeb. :) Dad, last week you asked about the missionaries here in the mission. Overall, this in one of the more obedient missions in Guatemala. There is always disobedience but nothing too huge. There are lots of great missionaries, especially the ones from Idaho. However, there are also lots of really white ones from Utah. :) Overall the Latinos are great. With Elder Rodriguez, he really wants to know things that he can do to be a better missionary.
With investigators the biggest news is with the Gonzales family. The mom still does not want to progress, though everybody else in the family has desires to progress and get baptized. However, according to the rules, if somebody is younger than 15 and they are not being baptized at the same time as a parent, they need three months of assistance. The only one in the house who is older than 15 is Jenny. In one of our lessons this last week we went around the room, and one by one they shared their thoughts and desires about baptism. All four of the kids and the dad expressed great interest and desires to be baptized. The mom also did, but only so-so. When it was Jenny’s turn she said that she wants to be baptized and that she now does not have any fear or doubt about the step of baptism.
All of this happened last Friday and she accepted to be baptized this Saturday. However, when we went to visit them on Tuesday, there was a change in her firmness to be baptized. After talking for awhile we found out it was because of the mom! The mom is letting her own doubts and memories of baptisms in the Catholic church that happened when they were babies, change her mind. She had talked to Jenny and put more doubts and fears in her mind. Like what happens if you mess up after your baptism. At the end of the lesson we took some time to talk to just the parents, we were very clear and direct on a few things. We talked about the importance of supporting their daughter and reminding that in the Bible people were baptized more than once, and that Jenny had received her own answer and how this is something that she wants to do. We agreed that at least for last night and today that they would give her some space and not really talk about the baptism thing with her. Both my companion and I feel a mixed range of emotions: sadness, frustration, and also kinda mad, but with the realization that everybody can make their own decisions. We will be visiting them again tomorrow to see what’s up.
When Elder Rodriguez and I got back to the house we were feeling a little bit like, “what the flip Kip” because of some of the other things that also happened during the day. We remembered an awesome video so we watched it and felt a little better. :) This video is talking to mission presidents and missionaries but applies to all of us in this life. It is a little over eight minutes long, but it is worth the time. You should watch it as a family tonight.
I love you all so much! I pray for every one of you daily. Make this week a good week, if every week we are a little better than last week, we will eventually be perfect.
Love, your brother and son,
Elder Marks
Video: The Atonement and Missionary Work