22 de Abríl

Hola mí familia buena! It was nice to hear from you as always. I guess I'll start by answering questions. We as missionaries ask the people who they would like to baptize them. We kind of encourage a ward member to do it, usually the member that has fellowshipped them the most, someone who is their friend and they will always be reminded of their baptism each time they see them. A lot of people, as much as they love the missionaries who baptized them, forget our weird american names and often a lot of their special day. With their fellowship the one who baptized them, if they go inactive their fellowship can get on their tails. So yes we baptize, but more often a member does it. It's better that way =) Noeli's family are all members, just a few are less active. Jeffrey and Stefanie are preparing to be baptized this Saturday. Yesterday their dad Clemson (we found it wasn't Klifson haha kinda hard to understand people when they say their names sometimes) received the Aaronic Priesthood and he will baptize them on Saturday. We had the goal that each companionship will baptize someone this Saturday in our zone, and so far it looks pretty good. There are 14 or so with fechas for Saturday! Caroline has a
fecha for the 2nd of may, we'll see if she's ready or not. She's in the process of moving out and lots of stuff and is having a hard time, and hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon which she obviously needs to do before getting baptized. A friend of Joy's, Isoken, and her son Michael, have fechas for the 4th of may. We also have been picking up a lot of new investigators, we have a list of about 12 or so that we plan on teaching and setting a baptismal dates.
Yesterday was our ward conference, so the stake came and taught the classes and the Bishop and Stake President spoke in sacrament meeting. It was neat because we never really see the stake people much, but they are so great! The stake president gave an outstanding talk about tithing. It was the perfect balance of rebuke (I guess its a hard commandment for people in Spain to live...go figure) and promised blessings and emphasis on the Lord and building his kingdom. It was so great! We also had two new families show up to church with friends. A Bolivian family with 3 young girls, and a couple from Ecuador. We're going to go visit them this week. We've had another week of miracles!
It sounds like a fun experience with Ethan's ordination. Congrats! I hope he had a fun birthday. Last hope of America sounds like it was fun too. All of those patriotic songs. All I hear here is the Mo Tab America cd on my ipod =)
It is super sad to hear about a new bishopric! We already had the best one! It's always a hard change, people naturally get attached to their great leaders, but the Lord calls whom He wants called and at the right time, so the following are always great. It would be neat to have Joseph Smith to have been the prophet for a long time, but the saints needed Brigham Young. And consecutively we can learn so many great things from each prophet, a different perspective or focus. The Lord has His purposes =) Let me know what happens!!
I'm glad to hear Jacob Eddington did well. He's great =) Hope he gets out to Perú super quick!
I thought is was funny that you got denstist reminders for me. Kinda funny that you say that, because one of those would be nice! This last week we bought like a kilo and a half of Spanish chuches (candies) to teach tithing and the word of wisdom to Jeffrey and Stefanie. So we've had lots of junkfood =) The water here in Spain has a ton of calcium or something in it, so we buy drinking water or use a filter. It still makes your teeth feel wierd after brushing and supposedly makes some of your hair fall out from showering in it. I haven't noticed though.
 We press on in the work of the Lord!
Have a great week!