A Very Wet Week

 Luke told us it rained and rained this week and so things were very wet.  In fact his apartment has a hold in the roof and so water got in and soaked his whole bag!  Luckily his scriptures weren't in it!  And then he sent us a video of him trying to squeegee water away from coming into his apartment :) ha ha ha!  He walked around with 8 plastic bags wrapped around his shoes to save his new shoes I just sent him. :)

This is a picture of him standing on a rock in order to close and lock his apartment 

So that was an adventure.  But it sounds like despite the rain he had a great week.  In fact when it rains usually no one comes out to church.  Tons of the ward was missing but they still had 6 people at church that they had met this week!  There were almost as many visitors as there were members of the ward.  :)  

This is the family Espinosa.  They are not active in the church right now but they said they want to come back.  The mom was very excited about coming back. 

This sweet family introduces their neighbor Lujan to the gospel.  She is so excited about everything she is learning.  Luke said she is an absolute angel.  She went to an activity and afterward they asked her how she liked it and she said "It was amazing."  Then when they taught her about baptism she said "That was beautiful!"  What a sweet girl!

Also this week they went to find a contact but were unable to locate them.  They decided to knock on a door nearby instead and they found the Zarza family.  At first the mom was not interested and said they were Baptist or something else.  But then Luke had a prompting to keep up the converstation and keep trying.  He listened and eventually they invited them in.  They started with the Restoration lesson.  They were showing them a video and the phone was lagging a bit.  The mom said "I can't wait to see what happens with Joseph Smith!"  So Luke could tell they were very interested in the things they were sharing with them.  

Another neat person they met this week is Graciella.  They were walking down the street and saw Graciella talking to one of the less active members of the ward and they stopped to talk to her.  They started teaching her.  But it has been so frustrating because in order to meet with her they have to have another male with them and they have had a hard time getting people to go on splits with them.  So they were worried she was feeling like they were putting her off and worried she would stop wanting to meet with them.  Well Sunday comes around and she showed up to church!!!  They were so surprised!  They were talking to her and asked what made her want to come today.  She told them that her parents were actually members of the church and they passed away a few years ago.  She said last night she had a dream that they were in one of the discussions with her and they told her to go to church!  So she woke up and decided she needed to go to church!  How cool is that????   Graciella is from Paraguay and has felt lonely being in a different country from family and friends.  He said at church she was just glowing and looked so happy!  

Another friend they met this week was Alfredo.  He is a 14 year old boy that is neighbors with a member.  He is such a cool kid and they have loved teaching him.  They asked him if he wanted to get baptized and his response was "Ya, I need to get closer to God!"  What a kid!  He even came to church and during the second hour, because there were so many people missing, Luke and his companion had to fill in and teach.  They were discussing the new Strength of Youth pamphlet and Luke said it was so fun to be able to share experiences and insights from his own life and the emphasize importance of keeping standards.  

So it was a busy week, Luke is so excited that they are finding people because he is pretty sure he is probably getting transferred next week and he didn't want to leave the area without anyone for the next missionaries to work with.  Also we are keeping his companion Elder Reyes in our prayers.  The poor kid, one day he took off his shoes and Luke noticed his feet had tons of blisters and were very dry!  He was never even complaining about it!  But Luke told him they needed to take care of them.  He had old shoes and is waiting for the ones his mom sent.   Meanwhile he has been wrapping his feet in plastic bags before putting them in his shoes to keep his feet dry.  Poor kid.  And another health concern is that he has had blood in his urine.  Kind of scary.  So they went to the doctor and they ran some tests.  They should get results back this week.  So we are praying hard for him.  Poor kid!  He never skips a beat though and continues to work hard despite his health challenges.  What a trooper!

Luke was a little frustrated with a guy they were meeting with about an apartment for another set of missioanies.  The guy keeps putting them off and is very unprofessional.  Luke was getting really bugged and trying not to lose his temper.  All of a sudden he heard a stange noise and looked up and there were monkeys in the trees!!!!!  That was a nice distraction from his frustrations :)  ha ha ha!  Crazy!