Pic1- Guadalupe right before she left :(
Pic2- Taqueria Don Pancho - Ely's dad's restaurant. Tacos de carne asada. yummmmmmmm
Pic3- Road trip to Long Beach for my last Dr. Appt. Woo!
Pic4- Good times. :)
Pic 5- Sister Corona is back! She is the coolest sister missionary. She was the one that left back in Anaheim, but she is back to finish up! So cool, she is a great missionary.
First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SISSA!!! It was fun to watch everything pop
up on Facebook. You are such a great example to so many people and I
love you very much. You are my favorite sister! ;) I wanted to comment
so bad on things that were being posted, but unfortunately that is
against the rules. :( So, I liked it all instead! haha You are an
amazingly loving daugher, mother, sister, and friend. I just love you
so much! Ahh! Best sister in the world award goes to you for sure. :)
And the most beautiful. ;) Love you Sis.
There's a lot that has happened these last couple of weeks! The P-Day
was changed for a Mormon Helping Hands service project that we were
going to have, but it wasn't approved by the correct authority before
they went into the planning. So, we were told Wednesday that it was
cancelled because there were possible legal issues that could be
involved. It was a service project to help people gain citizenship and
we got trained on how to help fill out the paperwork on Monday, but
because of the complexities in law in that area, our presiding general
authority from the Seventy pulled the plug. The missionaries were
basically signed up without approval. Ha Maybe later!
So the P-Day change was pretty pointless, but now it will be a super
quick P-Day on Monday with everything already done. Ha
This last week was actually a pretty rough week. Not that we are upset
or anything, things just didn't go as planned, but in the long run, it
all makes sense why things went the way they did. Somehow there was
credit card fraud on my mission card, Guadalupe ended up telling us
the following day that she didn't feel ready and had some doubts about
it, Ely didn't talk to us all week so apparently she wasn't sure about
it either, Daniel's mom won't give him permission, Henry didn't feel
certain quite yet between this church and Jehovah's Witness, and
Heidi's situation is a lot more complicated than we had imagined. This
week had a lot of twists. And it wasn't even until the end that we
looked back and saw all the things that went on. We just kept plugging
along and knew that God has a plan for each of them. No matter what
Satan throws at them, I know that each one of them will remember their
special answers and be baptized soon.
The way we think about it, is that there always seems to be some sort
of "Pogo Stick Effect" that goes one as one prepares to be baptized.
So, although this was a down week for the investigators and no one got
baptized as they had planned and prepared for, but just like a Pogo
Stick, they are bouncing back up this week, and we are able to focus
on each personal need better. :)
So we prepared Guadalupe for the missionaries to pick her right up and
help her prepare to be baptized in Pasadena. She really likes the
values of the church, and the feelings she feels being there. She
needs to be a little more willing to act on her answers, but she is
doing well, and we are going to stay in touch. She wanted me to
baptize her because I was the first one to talk to her once she got
here, but alas, she will have to make a connection with someone there.
Ely got scared as it got closer to baptism and began to doubt because
her father isn't a member and she works for him and she didn't have
Sundays off. She didn't want to commit to something that she knows she
won't be able to follow through with. What a great concern! Better
that than going through with it and then dropping away immediately.
She got up the guts towards the end of the week though and confronted
her dad about it and he gave her Sundays off right away. ha She just
needed to ask! :) So, she is now off on Sundays, and she came to a
baptism of another investigator in the ward this past Sunday and felt
guilty for not getting baptized then. So, she is set for this week. :)
She is super excited and just loves church. It's great to have a
strong youth organization here.
We had an amazingly powerful lesson this week with the Guadarrama boys
and they are doing great! They are reading and praying and Henry has
come to realized that this is indeed the truth because he says he
doesn't feel this way in any other church or in reading any other
book. Daniel is solid beyond belief for a 14 year old. He reads the
Book of Mormon and understands it better than most adults. He is super
smart! He's hilarious. He's not the best at telling stories and drags
them out for a long time and he explains ever little detail. haha But
we just love the stories! He also shares with us quote from his "How
to be a Successful Teenager" book that he reads all the time. He's
awesome! He wants to be baptized SO bad, but he just needs to convince
his mom that he is old enough to make this decision. He does NOT act
like a 14-year-old. He's super mature and smart! So please pray that
all will go well. Henry is for sure getting baptized this week and he
wants to get the priesthood right away so that he can baptize his
family. :) He paused after we asked him to be baptized this weekend
and said "I can see my future right now" with his eyes closed. And
then he explained all these amazing attributes and blessings that he
can see in his future with this gospel. He's solid. They're going to
be missionaries for sure. Please pray that their mother's heart will
be softened so that she allows Daniel to take this step that is so
important to him. Again, the youth have been AMAZING in their story as
well. Such a great ward.
With Heidi, they have a situation in which they can't get married
because she has a loan for being single. And she just started school,
so if she gets married, they will take away her loan and possible kick
her out of school. There's a lot more to it, and it's all very
complex, so please pray that it will get resolved and that they will
have the necessary faith to put God first. They are just so great and
want the best, there's just so much going on right now. She also just
got promoted in work, so she may not be able to come to church on
Sundays anymore. She knows it's true and knows it's what she needs to
do. We are going to meet with them soon and have been practicing how
to help them, so please pray that all goes well!
Other than the updates, it was a pretty usual week. We had our typical
busy teaching, studying, and meetings schedule. We did a lot of
service work, though! That was a blast. :) We are both running the
same time here (we go home at the same time) so we are being sure to
stay focused and working hard! I love it. We are having a great time.
Elder Curtis is a great elder and it has been a blast working with
him. We feel he is probably leaving this next transfer :/, guess we
will find out either tonight or Saturday! I think you are all amazing,
and I absolutely love you! Take care and be safe!
-Elder Gallego
"There are two types of people; those who think they can, and those
who think they can't. And they are both usually right." (I can!!!! :))
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