Dear Mom and Dad,
Thanks for all your emails. You sure sent a lot this week! Grandma Clark sent me one too, which was fun. It sounds like the reunion was fun, though low key. I´m surprised you gustonians, as Uncle Adam would say, didn´t play sand volleyball until you developed calluses on your inner arms or something equally extreme. You have to remember your mantra: I am a well oiled machine, made to go for the gusto. . .
We were really blessed this week because we were able to help two more investigators set baptismal dates: Pamela and Olga. Pamela is 16 and has a really rough family situation. On top of everything, Pamela´s boyfriend just broke up with her. So she´s really unhappy. But we explained to her that after baptism the gift of the Holy Ghost will be able to help her feel safe and know what to do and she accepted the baptismal date. We pray for her a lot and we are going to do everything we can to help her get baptized.
We were also able to set a date with Olga, who we´ve been teaching since last transfer. Before she was afraid of changing and told us she didn´t want us to pressure her, but she spent this week reading the Gospel Principles manual someone in the ward gave her and felt the Spirit really strongly. When we went to visit her she started asking questions about the baptismal service and we set a date with no problems. She knocked us flat. We were really surprised, because we expected a lot more work to get her to accept baptism.
We are still working at full speed with Gaston. He went three days without smoking (we were SO HAPPY the first night that he told us he hadn´t smoked all day. We almost burst into happy tears.), then relapsed on Thursday (low point of the week, especially because that was the same day Pamela told us about all her family problems. Gaston felt terrible about smoking again and we almost cried.) but we are trying again this week and we reset his baptismal date for the 18th. Teaching Gaston has really taught me a lot about helping addicts. We have to recommit him and verify his commitments every day, and call him two or three times a day. We have to keep reminding ourselves that he´s addicted, so he needs constant support and reminders to keep the commitments he makes. If we don´t stay on top of him, the addiction becomes stronger than his desire to keep the commitment. And that´s not because he doesn´t want to change-- he really does-- it´s just that he is, well, addicted. It´s also really important to manage his stress level and happiness, because if he gets nervous and worried he starts smoking again. We basically have to keep him in mind all day long-- it´s a lot of work, but it´s really really rewarding. Yesterday we had a really neat lesson with him. When we arrived, we could tell he was happier than we´ve ever seen him. He told us he had been reading the Book of Mormon extra that day (he is a super investigator who reads every day and prays at least three times a day). He read about 15 pages in one go, and we could tell he had felt the Spirit. We shared with him how the gospel can bless his future family, and he is really excited to be able to be a father someday and teach his children the gospel. I feel so lucky to be able to teach him. It´s been amazing to see his change of heart. I can´t wait to see him get baptized! We are going to be very busy the next two weeks-- if Gaston smokes even once we will probably have to postpone his baptism again. Please pray for him!
I feel really happy to be a missionary here in Hurlingham. It´s been the most difficult of my three areas, but the area that will most cost me to leave. I´ve learned so much here, and I´ve come to love more deeply the ward and my converts and investigators. I don´t know how much time I have left here, but I want to use that time the best I can to be able to leave this area better than I found it.
Thanks for all that you to help me out. I love you and hope you all have excellent, successful weeks and that you keep learning lots! I love you all!
Love,Ellis
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