Last Week in Manzanillo, Birthday and Baptisms!

January 23-31, 2017
    I have fallen behind in my journal keeping due to a CRAZY schedule this last several weeks, but I am going to attempt to get caught up.  One of the lessons that we taught in the last few weeks of my time in Manzanillo stands out to me because of how super weird it was.  The moment we entered the house, we were completely lost, dumbfounded in fact.  Neither one of us had any idea what to say, without the Spirit and without hope. The entire house felt depressed.  It was a terrible feeling in that lesson. Later that week we started teaching an man with mental illness and we made a decision as a companionship that we shoals not teach this man in his home.  There were just too many sketchy and dangerous people in that house and getting there was also dangerous.  We both felt super insecure walking through tight alleys between the buildings, so yeah that decision was a good one. 
    I had a good birthday spread over a couple of days.  On the 24th I brought a cookie mix to district meeting and made it for the group.  The only pan that we had was one meant for tortillas, so I just had to pour everything into one big cookie.  It was really good.  One of the Hermanas remembered my birthday and brought cookies too.  that same day I found out the one of the coolest hermanos in the ward was moving for his work, so I made a point to go and say goodbye to him.  (Hermano Amador)  My actual birthday was very uneventful.  I made myself a “cake” of a tostado with a ton of rice and beans with cilantro on the sides.  I love Mexico! We even made some ghetto candles. 

    The day after my birthday we had a lesson with a lady who would not stop talking.  Seriously, she talked for two solid hours.  We didn’t even have to ask any questions.  It really tried my patience. 
    On the 27th we were invited to eat with one of our investigators who was celebrating her birthday.  This was a super nice meal and in the end, they brought out a cake for her, and one for me too!  It had a little treble clef on it and everything,.  I was so touched.  I cannot believe how nice these people are.  It was a great little celebration that led into a great weekend.

     President Clayton came into town for the Manzanillo District Conference with all the little branches in Manzanillo.  We had two meetings with him on Saturday.  Not a ton of people came for those meetings, but that was okay because it made the meeting feel more personal.  President actually got down from the pulpit and put himself at our level to teach. He taught a lot of interesting things, but especially that our motivation for anything that we do in the gospel should be love.  He also really exhorted us to search for the people who weren't with us that night and invite them to the Sunday session.  It was so powerful for everyone there, and it must have had an impact because, on Sunday there were almost 400 people in the meeting.  Pretty miraculous!  Also, one of our old investigators came to the meeting.  He was one of our really interested investigators for the first couple of weeks, but then he fell into drugs and alcohol and disappeared for a while.  We found him again when he came back into the BillyBob.  When we went back to teach him about a week ago, we found out that he had been baptized into a little church in the BillyBob.  His pastor taught him a lot of false doctrine about our church which he didn’t believe.  We reappeared in his life right at the right time to teach him true doctrine. 

Manzanillo District Conference

     Another really great thing happened this week and that is that we went to Colima for a conference given by one of the Seventy, Elder Pino. It was really inspiring.  As a missionary, you get use to looking up to your mission President as an inspired man with a ton of faith, but then the Seventy or Twelve really seem that much larger in spiritual stature.  It was good, long, and I learned a lot.  We set a goal as a mission for one baptism every month per companionship. 

Colima Conference with Elder Pino

     On Friday, our zone leaders (Elder Long) came to do the baptismal interview for Alondra y Esmerelda!  It was a GREAT day on Saturday when they were baptized. The service was really good and a lot of their extended family came to support them.  Their friend who introduced them to the gospel gave a little talk and bore a powerful testimony.  The next day, they were confirmed in church.  

      It was also transfer day, except we didn’t find out about transfers until 8 at night.  I found out that I was being transferred too Puerto Vallarta so I had to return home and pack all of my stuff up to leave the next morning.  Elder Torres was the one who called me and told me that I would be finishing up the training of two elders and be the district leader.  Que loco!  I ended up going to bed at like 3:30 because packing took forever and I wanted to write a bunch of notes to say goodbye to the families that I have been working with.  it is kind sad to leave my first area in the mission.  I made a lot of good friends and the members here are faithful and kind. I learned more in the 4 months in Manzanillo that I have in my whole life. It has been hard to see how much suffering there is in the world, but I have learned how hardships prepare you for future challenges. I was able to see people struggle with huge challenges, but remain faithful and trusting that God would help them and bless them in their trials. I have also seen how they are happy despite their hardships, which is a huge blessing by itself.