One of the Best

Hey family,

This week was probably one of the best of my entire mission. It was filled with faith and miracles. Those two always seem to go hand in hand. For starters, our zone leaders talked to a man on the street about 10 days ago who wanted Spanish missionaries to come by. We had an appointment with him last Monday night and Wednesday as well. He is so excited by the Gospel. He just soaks in everything we say and even pauses while we read passages of the Book of Mormon with him to make comments about how good a scripture that was and to connect the dots between what the verse says and what he needs to do. When he read the last line in the Introduction to the BOM, he said, "Jesus Christ is coming again? Whoa!" Then on another visit after hearing a member's comment he said, "That's a good testimony!" And he's just always like that, enthused, like a little kid. He is planning on being baptized at the end of next month! Just for a better visual, he's a big Mexican guy who wears wife-beater t-shirts. Classic.
Second biggest miracle: Wednesday afternoon we were biking up to an investigator's house when we noticed that a car in the street stopped to get our attention. We turned around and they (a young couple) asked if we are Spanish-speaking Mormon missionaries. When we told them we are, they said they have a friend who's LDS and they want us to come by to teach them more about the Church. They prayed the night before to receive a sign if they should meet with us and saw us biking the next day! We went by on Saturday for the first visit and they are incredible! Their member friends have been such a huge example, especially when they told our investigators, "Just try it out. No matter what we'll still be friends." The wife said it made a big impact on her to hear that. They are looking to strengthen their relationship, family, to find more peace, happiness and hope. It seems to me that they already feel that the Gospel is true. They said they will be baptized on the same day as our other miracle investigator as they come to know that the Book of Mormon and our message are true. I thought we hit a small roadblock when the husband said he works every Sunday, but at the end of the lesson (before the family prayer which he offered) he said he's going to ask his boss to get every Sunday free so he can attend church. I don't fully feel that we deserve to be entrusted with such a terrific family who seem so ready to embrace the Gospel. But it makes me want to work even harder to show the Lord how grateful I am for His blessings. We taught more lessons this week than I have ever taught before in a week. We worked more with the members and in every lesson invited people to be baptized. Our faith in Jesus Christ has been strengthened.
Funny moments: In one of our visits this week our investigator opened the door and in my mind I was thinking "good morning," but in Spanish it came out as "buenas mananas," which just sounds really goofy. Then later in the lesson as my [native-speaking] companion was teaching how to pray he said in Spanish, "We bow our heads and cross our eyes," meaning to say cross our arms. I started chuckling to myself and almost couldn't stop, haha.
Our recent convert's daughter is progressing toward her baptism on this coming Saturday. She's really excited and seems really ready to make a covenant with Christ. She's slowly asking more questions and has a better understanding. She asked us about what happens when we make a mistake after baptism, and when we explained the role of the sacrament in repentance we could see in her expression that things just clicked. It's exciting to be a part of, and exciting to know that the Lord can and will use anyone with a willing heart to bless the lives of His children. I know He loves us and has a plan for us. I know that He wants us to reach our potential. And I know that we can as we look to Him.
I love you all and pray for you. Thank you for all your support and love. Have a great week!

Elder Joshua Gathro