Progressing in Progreso

August 10, 2015

Hey all,

We just finished another outstanding week in Progreso. I still am missing my converts and investigators from La Ceiba, but I am more and more excited to be here. The work in Progreso is interesting. Our area hasn't baptized anyone in SIX MONTHS. That is kind of a ridiculous amount of time for an area to be without success. I was honestly a little pumped when they told me that because God doesn't stop preparing people to be baptized, so we have six months of people to find and baptize in addition to the people God is currently preparing for us; and man have we found some prepared people.

I would just like to share the quick story of Super Mario (now retired and raising a daughter). My companion and his companion before me, found these two contacting, but never were able to teach them. We tried again when I showed up, and we got lucky. The husband (Mario) was home and he let us in. The first problem was that at that very moment, the CONCACAF Gold Cup was 5 minutes from halftime, and he didn't want to turn the TV off. So we talked to his wife for a minute and waited for the game to go to half. At halftime, we turned off the TV and he gave us fifteen minutes to tell him what we had to say. That's all we needed. Haha. We started to teach about God, prophets, Jesus Christ, and the Great Apostasy, and the whole time he was checking his phone, playing with his six-month-old daughter, and just wasn't paying attention. As we started talking about Joseph Smith, however, we kinda leaned forward, and payed close attention. He listened to every word as my companion recited the First Vision, and when Elder Valenciano finished, we all just sat there in silence. Then came the questions. Like actual questions about doctrine and God and why a church is important for each of us. We closed with a prayer, and went almost two weeks without having any contact with him.

Saturday night, we finally got lucky and found him and his wife again. He had read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon and had a ton of questions. We answered them, and invited him to be baptized. He thought about it for a good minute, then explained that he and his wife are Catholic, and that they really planned on remaining Catholic, until we got there. He said that God had sent us there for a reason, and that they would talk about it and decide what to do after praying and asking God if the Book of Mormon is true. After this lesson, I realized that these things don't just happen in movies. Our Heavenly Father is preparing people that we need to find, that we need to teach, and when His sheep hear the Shepherd's voice, they come.

We are having amazing experiences here in Progreso. The field is white and begging for a harvest, and my companion and I are ready to do it. We are looking forward to the next few weeks and I can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for us. I hope that you all are helpin out your local missionaries with investigators. You'll be blessed. A referral is like a Christmas gift in August. Haha.

Have a great week!

Elder Aldrich