Week 6

This week has been miraculous. We've been teaching these four kids from the
ages of 8-13 (We think she's 8. She won't tell us). These kids are from two
different families, but they all live together. Two of the kids' mom,
Sylvia, is a member, though she hasn't been active in years. The other
kids' mother is Maria. Maria is catholic. She had paintings of Jesus on the
cross in her home, her kids wore a cross, all that jazz. However, she
believes in letting her kids make their own choices, so she allowed us to
to teach them. The kids have been taught everything, and they are ready to
be baptized. However, their mothers thought differently. We told them that
we knew that September 28th was the right date for them to be baptized, and
that we had taught them nearly everything we had to teach them. But they
both insisted that the kids were not ready, and that we still needed to
wait a few more months. So Elder Finkenthal asked them to ponder and pray
about a date, and we told them that we would do the same. We agreed to
discuss our dates with one another the following time we met. After much
praying and thinking it over, the three of us came to the conclusion that
the children were ready to be baptized, and that we should not change the
date of the 28th for any reason. We discussed why we felt that it was
right, and how we would present our date to the children's mothers. Two
days after seeing the kids, we went and taught them again. However, since
Elder Baughan is the District Leader, we were on exchanges with the Zone
Leaders on that day. Elder Finkenthal went with one of the Zone Leaders to
proselyte in that area, and Elder Baughan and I were left with Elder
Selfaison. Now Elder Selfaison's a great missionary and all, but he doesn't
speak a bit of Spanish. So, Elder Baughan not speaking Spanish very well
either, the responsibility fell upon me to tell Maria and Sylvia about the
kids' baptism. I went ahead and told them that we had prayed about it, and
still felt that the 28th was perfect. My heart and mind raced at the many
several possible ways that they could take this, but their response left me
speechless. Maria and Sylvia said that they hadn't really thought about it.
But then MARIA said that she had noticed the changes in her kids, and the
progress they had made. And that they were definitely ready for baptism.
Sylvia said that she felt the same way. That she didn't see any reason why
their kids shouldn't be baptized on the 28th. The Lord works miracles. I am
so grateful for this Gospel. So grateful to have been able to teach these
kids. They say the funniest things every time we go over there, and it
makes me so happy to know that they are all potential missionaries. That's
all for now.

Love,
Elder Najera

P.s. We have started teaching Maria and her boyfriend Jose. We had the most
powerful restoration lesson with them. They have come to church these past
few times, and love it. Oh, and the kids are Lupita (8), Jorge (10), Alex
(10), and Delfino (13) Jorge took some of these pictures.