March 11, 2013

Hello everyone,

How are things going?  Things are going pretty well here.  It has
still been pretty hot, but I think that slowly but surely things will
start cooling down a bit.  Today is the day of changes, and once again
I am staying here in Santa Cruz.  I am really happy about that.  I
actually asked the mission president to be able to stay in this
sector, so I am happy that I have the opportunity to keep working
here.  I absolutely love this area.  Of course there are problems that
come from having weak branches in a pretty weak stake, but I really
like having this chance to be able to help the members and be able to
teach other people here.  I really hope that I will be able to do a
lot to be able to help the church to grow here.

One thing that was really neat this week was that a lot of people came
to sacrament meeting yesterday.  There is a high priest that we
visited during the week that we are helping to come back to church.
And while we were waiting at church, there he came.  I was very
excited that he decided to come to church and is starting to take the
necesary steps to be able to have the blessings of the Gospel more
fully in his life.  He has a very rough life story which consists in
him losing just about all of the fortunes that he had along with a son
and his marriage.  I am just glad that he is starting to recognize
that true happiness will only come as he chooses to follow the
principles of the Gospel.

Another thing that was really great was that a family that we are
working with came to church.  We are teaching the girlfriend of the
dad of the family, and it is great to see that they are progressing
toward being able to be sealed one day in the temple.  That is one
thing that I have come to realize is so important, the ability to be
sealed as a family in the temple.  I have recognized that it is so
much easier to live the Gospel when one has the support of family,
especially a spouse that will always be there to help support in
difficult moments.

All I can say is that I love it here.  I hope that I can spend a lot
of time down here in the south.  I love teaching and helping the
people here.  They are very special.  I am very excited for this
chance to be able to develop these feelings toward the people here.
They are what make all of the hard work worthwhile.

Have a great week back home.