¡Hola Fonzfam!
When the sun is up after 8pm, it's 80+°F outside, and you need to leave the windows open in your AC-less apartment at night, you got to know summer is close! I heard that Utah had some snow last week, which is hard to believe when things here in Oregon have been so amazing. Everyone is so much more happy and way more sociable than in the winter. We're taking advantage of it as much as possible.
Sunday night we received the first part of our transfer news, which was that Elder Silva is leaving Tualatin after having spent his first six months here. So these have been my last few days with him. It's hard for me to believe that 3 months can go by that fast, but they have. Together we've learned so much and I believe we've become better people because of what we've gone through. There may have been times we've disagreed, but they were when we've grown the most through the process of repentance and forgiveness. He still has much to learn, but his next area will teach him a lot of amazing things. He's going to be serving in the Spanish ward over in Hillsboro with my MTC companion, Elder Guymon! They're going to have a blast together as he finishes up his mission too! I'm going to miss Elder Silva so much!
We've hopefully set ourselves up for a good next couple of transfers. We met with Jose Ceja last night with two printed calendars(Mayo y Junio) to walk through what he needs to do to make it to his baptism on June 8th. He's still got to make it to church and overcome his Word of Wisdom things, but both he is very close at reaching. He's all in and wants this change in his life. As part of the lesson, we shared a story out of John 9 where Jesus heals a man who had been blind his entire life. We pointed out how that man needed to still find his own way to wash his eyes, and he had to have enough faith to act upon the instruction the Lord gave him after covering his eyes in mud. The atoning power of Jesus Christ comes into play after we've done all we can. I will never forget Jose's reaction to this principle after we taught him. His eye brows were raised and he then gave us a nod, assuring that he was willing to try to put his old life behind him.
We were able to formally introduce the LDM to the Castillo family last night. They had a couple copies already from past missionaries, but they didn't really know what they were. As a family we read through the introduction, answering all of their questions. We invited them to try out Moroni's promise and they were all for it! We even gifted the kids a picture BoM for them to read. We've been using Mother's Day and Father's Day as another opportunity to have an Invitation Sunday. We're praying and crossing our fingers that people keep their commitments to come this week to church!
My new companion coming in is Elder Vaquero. He's been out in the field as long as Elder Silva, but was in the MTC for 10 weeks learning English. He's going to be good for me as I'm going to consecrate myself to Spanish more than I ever have on mission, mostly because I won't have any leadership responibilites anymore for this last transfer. I'm excited to give you all an update next week, but until then know that I love you and look forward to being able to talk some more on Mother's Day!
Con Amor,
Elder Fonnesbeck
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| The Tualatin Zone at the turf field in Sherwood, OR |
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Jose is working hard towards his baptism on June 8th! He said that he didn't want to smile because he doesn't really have any teeth haha!
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