March 2, 2015

Nothing super exciting happened this week. We've been out working hard, meeting a lot of people. Most of them don't really want to talk to us, but a couple have been really interested. Honestly nothing makes you feel better than when somebody actually wants to talk to you. For example, a couple of weeks ago we were walking down this street when we heard somebody yell "Elder!" We looked around trying to find a member or somebody we knew, but we couldn't find anybody so we just kept walking. About 6 hours later we were walking down the same street and it happened again. This time we were determined to find out who was calling for us so we turned around and there was a guy in a shop waving for us. He told us he had seen the missionaries walk by his shop for years now, and always wanted to talk to them but they never went into his shop when he called. We set up a cita with him, and taught him and his family for the first time a couple of days ago. It was an amazing lesson, this family's golden. They asked all the right questions, they have so much faith, it's such a blessing. We're going to keep teaching them, and if everything goes well they could be getting baptized fairly soon. We also have another investigator named Jorge Luis who's the same way. Jorge has a super strong testimony, he's been coming to church consistently for almost a month now, the only thing keeping him from baptism is that he's not married. He's been talking with his wife though, and I think it's very likely that they get married within the next couple of months. I'm so grateful for these people and the examples they are to me in my life. There's so many people here who are open and willing to recieve the gospel, and it's amazing to be able to know them.

So that's the good about the work here. Now for the bad. There's 4 of us living here in Santa Ana, and the last week one of the other elders, Elder Cortijo, has been butting heads with all of us. It ended up in a huge confrontation saturday night between him and my companion and now things at home are just awkward for everybody. I honestly think it's impeding the work also, because none of us ever really feel good or like we have the spirit as strongly as before. It's become quite the challenge. I read a conference talk today that I think will help us though. It was all about the power of love. That when we love one another, overlooking the differences and things that bother us, our relationships will always be better and we ourselves will feel better about everything we do. It really made me think, and is something I'm going to try applying into my life more.

Anyway, hope you guys are all doing well. Can't wait to hear from you next week!

Jeremy