Be a Little More "Valiente"

Elder, Hermana Lamarca, Pereyda, Liberato, Ludlam, Marquez, Retuerto, Ñacato, Brock, Presidente, Neilson, Jimenez, Silva, Alvarado, Moss, Leonardson, Castro Dear family, How are you all?  Looks like a lot of snow fun.  My companion says he feels sorry for you being frozen. Melva Guanga and Fma Flores We had an interesting week.  We found a sister who has been going to church for a while with her sister but has never gotten baptized.  She is excited about finally being a member of the church. We are teaching a lot of great people, but they have many problems.  The guy I told you about that has had the Book of Mormon for 20 years told us he knows that the Book of Mormon is divinely inspired and that Joseph Smith would have to have been a prophet to write it.  But he is "unsure" that God restored His church through him.  It was a bizarre lesson.  Whenever we tried to get him to think it through, he would say he couldn’t because he was too confused.  I am not sure what we are going to do.   We are teaching another family, too.  The mom and kids all like what we teach a lot, but the dad is more reserved and doesn’t want to accept what we teach right away.  We finally got him to read the Book of Mormon and to understand why the restoration is a big deal, but when we asked him to ask God about it, he said he is willing to pray with us but wants to wait until later to ask God because now he knows this question is a big deal so he needs to be prepared.  I guess this means he already has an idea about what the answer will be.  It was a good lesson.  He is one of those people you don’t have to try too hard to listen because he does most of the talking.  Just kidding.  That’s not how it works. We also found a new family.  They are really good, too.  When we got to know them, they just let us into their house and we shared our message with them.  They all picked it up really well.  They were all going to come to church but disappeared the morning of. Feely I am trying to be a little more “valiente” in the lessons.  In the new PMG (Preach My Gospel), Part 2 Booklet, it talks a lot about inviting people to baptism and the other important commitments in the first lesson so the people know what our purpose really is in teaching them.  I guess it is easier to do that when you live on the coast and anyone will listen to you or when you're teaching old people, but it is a little easier to just try to talk pretty so that people will like what you teach more (especially when you find complete families in Cuenca).   It kind of feels good to know you have a big program with all these people, even if you are not helping them to progress.  But the people need to hear what we need to tell them. Even if they don’t accept, we are doing what we are called to do and the Lord will be pleased.  It was with His help, after all, that we are able to find people like that in the first place.  I guess the same thing goes with doing daily contact with the people. In order for the people to keep their commitments, sometimes we need to remind them every day. Sometimes I am worried they will get irritated, but they need to keep their commitments.  Anyways, this is my batalla contra la cobardía. I guess if they don’t accept, all that work is not really lost even sometimes it feels that way in the moment. Well family, I am hoping to hear from you soon.  Ojalá que haya correo mañana.  (Hopefully there will be mail tomorrow)  Elder Castro quiere otro paquete lleno de caramelos (Elder Castro wants another package full of carmels/ candies).  (Favorites: Reese's Pieces, dark chocolate KitKat)  Do we have the final word on NJ? Love, Nan