Maybe it's about time...

Legal Drinking Age: An important moment in every young man´s life (Grant's wrote this as his title for the week)

Dear Family,

How are you all doing?  When is your talk, Mom?  I’m sorry I haven’t sent anything.  My favorite obedience line is from la manual misional (the Missionary Manual) p. 4. “Si hace esto, el Señor le bendecirá y usted se convertirá en un mensajero de la verdad...Al obedecer con un corazón bien dispuesto, le demostrará al Señor su amor por Él, se ganará la confianza de los que son miembros y los que no lo son y tendrá derecho a la compañía del Espíritu Santo.”  (If you do this, the Lord will bless you and you will become a messenger of truth.  Obeying with a willing heart, you will demonstrate your love for the Lord, you will gain the confidence of those who are members and those who aren’t, and you will have a right to the companionship of the Holy Ghost). The last one is my favorite.  I hope you like it.  It’s pretty missionary oriented, but it’s still good anyway.

View from our apartment

Things have been going well with Elder Brooks. We had a first good week.  Our ateo (atheist) came to church again and had another really good experience. After church was over, the whole Elder’s Quorum stayed behind for like 45 minutes to keep answering his questions about doctrine, how they gained a testimony, and how the gospel has changed their lives.  It was a good experience for him.  His mom said that he was really impressed the first time, too, even if he didn’t want to let it on.  A pesar de todo ésto, he still has his doubts.  The other day he said, "Me cuesta creer en un zombi-judío con quien puedo comunicarme telepaticamente para expiar los pecados de una mujer-costilla que comió de un árbol mágico.  (It’s a little hard for me to believe in a zombie-Jew with whom I can communicate telepathically who can atone for the sins of a woman-rib? that ate from a magic tree).  I thought it was cute-- in a sacrilegious kind of way.

We’ve been working hard on practicing Spanish with Elder Brooks.  I think Elder Velasquez and I have been talking too much in English.  Hopefully things will get back under control.

My favorite bread store on the corner

We found a good family the other day contacting. When we knocked on the door, we talked with the guy for a few minutes through the window. After, he decided to let us in, we invited them to church.  He looked at his wife and said, "Maybe it’s about time."  (I choose to translate that like all those Mormon ads)  Anyways, after finishing lesson one, his wife went to get us some drinks and he leaned closer to us and said, "Look, hermanos, I don’t know why you’re in my house. I am the kind of guy to just tell you to go away because I’m busy.  For some reason, when you asked to come in, I just decided to let you in."  His wife already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  She had listened to the missionaries a while ago, but never had really read the Book of Mormon, but knows she is interested and wants to keep listening.  They both want to turn their lives around, but they’ve got a couple desafíos (challenges).  We’ll keep working with them.

We are hoping to go to the Malecón next to our house to take some pictures.  Maybe I can send some later.

Love, Mr. Bubbly