Hope everyone is having an amazing week! It was yet another amazing week for this amazing Missionary (just kidding the work is amazing)! It has been beyond all belief the best week, l mean like really. If you recall, I mentioned last week, it has been a little rough with hitting our key indicators, but we picked it up this week and we got back on track. We worked really hard with the members and also got some awesome references to work!
We continue to stretch ourselves to the max with one of our new fechas, his name is Eduardo. He lives in the Apache ??? (You know Mom) remember how you were so worried about the area..., well as it may have it's reputation, we find most people here are super receptive to the Gospel. I kinda like to think of it as "They have no where else to go but up" right? Eduardo is married, that's right one of the few, and how great is that, makes life a little easier here for the Missionaries. The second challenge as you all know, is the smoking habits of the culture here and alas his wife smokes about a pack a day however, she is very excited too about the gospel. She has struggled, like many, quitting on her own, so we decided to try the tobacco tea approach, which for me was the first time although I can see now how it works. The preparation is easy , not sure about the after taste kinda makes me sick to think about it as the smell itself of the brew was horrific!! Tobacco tea is where one takes a pan of water and shreds like 6 cigarettes in the water and then boil the water. We did this and she did drank of it and relayed the taste was awful!!! She say's now every time she smokes she gets this awful taste on her buds 9Taste) before she even lights up and in the past week has been only able to tolerate a half of a cigarette and that was not as appealing as before.. I think we might be on to something here keep your fingers crossed! YAAAH!!!
So for some Super Awesome News, we got to go on a special trip to the Temple this week! The ward had their viaje to the temple, and we can go if we have a progressing investigator having had the lessons or a new convert. Lucky us with Marina's new baptism we qualified! She went with us and absolutely loved it! We watched her face as she watched the video inside the waiting room, walked around the gardens, and went to the little shop and she bought a ton of stuff! She told us she was super excited to go back and actually enter the Temple to do baptisms for the dead! It was a taste of heaven to be in her presence and seeing the joy in her eyes and smile. I am equally as thrilled because the reality of her being a new member will open doors for her that she cannot even imagine just yet!
Elder Wells and I celebrated with a pizza and 12 empanadas back at the apartment that evening on such a wonderful day and occasion! QUE RICO!!!! yay!
Last night we had a little surprise visit from Elder Slone... who is now ZL ,how cool that crazy kid... HAHA So that was my week in a nutshell. I am looking forward to another amazing week here in Ciudadela!!! woot woo!
I hope ya´ll have a great week! Love and miss everyone! Stay cool kids as I am trying to stay warm...er, I am not freezing yet most days but the broke out mu scarf at the Temple as the temps is dropping quickly! Catcha same time next week?
Love,
The One and Only,
Elder Wade Draper
