BEST WEEK YET - FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Ceso gets bapatized

Okay wowowowow this week was literally amazing. Honestly up there for one of the best weeks of my mission if not the best one. What made it the best week of my mission? Well I worked the hardest i have ever worked, i focused more than I have ever focused, i felt more love for the people than I have ever felt, and all of our results were the best of my mission and of Elder Escobar's mission so far. We had 60 lessons (!!!!!!), 10 new investigators, 5 with baptism dates, 4 in church on Sunday, and 3 progressing (with a baptism date and in the church). When I arrived here 1 month ago in Calkiní, we had literally 1 investigator with the chance of going to the church.... and now we had 15 that we were really hoping would go to church. 

Something that really hit us this week too, that i realized and asked my companion about, is why there are no recent converts that we visit. And quite a few people have been baptized here in the past year but literally none of them still go to church. How can we expect to receive more blessings from God if we cant even keep the blessings he has already given us? We have thought a lot about retention this week and what to do to fix the problem in this branch with retention. 

So on Wednesday we met 2 new investigators, Angel and Itzel. They are brother and sister, 18 and 14. On Tuesday we walked by the house and saw Itzel talking to the Jehovah's Witnesses, so we were like.... we've gotta contact this house tomorrow, she accepts people... lol. So the next day we talked to her and her brother and taught them the restoration and placed baptism dates the first lesson! BOOM! That was the start to our amazing week. They couldn't go to church this week because they went to Merida, but they not only read the reading assignment we gave them, but 3 chapters more... that is unheard of!!

Okay so there is this little park in front of our house where there are always a ton of little kids playing, so one day we went and talked to them for literally 1 hour and they were awesome. And one 11 year old named Mario wouldn't stop talking about how he just got baptized in the catholic church and was super excited about it. So we made them our friends and played basketball with them for like 20 minutes. Needless to say we invited all of them to church, and decided to meet in the park at 8:30. At 8:25 my comp is like... they aren't gonna show up, lets go. And I was like man we've gotta have faith!!! So 2 seconds later, Mario and Luis, 2 brothers showed up and stayed the whole entire 3 hours. And after told us how much they loved it and wanna go with us every week. So after we taught them the restoration and put baptism dates! Then that night we talked to their parents, and turns out her mom is an inactive member from like 20 years ago, and she said it was okay for them to get baptized, but their dad got kinda bugged and said they can go to church all they want and be our friends but the baptism is a no go. But the thing is we have so much faith... like we have permission to go to church with them... his heart will change! 

Mario Y Luis

So we have an investigator named Manuela who told us her husband is crazy and we can never meet with her when her husband is home, so we went on Tuesday when her husband usually wasn't home but he was, and she told us to leave but the guy saw us and came up to us and was literally the nicest guy ever... he talked to us for like 30 mins and told us we are super different missionaries and he felt super good about us and he hates other missionaries and always yells at them lol, but that he is gonna come visit our church one day!! WOO!! BLESSINGS!

So this week CESO GOT BAPTIZED!! WOOHOO! I taught him 4 months ago when i was here in Calkini with Elder Archibald, and a couple times here this month, he lives in the area of the other missionaries but he got baptized this week and it was awesome! The best was when he got confirmed on Sunday he had an LA Dodgers baseball jersey on and said that it is the holiest white shirt in the world... lol.

Seminary this week was awesome. We are changing it to have it 3 times a week!  I honestly love teaching the class.

Seminary class (there are two boys, but they didn't want to be in pic)

Something that is super funny here when we invite people to church they always say... well if God wants me to go, He will wake me up on time to go. Its like... okay that is so incorrect lol.

So what i learned this week is technically speaking my area is called Dzitbalché, but we call it Calkiní 2 because we live in Calkiní, but we decided we need to start going to Dzitbalché more, so we will see!

So i just wanna say, and i hope i am not jinxing myself, that i have been in the mission 6.5 months eating crazy food and sketchy water and haven't gotten sick once... blessings from God. 

So on Wednesday a bird pooped on my shoe twice.... TWICE. Idk how it was only my shoe but it was hilarious.

So the other day a girl asked me where i am from, and when i said the United States, she asked me where it is and if it is close to Madrid, and then she asked if it is a state in Mexico... LOL.

This week was seriously awesome. WOW. I love this work so much. I love you all!

Elder Plowman

Alma 13  29 Having‍ faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love‍ of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.

3 Nephi 9  14 Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come‍ unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm‍ of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me.

Official owner of a soccer Jersey (Bavaria Munich)

Dinner...yes I killed this chicken for my dinner