LA SEMANA SANTA Y LA PASCUA - MARCH 28, 2016

This week was such a great week! It was Semana Santa as they call it here, or Holy Week. All of the kids and people have a 2 week break, and this week was filled with tons of Catholic people walking through the streets doing crazy stuff for Easter! Like on Friday in the center of the town, everyone was watching a guy get whipped and put on a cross as if he was Jesus... honestly it made me so sad, the point of Easter is happy and that HE LIVES! But anyways, this week we learned a new initiative as we call it in the mission. It is called Follow Him and Find New Life. We have two new videos and pass out cards to use it. And on Saturday we had a training on how to use the videos and apply it all to getting investigators to accept baptism and truly understand what Jesus Christ did for them! It totally worked. This week we placed 13 baptism dates with the new initiative, it was awesome!!!

The bad news though about two week vacations here in the area is that a ton of people aren't home or use it as an excuse not to go to church... vacations from everything! Lol. So we had 13 baptism dates but only 3 went to church. It made us super sad honestly about everyone who didn't. But Mariana, Matiana, and a new investigator named Abraham. We had success with putting so many baptism dates because we have been way more direct with the people. We just invite them instead of jumping around the topic!

For example, about putting baptism dates super fast. In Dzitbalché this week, we knocked on a door because we were searching for a reference, and within 5 minutes we met Gilda, invited her to baptism, and she accepted! It was the fastest chain of events I have ever seen! We felt the spirit so strong, and the best part is after she even said, okay for April 30th is my baptism?? It was so awesome!!! 

Matiana is an investigator of GOLD. On Tuesday we taught her the restoration, and it was the strongest lesson I have ever had on the restoration. I cried talking about the First Vision, and Matiana cried too. And when I asked her if she believed that it happened, she looked us straight in the eyes, crying, and said yes. She went to Tobasco this week for vacation to visit family, but went to church there! 

Abraham is a kid that lives here but goes to school in Merida. He is here these two weeks for vacation and wants to get baptized. He came to the church and said he looked for missionaries in Merida but couldn't find any. So the situation is more complicated cause he goes to school in Merida and lives there most of the time, but he said he wants to get baptized and when he comes down here again we can do it!

Mariana is an awesome investigator too. She literally had already read like half of the Book of Mormon. She reads the manuals before class every Sunday. And on Friday she even bore her testimony in a Relief Society activity. She is so ready for baptism, but just her husband is holding her back. We are trying to do all we can to help her see she is ready and can do it. Please pray for her!!

Yesterday in Church I gave a talk again. It was a blessing to be able to give a talk on Easter. My topic was The Importance of Jesus Christ in Our Lives. I loved giving this talk and relating it to Easter, it really hit me the importance of Him in our lives. Is He important to you in your life? Without Him, we would have no hope. 

Haha a funny story. On Friday, we were teaching an investigator. I sat down on the top of a wall made of rocks, and the whole entire wall literally toppled over and fell and the rocks went everywhere. They didn't tell me they make walls here literally just by stacking rocks without concrete... so we spent the next 45 minutes remaking the wall and the rocks were SO HEAVY. It was super embarrassing and hilarious lol.

This week was a great week!! I am so happy that He lives and I love being a missionary! I hope all is well in your lives!! I know that if we use the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can feel this way:  

Alma 36  19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

So please excuse the selfies... I am just trying to show happy I am with the Book of Mormon in my life and also the new cards we have! How happy I am to know that because of Him, we too can overcome physical and spiritual death. I love you all so much!!

Elder Plowman