Happy Birthday, Mom and Argenis Camacho’s baptism

March 13, 2017

This week has been great! It has been pretty cold here, but the work has been progressing! We had another baptism this week! Argenis Camacho was baptized yesterday and will be confirmed next week! Both of his sisters are members (Destiny-11 Keina-10) and when they were baptized, he wanted to be as well, but was really disappointed when he found out that he couldn’t be until he was 8. So his birthday came in February, we came back to New Haven and taught him everything! He is a good kid and knows all of the primary answers and his parents are supportive as well. They like that the kids have a religion to ground them and, of course, to keep them out of trouble, but his sisters both know a lot about the gospel, even though they were just baptized about a year and a half ago. I am excited for Argenis and can’t wait until he can receive the Aaronic Priesthood! I might have to come back when that happens!

On Monday and Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I went down to Bridgeport with Elder Gray, and we had a good time while he spoke Spanish and I tried to understand 🙂 Monday night was the most swamped he had ever been on a P-day and we had lots of appointments all over the place. We stopped in with a family who had been found in the area book and it said that they had an unbaptized son who was 9. When we got there, their son was 15, which means the record was from a while ago! We had a good conversation with the father, and then went over to the rich white person’s house that he maintained to have a quiter atmosphere than the one in their small home. We were able to teach the son the Restoration and Elder Gray taught very simply and complete. The spirit was there and one of the gifts of the Spirit that I love is the gift of discernment. Elder McIntyre really taught me to be aware of the way that people are acting. Their body language tells a lot about what they are feeling and what they are understanding. When we were in the lesson, I felt really aware of how he was feeling, and if it wasn’t the best, than we would add something in that would help ease his burden of thought and assist him in understanding. We extended baptism to him and he accepted, but he isn’t sure about the date we shared. Elder Gray and Elder Roughan are going to keep working with him, but he is sweet and wants to go back to church, even when his dad might not be completely on board! We got out late, and then a member had things to do, so he couldn’t come to our lesson at 7:30 that we go to half an hour late because of the drive back from the Woodbridge Chapel. Then we found out that our 8:30 appointment was actually scheduled for 7:30. We rushed over, and even though it was a tough lesson, the wife seemed very receptive, and the family was awesome. The kids were a lot of fun and couldn’t completely understand Spanish, so I talked to them in English and shared a little bit of the message, but it showed me how some hearts can be hard and others soft right in the same atmosphere. Ex. Nephi and Laman, Cain and Able. I really enjoyed the evening even though it was prety stressful!

Tuesday morning we played morning sports with the Trumbull Sisters, the Bridgeport English Elders and Spanish Sisters and it was a blast! Then we went to breakfast at the Spanish Bishop’s parent’s house. It was really good and they showed us so much love even if there sometimes was a language barrier. The rest of the day was spent walking and on the bus. A lot of the people that we were going to see we didn’t actually see, but it is really about the journey and not the destination. We met a Columbian teenager that didn’t speak english, which is rare, a pregnant Peruvian who wasn’t there for our return appointment, a former investigator named Daisy who just happened to be on her porch going inside before going to take a good nap because she was so tired, a naked Puerto Rican with only a speedo on, and then the coolest family ever. Raul is a less active guy whose brother recently came back to the church and is fully active. His family made us some delicious sandwiches. Bread, long split hot dogs, avocado, sour cream, ketchup, and a few other things. They were delicious, different, and filling! We had a ton of fun with them and at the end, we shared a mormon message, but since we had extra time, we watched a lot more! One thing I wished I had done a little more before my mission was get familiar with these. Now don’t spend all your time on them, but watch a few and know them so you can share them. They bring the spirit and are enjoyable to watch. They are also a non threatening way of sharing a message.

Wednesday was loaded. We saw an investigator named Abdelnasar who we haven’t seen in weeks. He is busy with school, but we committed him to read 10 minutes a day in the Book of Mormon and promised that it would make his time multiply. We will see if he does it! We also saw Travis, our new solid investigator! We brought Edet and had an investigator present lesson! Edet bore powerful witness and we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with him. After we left some commitments with Travis, he said that he was going to stop smoking that day! We didn’t even mention the Word of Wisdom, and he decided that it wasn’t good for him and that he would stop doing it. He is amazing! We also were able to go to Argenis’ house and teach the rest of Lesson 5. We also went over the Baptismal interview questions!!! That evening, we went over to the Taggart’s and had dinner with them and Ali, who is from Alaska, and his parents are Samoan. We had a great time as always and really enjoyed dinner!

(Elder Davis video recorded the last part of his letter while they were traveling and I have to transcribe it…..so stay tuned for the end of this week….. ahhhhh! Mom homework! But I love hearing his voice, so it’s worth it!)