Howdy everyone, soooooo I realized that in all the emails I have sent home I haven't talked about Victor Ceja. One of our investigators who may or may not have gotten baptized on the 16th....... hahha oops.
We have been teaching him since i got in and a couple of months before hand. Me and my companion set up the baptism date. AND HE MADE IT!!! He was baptized and confirmed a member of the church. And we set up a date from him to go back to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. I'm so happy for him. I will see if i can send pictures today. I don't have any I need to get them from his wife. We will be having a BBQ with him and his family tonight so as soon as I get them I will send them to you all. He is such a wonderful guy and his family is just crazy but fun to be with. So yeah, 4 weeks and I already got a baptism. I'm so crazy lucky/blessed. A missionary once said their favorite sound in the world was the fount filling up. And i can honestly say, its in the top 10 favorite sounds. Just below the sound of rain, and the sound of a Dr. Pepper can being opened ;) (I'm an addict and I'm proud of it ;) ) It really is such a strange yet wonderful feeling knowing that you helped bring a soul unto Christ. Victor is an amazing man. I guess maybe I should give y'all a little back round on him.
He is about 33 or 35 years old...... not sure i have never asked him. He has 2 kids. 1 With is current wife, and another with another woman. In totally between him and his current wife they have 5 kids. He is a family man and he truly loves his family. He is Hispanic, he loves football, favorite team is the raiders, he is always wearing a raiders hat hahah. He is always telling us that he wants to make a future for his kids. That he really does love them and wants to be with them forever. Such a good guy. He really wanted his parents to come to the baptism. He was bummed when they didn't show, but he was still so happy with his decision. He is going to be such and amazing Mormon ;)
Wednesday was pretty cool actually. We had exchanges. Which if you are like me, have no clue what that entails. Let me explain, So exchanges are when the district leaders come over and exchange companions for about 24 hours, an entire day. One set goes to our mission area and the next goes to the district leader area. This is designed for just kinda keeping it fresh but also to gauge how the companionship is doing. It also is a nice break from the companion....... not saying I don't love him. Just saying that sometimes gets to be a little much haha. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Brooks. Super cool guy. He is from Arizona. He is about a year into the mission. We get along super well actually. But I will tell you right now we would have never been friends in high school hahaha. He is super sporty and I'm not. He told me about how he dated a lot of girls before coming out. I did not. hahah We still got along though. We have the same sense of humor so that was nice. We went and did his area with his plans for the day. We started out with service for another crazy old black lady. (trust me when I say there are a lot of those out here in Vallejo) We helped her with some yard work. Then came out and tried to pay us. We tried to refuse, but she kept offering. After about 7 times refusing. She shoved the money down my back pocket when I was working. SCARED the crap out of me. All of a sudden someone was touching my butt..... hahaha like what the heck????? hahaha I turned around to see her just laughing. I told her I couldn't take the money. She then yelled very loudly "I don't need your charity. Don't try to give me money! Are you trying to harass an old woman" She winked and ran inside....... Not sure what we should do, I put the money back on her porch, and went back to work. When we left i looked into my bag...... she put the money in my bag..... I was so mad, but all I could do was laugh!!! She gave us each 40 bucks!!!! What the heck?!?! I'm just trying to serve man. don't be paying me!! ;)
We continued about the day finding less active members. With little success but it was fun to get to know someone new and learn how to do missionary work a little differently. :)
Thursday we had Zone conference. That's where my zone and another zone get together and have mission president and his wife come teach us on how we can better improve our teaching. It was actually super fun. I learned a ton. Met a bunch of new missionaries who already knew my name. I'm the only new missionary in both zones hahaha. So it was kinda awkward when President Wright asked me to stand up and say hi to everyone. There were probably around 30 missionaries there? IDK sounds about right.
So yesterday on Sunday, we had a very interesting sacrament meeting..... so that one sister i was telling you about last week...... well she showed up to sacrament meeting. Hahahah she wore this long blonde wig, big eyelashes, lipstick, and quite an immodest dress. She walked up to us and say good morning. Me being a nice person told her she looked lovely today. And she then proceeded to tell me that. "Even though i am go to church. I want to look my best for God. So you bet your self im going to come looking like a movie star" She then said we should sit by her and moved into the chapel. I then sat and laughed internally for about 15 mins. SHE IS INSANE!! hahahaha
When church was over the Takapu's (the Tongan family i am apart of) Asked us we were coming over for dinner tonight. Which i found strange because we already had another member sign up to feed us yesterday night. They told us they had signed up to feed us. Me not sure what to do told them both we would be there....... So we had 2 dinners..... the first was at the Tongans house and they wouldn't let us leave until i had 2 helpings of dinner and dessert. I was going to explode. They mean well, but i swear they are trying to fatten me up so they can cook some Tongan dish that calls for Fat White Boy......... I don't know what i should be more worried about, the fact they are trying to fatten us, or the fact that its working haahah.... man i love that family.
We then went to another member....... I'm forgetting their name right now because i am a terrible missionary. But they were very nice, they cooked up burgers and corn and all sorts of yummy food. I of course still ate a burger and an ear of corn but by the end i was close to throwing up >.< They then made me tell them about everything in my life hahaha. When i say they wanted to know EVERYTHING i mean EVERYTHING!! hahahah so i sat and tried to explain who i was and how i grew up in about a 30 min time frame. They were happy with what i explained and told me that we were welcome there any time. They were super fun. I'm so grateful for the ward family i have come to join. Everyone has been so welcoming and wonderful. I always have someone come up to me every Sunday and ask me how my week was. They really do care about me and the work im doing. Its such an amazing experience. I have met some life long friends out here already.
I'm enjoying it out here. I really am. Its really hard work ya know? but i know I'm not doing this alone. I have God on my side. He is watching out for me, guiding me, and making sure i don't screw up too many times. :) There are days when I'm out here when i think of home and how much I miss all y'all. But I just have to remember that I'm out here on an errand for the Lord, and there is no time for me to feel sorry for my self! hahaha This doesn't mean I don't think of y'all. This just mean, I think of y'all, and see all of you in the people i meet and the people i teach. I testify that God knows each and everyone of us so well. He knows what we need in the minute we need it. He was us to succeed. He loves us so much, and he wants to help us. I challenge all of y'all to just go say a prayer of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for in this life. I feel like we spend most of our prayers asking for things, I know I do, so go tell God what your thankful for. Tell Him how much you love Him.
I love you all and miss you all so much!! Sorry this was such a long email!!
Keep emailing me!!! I love to hear whats going on!! I will try my best to email you all back if you email me! I love you all!!!! have a wonderful week!!!!
God is good!!!
Love yall!
-Elder Riley Field
No comments:
Post a Comment