Drinking Pepsi...Again

Jose's baptism on February 5, 2016

The week couldn't have been more fantastic.  We baptized the man Jose Alvaro.  He texted us about a month ago and asked if he could be baptized... We had some great news for him! We got about 8 young single adults to attend a baptism on Friday night which is great.  Jose has been the best to teach.  During our first lesson he revealed to us that he has read the BOM through already and knows Joseph Smith was a prophet.  All we really had to do was line up a baptism and get him involved with the incredibly fun YSA activities such as sports night.  In the picture, Jose is happy about being baptized, we swear!  I do want to tell a pretty cool story of the week.  We went searching for potential investigators in NE Portland because we had a member lesson at a Thai restaurant an hour later.  As we parked to visit this potential investigator, we gandered up at a park nearby and felt a prompting to go talk to others in the park.  We ignored such a divine prompting and got back in the car to find more investigators in our area book, only to realize my IPad had snagged some of the random Xfinity wifi nearby and decided to update the software on its own.  Therefore, no addresses of potentials.  We finally heeded the prompting to search for the “golden gater” in the park.  Jonas was the very first guy we talked to and he happened to be YSA age, looking for more knowledge about Christ and looking to be baptized again.  He definitely had a really cool and big German Shepard that looked like it would bite my calf off in one bite (which isn't hard anyway cause I typically skipped leg day in conditioning class) BUT IT WAS WAY COOL.  He is now meeting with us and looking toward baptism.  Being a missionary is pretty cool.  I really enjoyed this week.  Had a real in depth conversation with a hobo about the existence of the dinosaurs, ate 3 lunches one day and now I am marveling at how hungry I am right now.  But I want to share one more story! Our favorite returning member, Dane Daniels, had us over during the super bowl to feed us while he blasted the volume in the background.  Have you ever tried to not drink beer while hanging out at the bar? While you’re an alcoholic?  That's what it felt like having the super bowl in the background. But I love Dane.  We convinced him to come help us with a lesson shortly after because we had to have some help (no driving rule on super bowl night because drunk drivers).  And Dane told us after "I want to come out with you missionaries at least once a week.   I loved that lesson and I learned a lot".  Coming from the guy we are struggling to get to come to 3 hours of church :) the Lord worked him over and provided when we  and he needed it.  It was just one of those moments you know?  Dane also tried to take me” one on one” at basketball in my church pants, and I still beat him.  Life is good and I really love being a missionary.  I hope you all have a pretty great Valentine's Day.   Go see a chick-flick or something.  Definitely send me some funny valentines or maybe some awesome smelling hair paste. I like that stuff.  I love you all! I drank Pepsi this week…again.  Even though I committed to stopping!   Especially hard during the superbowl :)   Picture at the bottom is a selfie with an investigator at church and a photo bomb from the companion!

YSA Ward selfie!