October 14, 2012

Well I think we have a couple of big miracles in the works here. I
should probably explain the antecedents first. We are working/teaching
this one family in our ward, the Garcia-Lopez's. They are super cool
and super dysfunctional. The kids are all members and are all pretty
solid. The parents however, are not married and subsequently have not
been baptized either. Evidently they have been listening to
missionaries for 4 years, ever since the kids got baptized. Throughout
the whole time, the missionaries have been working with the family to
find a way for the mom and dad to get married and baptized. The
problem is that neither one of the parents are "legal"  nor have super
reliable documentation, so its kind of a sticky situation. However
Elder J and I have been pulling out all the stops to try and help
them out. We heard that a lot of people around here sign up for the
free English class at Santa Ana College just to get the student ID

just for the purpose of having some good solid photo ID to use to do
things just like taking out marriage licenses and what not. So Elder
Janne and I have been making trips all over the place to the college
and various branches to try to figure out just how wide this loophole
really is. Seems like it could work, so we're going to try to get this
thing going. But if all else fails, we might take him to go get a
Costco card, and use that as his photo ID haha. But either way, I have
a really good feeling about this and I think we are super close to
really seeing a big miracle in the lives of this family. Stay posted
for more. Love you guys!

3 good things about the week?

1. Miguel came to church. Evidently, according to Elder J, that is like a super big miracle because he had never been to church before this last Sunday and he has been meeting with missionaries for like 4 months, with little progress. But then this last week, something happened and he whipped himself in shape and is now a serious baptismal candidate for this weekend. Stay posted for further updates.

2. Feeling oh so much better.

3. Didn't have to pay to do laundry at some greasy filthy laundromat. So nice.

Something funny that happened?

Oh I can't really think of anything in particular. Its so frustrating. My humor is wasted with Elder J. He probably just isn't used to me quite yet. He hasn't picked up on my zaniness nor my wit. Don't worry, I'll get him to crack.

Life with Elder J?
I thought he was from Kansas, but you said he sold cars in Utah. Explain.

You are correct. He is from Kansas, but he moved to Utah to go UVU.  It didn't work out for some reason, so he stayed and sold cars at Miller Chevy in Provo. Something like that.

Investigators?
Are Miguel and Lizbeth still planning baptism dates?

Miguel yes, but Lizbeth took a trip up to San Francisco, so we didn't get a chance to see her this week. But she is still golden as far as we know.

We actually have another family who nay be getting baptized really soon. The Garcia-Lopez family. The kids are all members, but due to legal complications the parents haven't been able to get married therein making them ineligible for baptism. Evidently they can't get married because the dad doesn't have any ID. However we found a sweet little scheme to get him some photo ID. We are going to take him down to Santa Ana College and get him enrolled in an free English class. They should give him a photo student ID, which can be used to take out a marriage license. Its ridiculous how easy it is to get married in this country. We are really excited about this little loophole we found because evidently they have been looking for a way to get married since the kids got baptized 4 years ago. So this is like a pretty big miracle in the works right now. We are going to the college today to do some more investigation.

You mentioned money last week.  Do you need some extra?

Um, a little bit. My Spanish scriptures kinda fell apart, so I need to get some new ones at Deseret Book. There may be some other necessary purchases as well, but I can't say any off the top of my head right now.

Did it get cold down there this past week?

a little bit. i had to go long sleeve one day, I think.

How's the new ward? They seem alright. Its really really big. The bishop is cool. Like the bishop in Garden Grove he is Chicano, so he speaks English and gets American humor, so I think a made really good impression at dinner the other day.
Are they feeding you? Yes indeed.
How long has Elder J been in the area?  This is his second transfer here.