Comitan, Comitan

Okay, this week was called traveling to Comitan three times!

Comitan is about two and a half hours from here and we did exchanges with two sets of girls there which was fun. But it meant I wasn't with Van from Tuesday to Saturday, aka almost not at all. Not as fun. BUT we had MIRACLES!

First. Thursday night I got up to San Cristobal with one of the girls and we had interviews with President George--those are the best. We have cool deep talks. Well, I got out and found our investigator there waiting as we'd agreed, and Sister George and Elder Reyesleva (from California?) were talking in English, and then we realized that all of us there spoke really good English, including Hermana Fuentes and Linderman (investigator) so that was exciting and I think Sis George liked talking to people she could understand for a minute. And then we decided to teach Linder right there in the foyer with everyone and switched back to Spanish cuz who can teach in English, not me. But I will tell you. That was a power. Teaching in circle with three missionaries (the other elder was in his interview) and Sister George just brought this huge spirit, especially when we were singing. He started talking about all he'd read in the Book of Mormon--quite a lot, WOOHOO! And asked some questions and it was the greatest talk ever. He is SUCH A GOOD PERSON. 21 years old, kind of in love with a recent convert which is why he started listening, but now it's all for himself and when we taught him about fasting two weeks ago he asked if he could fast to have an answer. We were like...Yes. Yes you may. So he did and he paid an offering and everything, and then got sucked into the school whirlpool and we didn't see him til now. But he said that he likes reading the Book and is sort of just waiting for his answer. Elder Reyesleva talked about Lehi and the fruit, how he took one bite of the fruit and suddenly wanted to share it with his family. He said, we don't need to eat a whole fruit to know if it tastes good or not. We know by taking a bite if it is a good fruit. And that really made sense to Linder. He said, "You know I think I already have my answer. I'm just scared to admit it. I'm going to go home and talk to my family this week about getting baptized." And that's where he went! So we'll see in a week how that goes for him.

Another miracle was Francisco. We found him a few weeks ago singing a hymn in the door to his brother-in-law. We do that sometimes. And he heard us and came out and started asking all these questions. So we invited him to have a church tour and they did while I was in exchanges with another sister and said he felt the spirit SO strongly (even though the member accompanying was a sweet 72-year-old lady who was talking about how Lehi crossed the red sea with Moses and that she had the priesthood) and said he wanted to prepare himself for baptism. He was really hard to find afterward but this week we did and he said he'd been reading and had lots of questions, like could he take the sacrament before getting baptized because that seemed like something really sacred to him, etc. It was really cool. More news to come on him!

And of course the Lopez family. The bishop called us Tuesday morning and said he'd gone to talk with them and they are already in the process of his divorce and marriage!! Which they were all iffy about before. Our bishop is so cool. He thanked us for being patient with that family and not shoving them into the waters but instead helping them to grow their testimony and he promised we would see the fruits. He also said he's going to get a hold of a violin for me. WOO! He's so COOL. Also, he served his mission in Riverton Utah is that cool? Yeah.

Well, anyway it was a great week. I had a cool study session one day when one of the Comitan girls was sick in bed. I was reading about Peter and Andrew when they left their nets straightaway, and thought about all the things we do (or should) leave behind as missionaries. TV, families, friends, pants, etc. is all obvious, but I realized there's a lot more he's asking us to leave behind that we forget sometimes. Like our behavior. Our personal wants. Our identity. He needs servants, representatives of Him! It's so much harder to do this work with a bunch of prideful selfish people, which is why He asks us to develop these attributes. What manner of man does He want us to be? EVEN AS HE IS. That means that teaching a certain number of lessons is NOT good enough, nor is getting up every day at the right time. He needs us to be Him and there's no other way to have real success. So that became our goal this week.

I'm so grateful for this time in the mission and I am still just so ridiculously happy. I love this gospel and I love what it does to me! Love you guys and hope you have a fantastic week!!!

[Linette and I (Randy) took Sienna and had breakfast with Hermana Van Valkenburg’s mom! Kelsi said, "My companion opened an email with this picture before I did and started bouncing up and down all over and grabbing my arms. We're like, 'This is getting SERIOUS! The parents met!’”]