9-7-09 "Almost"

Hello everybody. Im pleased to announce that tomorrow i will complete 11 months in the mission. Almost a year!

Well what happened this week. We were priveliged to listen to the new Area Seventy, Elder Johnson, on Thursday. It was really spiritual and i came out of the meeting a lot more excited to do the missionary work. For a while it seemed like the leaders were just pushing baptisms, not converts. But Elder Johnson came and gave us some really good instructions on how we can get more converts. Ill write down what i liked most.

He told us that our mission as missionaries here is to look for the chosen people. That people go through life and have experiences that lead them to the line of the chosen people. We cant help them rise up towards the line, its something they have to cross on their own. What we do is we find those people who are chosen. We contact them and we contact them really quick. Like less than a minute. One of us testifies, the other one testifies, and then we give an invitation to listen to our message. If the person starts giving and excuse, they arent chosen. If we have to convince them, they arent chosen. But, if the person says yes right away and gives us their dirrection, they have a chance to be chosen. If we look for the chosen people, the possibility of baptising increases substantially. He also told us that we all can tell whos chosen and who isnt and that the investigators that we have that arent chosen, we should drop them and not waste time. Kind of a different kind of instruction, but i liked it a lot.

We dropped a lot of people this week, because they werent chosen, so it feels like we are starting over again, but we do have a couple people that might just be the chosen ones. Jessica is one of the smartest 13 year olds ive seen here in the mission, in one of our lessons, we usually ask a question refering to the atonement, and she was the first person ive seen in my mission to answer that question. We would really prefer to baptise her with her mom and brother though, because we are here to help familias come to Christ, so we are focusing a lot on them.

Our other is Jorge. Hes 23 and his girlfriend is a member. His best friends are also members and we think he might just be able to decide. The only problem is his family. We will give him a few more appointments and see where that leads.

Well thats my update on the area. The heat came back again and in force, so we are sweating like pigs, but i still like it. I wish i could go out and race. Only 13 months and i can get back on my bike. Im excited for that.

Have a great week everyone.

Con amor, Elder Turley