This week was interesting to say the least...

 On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 4:52 PM

 Dearest Mother,

I´m glad we had that baptism as well. It was really special for him. And as for the other sister, we´re praying that her husband will be home one day so we can talk to him since that´s what the plan is. It´ll be interesting for sure. Aw man. I had no idea Elders Stringham and Chamberlain were still there. I hear Pasco´s real good to the missionaries, though, so I´m sure they´ll love it. They will be missed for sure. Aw man. I kinda had a feeling she´d pass away not to long after I left, but she´s with Heavenly Father now. She was real sweet and will be missed a ton as well. That´s way awesome about Roberto! He´ll fill in Brother Barker´s shoes well.

Well, in regards to this week, this week was interesting, to say the least. We had our first really rainy week. It´s rained before and stuff, but not like this. Oh boy. We were absolutely soaked. Haha. We went out to work after it had stopped raining, but it rained later and all throughout the day. The water in some of the streets got up to a little above our ankles. Our House of Prayer (since we don´t have a building for church due to a lack of enough tithing payers) got filled with water and we were getting the water out using these long squeegees. That was a lot of work. Haha. We had some good moments such as having a couple of good less-active lessons (one of which was a contact where we got the dad of the family to commit to baptism) but there were also some bummers. One man who was progressing real good named L... went away to the Cancun area to work. My companion made a small joke that we shouldn´t have given him a blessing because he got to excited that he went off to work. Haha. I just hope he´ll be alright/that it will only be for a short time. The other was with a less active we´ve visited before. His name is F..... and he´s an ex-missionary who fell victim to alcohol addiction for unknown reasons. He told us when we visited that he was bad because we ¨abandoned¨ him, which we didn´t because every visit, he was asleep. And then whether sober or drunk, he always tells us that he knows in regards to counsel we give him. We were even very straight with him in our chastisement during our last visit. (It was bold, but not overbearing.) And just overall, when he says he´ll commit to what we give him, he usually doesn´t actually commit. It´s just frustrating because he´s an ex-missionary and knows that what he´s doing is so wrong and that God expects more from him. I just always remember what Elder Holland said at the devotional he gave the Tuesday of my last week at the MTC. "I can´t fathom losing the shepherds." He´s a lost shepherd and it´s pretty frustrating. That´s the biggest iniquity out here and just seeing how many are being held down by alcohol addiction really just irritates me. I´m carrying on as best as I can, but sometimes it´s too much, such as with this man named M... P..., who´s addiction to this alcohol called agua ardiente is literally killing him since it´s cheaply made and it like 100% alcohol, or something like that. All the years of drinking it has caused some of his skin to come off and it´s just awful. I´m trying hard to be patient, though. It really is a hard area here, but if it´s where I´m supposed to be, than so be it. I´m doing good, though. Well, I´ll let you go now, but I hope all is well (and I´m glad to hear dad´s behaving) and I love you tons. Bye!

 Manuel

 PS Sounds good. Also, the cyber cafe we´re at is playing Barry White over these speakers and it made me laugh. Haha.

 

The guy in front of the green house is my companion and that´s our house. 

 

Also, the man is Jose, which was the first person I got to see get baptized.

 

With our Zone leaders after going on splits with them.

Querido Papi,

Pues, quería tomar este tiempo para decir feliz cumpleaños. Ya estas muy viejo, pero esta bien. Espero que todo esta bien.¿Como esta el negocio? Mami dice que la venta esta bien. Todo va bien aquí. La cosa mas difícil es la lluvia y también ay gente que son difícil para enseñar porque no quieren dejar de tomar, pero la mayoría de los cosas están bien.¿Como es el tiempo? Aquí es muy caliente, pero casi me acostumbro. Espero que todo esta bien. Te quiero mucho.

Manuel