I'm in Primo Tapia everyone! New area! New companion! New investigators! Lets see what's happened this week:
Alfonzo: He's an investigator that's got problems with the Word of Wisdom. You name it, he does it. Smokes, drinks, and does drugs.
But he's a great guy. He's actually starting to leave it, and I think I'll explain a small miracle that took place with him.
So, he explained to us what was going on, that he smoked and stuff, and we started to explain to him how he was going to overcome those things. We had finished teaching the Word of Wisdom, and because of that, he decided he was going to leave that stuff behind. I explained to him that he was going to be able to overcome it only if he prayed every morning and night, asking SPECIFICALLY for help, and that he had to pray in any moment of temptation and read the Book of Mormon before even ATTEMPTING to smoke or anything like that.
We left and returned around 3-4 days later. When we had arrived before teaching the WoW, he had told us that he smoked around 3 to 4 cigarrettes daily.
When we returned, he explained:
"Well, I just want to thank you guys for your help. I've smoked once in 4 days, and I haven't even touched my beer since 2 weeks ago."
It was incredible. This guy, who smoked each and every day of his life since he was a teenager, in 4 days, left it alone completely. It was awesome! A total miracle. From then on, he didn't even smoke.
He told us he relapsed a day ago, but I'm confident he will completely leave these things behind. He already made huge progress on his own. I'm positive he'll get the help he needs soon. He's got a date on the 27th of this month. We're praying for him.
He's really the only good one we've got. All the rest are just numbers, because they haven't come to church, and really aren't keeping committments.
OKay, cool stuff for the week.
1.) This week it rained HARD. Like, it rained a ton. More than any other time on my mission I think, and it got really bad. In fact, it rained so hard that a transformer blew out! We were walking home from the bottom of the huge hill we live on, and suddenly, there's a flash of white light and ALL of the hill goes dark. All of it. The transformer exploded and the sound rattled the night. It was insane. It was pouring rain, to the point where the jacket you sent me Mom, (thanks for that, by the way. Saved my LIVE that night) was soaked. The water had started to just not fall off anymore, but stay there.
2.) Family, do you guys remember the Spray Paint artists from our Cruise a couple years ago?
There's a Spray Paint artist in our ward. He's not a member, but his wife is, and he's a cool guy.
The painting you see in the picture is pure Spray Paint. All of it.
It's so cool.
He told me he could teach me how to do it in 2 weeks. Not perfect, but at least I could get started. I want to see if I can later. I would love to learn that. He explained to me that it just involved learning parts, and then putting the parts together. So, instead of making a whole scene at once, he just puts a mountain with a sky and BOOM, it looks cool. Super boss. I'm going to try it later.
3.) I took a picture at a super cool spot in our sector. The ocean is so cool.
4.) Does anyone know of good talks on Cultivating Personal Revelation? I really need some of those talks so that I can start getting that going. I need some in this area to figure out what else I can do aside from contacting and asking for references.
5.) HOLY COW. I WAS WALKING ALONG THE BEACH WITH MY COMPANION, AND YOU WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT I FOUND. AN OLD SMITHS FRESH VALUES REWARDS CARD. HOLY CRUD. I was so amazed.
6.) Because of the rain, our whole sector got muddy. There's hardly any paved streets, and so there was a bunch of mud everywhere. That picture is just after a day of walking around. Mud, mud mud. Great stuff.
Okay, well, that's all for this week. Thanks for the support. See you all later!
Elder Carter
