The Gospel Truly Blesses Families

Hey Wardies,

How’s it goin guys?? Duuuude, Collin, or should I say Scotty Pipps...man, talk about a blast from the past….volleyball tournaments, playing libero, prom dates, etc. Just so you know Collin, the mission tops all of that. It sounds like you guys are excited about the new chickens you got too! We’ve got pet iguanas and mosquitoes in our house. Let me know how everything goes with the v-ball tournament.

Well, this week has been awesome. Mom, you’re right that kids can teach a lot to their parents. We’re teaching a family that has 5 kids below the age of 8, and let me tell you that it is really a challenge to teach them sometimes. There was one day where we showed up to the house and before even getting to the big tin gate we could hear the screaming and crying coming from the parents and the little kids. By the way, two of them are Neftali and Natalie (the ones I mentioned last week). Anyways, the parents were hitting their kids and all 5 of them were crying at the same time. (By the way it’s very common that parents hit their kids here.) I thought, how in the world are we going to feel the Spirit in this lesson? We sat down, sang "I am a Child of God", and started the lesson. We started talking about the plan of salvation with little success and soon the lesson turned in to talking about how little kids are children of God, responsibilities as a parent, and how we should become like them. It was almost miraculous how the children stopped crying one by one, went and sat on the laps of their parents, and started listening to the lesson. For the rest of the lesson nobody hit anyone, nobody cried, and we could see what we were teaching being put into action in that very moment. To end, Natalie (8), begged us to say the closing prayer. She gave one of the best prayers I’ve heard in my life and the 4 other kids even joined her by repeating what she said. At the end of the prayer the two moms that were there were in tears. The gospel truly does bless families.

Anyways, that same family said this week in a later visit, "don’t worry about us, we’re completely committed and ready to getting married and baptized the 28th of this month." Today we’re baptizing their mom and one of their sisters (Norma and Ruth, the family I’ve been talking about lately). That means that I’ve got my "Baptism Tie" on. :) Thanks Ava! Unfortunately, Tonio drank this last week. This time I saw that he had the bottle in his pocket so I grabbed it, turned around, and chucked it as far as I could. That felt pretty good. We were bummed, but at the same time we have hope that he will completely repent and be forgiven.

Our house has had some major problems with termites, water getting in, and an unresponsive owner, so for the first time in my life, I went to go look at houses. Super weird! I’m growing up way to fast. At the same time, I’m glad that I’m learning lots of good things for after the mission. Not to mention picking up President’s kids from school and listening to them argue about whether they were going to eat Subway or Pizza Hut haha. Got changes comin up this week. It’s super crazy that I’ve already been in the office for 4 1/2 months. In the morning we went to a beach sort of close by to play football and hang out. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

Love you guys so much and be good this week!

Love,

Elder Ward