9 weeks in Cristo Rey. The heat is starting to pick up again and I'm beginning to believe that the whole "rainy season" thing is a complete lie. We haven't had rain in weeks and it seems as though clouds are only ever seen on the horizon. You look into the sky and all you get is a face full of blue sky and sunshine. Luckily we haven´t had to spend too much time in the streets lately since we have found plenty of people who invite us into there homes and let us take up couch space.
In the last few weeks Elder Adams and I have been blessed to find a slew of interested and interesting investigators, the majority of which are families:
The Berroa Family and The Sosa Family are our two main families at the moment. We have worked with them since I arrived here in Cristo Rey and they both have enough interest to get baptized. Salvation isn't cheap however and each person has their respective stumbling blocks. The Sosa family are attending church and have received all of the lessons, but they are not married. At the moment they don't have a stable financial situation and have decided to postpone their marriage until they can get back on their feet. The Berroas, on the other hand, are married, but they unfortunately work and study full time and have ridiculously crammed schedules. They have a hard time getting to church and an even harder time meeting with us. These families will one day be baptized, it just might take a little longer than we want it to.
Through contacting we have also found the Bautista Family. From the first contact we new they were something special. Our first visit with this young couple went great and the second had us itching to fill up the baptismal font. The husband works throughout the day so his wife would read the pamphlets and then tell her husband about them. She had also found a PDF version of the Book of Mormon online and read a few chapters before we even explained it to her. After reading she only had two questions: who is that Joseph Smith guy and what is the Book of Mormon? They even wanted us to share our experiences on receiving answers through prayer. They seem almost too good to be true....
Families are great, but a strong priesthood holder can be great too. That's why Elder Adams and I are excited to teach our new investigator Cesar. He is a short, stocky, middle aged man who knows perfect English and lives alone. The first time we met with him he told us immediately that we wouldn't be able to convert him and that he was not a religious man. We weren't about to let him kick us back out into the hot streets without a fight so we very sternly explained to him that we are only messengers, not assassins. We invite, not convert. He listened to our message and by the next lesson he had read and was asking great questions. He shows positive signs of progressing and has been praying every day. The only catch? He's basically a drug lord. Well, we're pretty sure he is. He's never told us directly, but the gangster posse that hangs out in front of his house every day, the collections of high-end beer bottles lying around the house, his four cell phones he takes out before we share with him, and his triple gated, padlocked entryway is a pretty big giveaway. How we ever even contacted this man is beyond me. He told us that he is very interested in our message but feared that he would not be able to convert because of his addiction to "the skirt and the drink", as he puts it. We beg to differ.
When we aren't burning out our retinas contacting in the streets, we are usually found teaching English, planning ward activities, or trying to get less-actives to come back to church. It's slow and steady, but at least we're making progress here in Cristo Rey.
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